Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, formerly Twitter, responded Saturday to widespread concerns that he backed off his commitment to free speech on the social media platform. This controversy centered on the company quietly reversing its policy on so-called “misgendering.”
Conservative podcaster Tim Pool reacted angrily to the news, posting on Friday that he would remove all ad commitments and verified accounts from the X platform.
He noted that he had deleted a “$25K ad campaign.”
Musk, a steady presence on X, responded that the misgendering policy change is limited. “Turns out this was due to a court judgment in Brazil, which is being appealed, but should not apply outside of Brazil.”
That country’s Supreme Court determined last year that “homophobic” slurs are a crime punishable by prison.
Pool noted a report by The Hill that indicated a revival of a policy dropped when Musk completed his purchase of X. It prohibited the “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”
Elon Musk appears to be backtracking on his free speech promise by introducing a policy to reduce the visibility of posts that “misgender” people.
https://t.co/ktTreTWXCm— Free Speech America (@FreeSpeechAmer) March 1, 2024
The back and forth between Pool and Musk continued. The platform owner responded, “Fixing.”
This led Pool to declare, “I should always wait because you do always seem to do the right thing or try your best. Massive respect.”
Highly influential Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik called out Musk on the apparent backtracking. She posted that she had to test the platform’s rules. “Richard Levine is male. He is a man. Dylan Mulvaney is male. He is a man. Ellen Page is female. She is a woman.”
Then Raichik posted her Libs of TikTok account in the event that she was suspended, though the tweet at last report remained on X.
Musk responded to her challenge, “This is just about repeated, targeted harassment of a particular person.”
Raichik was not satisfied. She asked if using the correct pronouns for a person is deemed “harassment” and if “we’re being forced to lie? What about harassment in general? There are accounts who repeatedly target and harass specific individuals in an obsessive way.”
She further questioned why only one group gets this protective treatment from X.
Musk simply replied, “You’re not going to get suspended.”
