The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, quietly reinstated an anti-harassment policy that once forbade users from misgendering or deadnaming others.
However, it is unclear if the change will stay in place following comments from owner Elon Musk.
Musk, who has sought to portray himself as a proponent of “free speech,” removed the policy in April 2023, responding to users who complained after being banned for expressing anti-transgender sentiment.
In a recently updated section of the platform’s policies, the company says that, where required by local laws, the platform will reduce the visibility of posts that “purposefully use different pronouns to address someone other than what that person uses for themselves, or that use a previous name that someone no longer goes by as part of their transition.”
X’s updated policy also requires that those targeted by deadnaming or misgendering must contact the community to issue a complaint, whereupon the company will determine whether the policy was violated, reports Ars Technica.
X also has policies that could potentially be related to misgendering or deadnaming, such as a prohibition on the “malicious, unreciprocated targeting” of users in an effort to humiliate or degrade someone, including by tagging them repeatedly in posts with “malicious content” over a short period of time; and a prohibition on encouraging off-platform harassment or violence directed at specific individuals or groups of people.
Chaya Raichik, the person behind the Libs of TikTok account, took umbrage at the return of the misgendering ban, and sought to test it by misgendering three famous transgender individuals.
In response to that post, Musk wrote: “You’re not going to get suspended.”
In a subsequent exchange, Musk wrote that the policy only applies to “repeated, targeted harassment of a particular person.”
“Using the correct sex-based pronouns for someone is ‘harassment’?” Raichik responded. “We’re being forced to lie? What about harassment in general? There are accounts that repeatedly target and harass specific individuals in an obsessive way. What constitutes ‘repeated’ and ‘targeted’ and why do only one group of people get this special treatment?”
Another user later asked Musk, “Will you reverse the Pronoun policy on X because it will definitely lead to censorship on this platform?” He replied, “Looking into it,” suggesting that the policy may be repealed or reversed.Â
The update appears to have taken place around the same time that the LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD issued a report on the misgendering and deadnaming of transgender individuals.
In that report, GLAAD urged major social media platforms to recognize those behaviors as forms of hate speech, noting that, of six top social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threats, YouTube, and X — “only TikTok explicitly prohibits misgendering and deadnaming in its hate and harassment policy.”
Other social media platforms have adopted prohibitions on targeting misgendering and deadnaming as part of their “hateful conduct” or anti-harassment policies, including Discord, Post, Tumblr, Pinterest, NextDoor, and Spoutible, according to GLAAD’s report.
The streaming platform Twitch also bans “intentionally referring to someone using a pronoun or form of address that does not correctly reflect the gender with which they identify, such as repeating incorrect pronouns after being asked to stop.”
While expressing a preference for policies that explicitly ban deadnaming and misgendering — thereby making it easier for moderators to intervene and remedy the situation — Jenni Colson, the senior director of social media safety at GLAAD, told Ars Technica that the shift toward adopting policies prohibiting such behavior is moving the needle in a positive direction.
“This is not about accidentally getting someone’s pronouns wrong,” Olson said. “That’s fine. That happens. This is about targeted misgendering and deadnaming with a clear intent of expressing hate and disrespect and contempt.”
It remains to be seen whether Musk — who has been criticized for expressing anti-transgender views and for the alleged proliferation of hate speech on X following his takeover of the company — will keep the recently revised policy on pronoun usage, and to what degree it can be enforced if it does remain in place.
According to an analysis by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, X has made millions of dollars in ad revenues from users who regularly spout anti-LGBTQ — and specifically anti-transgender — views.
But The New York Times claimed last year some of the more controversial content on the site, such as anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, had also led some big-name advertisers to either halt or consider pausing their ads on X over fear of being associated with such content.
X reportedly pushed back on that claim, saying, at the time, that the estimated potential losses in ad revenue reported by the Times were outdated.Â
Elon Musk has waded into the Virginia governor's race to attack Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger, accusing her of "trying to weasel out" of a question about transgender students accessing bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. Musk shared a post on X highlighting Spanberger's response to WJLA reporter Nick Minock, who asked whether she supports "biological males who say they're women using women's locker rooms and bathrooms and competing in women's sports."
Spanberger stumbled in her response, noting that any attempt by a future Virginia governor or the Trump administration to impose a bathroom ban could run afoul of a 2020 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision allowing transgender students in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina to use bathrooms matching their gender identity.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has begun enforcing a new rule requiring airlines to ignore any "X" gender markers on passports and instead enter either "M" or "F" for all passengers.
Announced in a July 7 bulletin, CBP said the rule stems from an earlier executive order by former President Donald Trump aimed at eliminating recognition of transgender identities. The directive took effect on July 14, with airlines given 90 days to comply before full enforcement.
Now in effect, the rule has sparked widespread concern over how it will be implemented in practice.
A new survey finds that many LGBTQ Americans -- especially transgender and nonbinary people -- have altered their lives in response to a wave of anti-LGBTQ laws and rhetoric sweeping the country, with many reporting serious harm to their mental health and overall wellbeing.
Conducted from May 29 to June 13 by NORC’s AmeriSpeak panel for the Movement Advancement Project, the online survey polled 1,055 LGBTQ adults nationwide, including 111 who identified as transgender or nonbinary.
Operated by NORC at the University of Chicago, AmeriSpeak is a probability-based panel designed to reflect the U.S. household population. Randomly selected households are contacted through mail, email, phone, or in-person interviews.
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