"Twitter made it easier to harass transgender users", 18 April 2023

Twitter has quietly altered its Hateful Conduct Policy to remove long-standing protections for its transgender users... In a section that prohibits attacking other users with “repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category,” Twitter removed a line that specifically includes the “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”

According to Wayback Machine, the inclusion of misgendering and deadnaming was removed on April 8th — the day after Twitter announced it had updated the policy to clarify how it defines targeted harassment. GLAAD describes the adjustments as “the latest example of just how unsafe the company is for users and advertisers alike.”

Twitter’s modified policy is a step back for the platform, especially when Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube don’t even maintain the same protections for trans people that Twitter once had. Last year, GLAAD gave each of these platforms fairly low scores in regard to LGBTQ safety, privacy, and expression but noted that Twitter and TikTok were the only two platforms out of the bunch that had specific policies against deadnaming and misgendering trans users.

Sadly, this change doesn’t come as much of a surprise with Elon Musk at the helm of Twitter. Musk has espoused transphobic ideologies in the past and also implemented a policy that let transphobic users and other controversial figures back on Twitter.

Twitter hasn’t completely pulled protections for trans users, however. Its Hateful Conduct Policy still explicitly prohibits attacking others based on “race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease,” but the choice to intentionally remove all mention of misgendering and deadnaming seems like a calculated jab at the trans community.