Elon Musk decided to remove Twitter’s policy against “misgendering” and “deadnaming,” two practices targeting transgender people or those belonging to the LGBT community. The policy was implemented by previous leadership in 2018.
Of course, the owner of Twitter will warn users who overstep and violate the anti-hate policies. Misgendering consists of intentionally referring to a trans person by another gender. Deadnaming involves calling a person who underwent a gender transition by his or her birth name.
With Musk's decision, users will now be able to tell a trans person that they are a man or a woman, regardless of the gender they opt for, and call a person by their birth name, even if they have changed it to a name of the opposite gender.
Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the human rights advocacy group Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), criticized the decision as a setback to the safety of the community she represents:
Twitter’s decision to covertly roll back its longtime policy is the latest example of just how unsafe the company is for users and advertisers alike. This decision to roll back LGBT safety pulls Twitter even more out of step with TikTok, Pinterest, and Meta, which all maintain similar policies to protect their transgender users at a time when anti-transgender rhetoric online is leading to real world discrimination and violence.
Twitter’s decision to covertly roll back its longtime policy is the latest example of just how unsafe the company is for users and advertisers alike. https://t.co/ChR1aQRf95
— Sarah Kate Ellis (@sarahkateellis) April 18, 2023
