Elon Musk’s Twitter Removes Protections For Trans Users In New Policy

Twitter has updated its “hateful conduct policy” to remove protections for trans users, according to an announcement from GLAAD, the LGBT advocacy organization. And there’s already widespread speculation this has something to do with CEO Elon Musk’s estrangement from his trans daughter.

Twitter added rules against misgendering and deadnaming in 2018 but removed the protections on April 8, according to pages archived by the Wayback Machine. Deadnaming is the act of using someone’s given name at birth, which does not conform to their gender identity.

Twitter’s policy used to read, (emphasis mine): “We prohibit targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category. This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”

That last sentence was deleted about 10 days ago, according to pages archived by the Wayback Machine. As the President of GLAAD Sarah Kate Ellis points out, platforms like TikTok, Pinterest and Facebook include rules to protect trans users, making Twitter unique by rolling back this kind of policy.