Elon Musk’s X has already backed off its new anti-trans hate policy
X, formerly known as Twitter, has already backed off its new policy that discouraged – but did not prohibit – anti-trans hate and harassment against transgender users on the platform, just days after rolling it out.
On Thursday, X updated its “Abuse and Harassment” policy to add a new section called “Use of Prior Names and Pronouns.” According to this updated policy, a post would receive reduced visibility if it misgendered a user or used their former name and the targeted user reported the post.
However, over the past 24 hours, this new policy has already been changed. And the update completely alters how the policy is enforced.
Here are the original terms of the new policy, first reported last Thursday:
“We 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. Given the complexity of determining whether such a violation has occurred, we must always hear from the target to determine if a violation has occurred.”
And here are the updated terms of the new policy, with the new wording bold and italicized by Mashable, which appears to have been updated sometime over the past day:
“Where required by local laws, we 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. Given the complexity of determining whether such a violation has occurred, we must always hear from the target to determine if a violation has occurred.”
The addition of those 5 words makes it clear that X will only reduce the visibility of these anti-trans posts if the law of a particular country requires it. This policy will not affect users outside of those countries.
What happened to the new policy?
Before Musk acquired the company, the platform then known as Twitter had a policy in place that specifically prohibited misgendering or dead-naming transgender users. Violating this policy could result in the removal of the offending tweet and suspension of the user who published it.
A few months after Musk’s acquisition, however, this policy was removed entirely. This is why the latest updated policy on “Use of Prior Names and Pronouns” was a notable addition as it seemed that X was reinstating a version of the prior policy.
It’s important to note though that the original version of the new policy as it stood last week only discouraged anti-trans harassment. This type of content would only have its reach demoted. For example, the X algorithm would not promote those posts as recommendations to users. It did not prohibit users from spreading anti-trans hate on the platform. Those posts would still be allowed to be published and would not be deleted. The user who posted the content would not be suspended.
However, a number of right-wing users on X, including various conservative commentators and influencers, complained directly to Elon Musk over the past few days about the policy.
Musk tried to temper concerns, assuring users like Chaya Raichik of the anti-LGBTQ account “Libs of TikTok” that they were “not going to get suspended.”
However, Musk was not successful in calming his right-wing fanbase. Influencers like YouTuber Tim Pool soon threatened to stop advertising on the platform over the anti-trans harassment policy.
“I will be terminating all ad spend commitments and verified accounts over X reinstating the misgendering policy,” Pool posted.
Musk replied to a few of Pool’s complaints, specifically. Musk told Pool he was “fixing” the policy. The X owner then followed up by providing an interpretation of the policy that differed from what was originally written.
“Turns out this was due to a court judgment in Brazil, which is being appealed, but should not apply outside of Brazil,” said Musk.
Now, the official X policy has been changed to line up with what Musk said over the weekend.
