Aurich Lawson | Stable spread
Earlier this month, Twitter quietly removed transgender-specific protections from its hateful conduct policyto criticism from advocates who say there has been a spike in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric since Twitter CEO Elon Musk took over the platform last year.
A archived version of Twitter’s previous policy, dated April 7, clearly stated that Twitter prohibited “targeting others with repeated insults, tropes, or other content intended to dehumanize, degrade, or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category . This also applies to targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender people.” (“Deadnaming” refers to calling a trans person by their former name.)
But on April 8, the policy language changed to break that last rule. That edit effectively removed transgender-specific protections first implemented in 2018 to address a disproportionate amount of hate speech against transgender users, The Verge reported that year.
“This is just one of many moves since Musk’s acquisition of Twitter that have made the platform increasingly unsafe for LGBTQ people and advertisers,” Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), told Ars. .
Ellis told Ars that the policy update is “unacceptable” because of “the barrage of disinformation and hatred about transgender people from right-wing media personalities, politicians and the extremists they support.” She also said Twitter’s decision “only further erodes trust between Twitter and its users and advertisers.”
Yesterday, Musk attempted to lure advertisers — many of whom are concerned about brand tweets appearing alongside hate speech — back to Twitter, while also standing firm on his policy of limiting the reach of hate speech rather than banning it outright. Speaking at a marketing conference in Miami Beach, Musk said that “he was eager to hear legitimate advertiser concerns about Twitter, but stressed that he wouldn’t succumb to pressure to make changes he doesn’t believe in,” The Wall Street reports. Journal.
“It’s totally cool to say you want your ads to appear in certain places of Twitter and not others,” Musk told conference attendees. “But it’s not cool to say what Twitter is going to do. And if that means losing advertising dollars, then we’ve lost them. But freedom of expression is paramount.”
Musk has said that some advertisers have returned to Twitter or plan to do so soon. However, the WSJ reported that third-party data from market research firm Sensor Tower showed that of the top 100 Twitter advertisers, 30 advertisers have spent nothing on Twitter so far this year, and 24 advertisers have cut their spend on Twitter by 80 percent or more. . more.
Some advertisers told Forbes they were most concerned about racist tweets, but Kayla Gogarty, the deputy research director for the left-wing nonprofit Media Matters, wrote a study last December that showed a significant spike in anti-LGBTQ rhetoric on Twitter since Musk took over.
Gogarty tracked retweets and mentions from nine accounts that often use the slur “groomer” — which is often used to refer to a right-wing conspiracy theory suggesting that LGBTQ education is being used to exploit minors — and documented an increase of more than 1,200 per cent. Before Musk became CEO, retweets and mentions from these accounts tweeted about “groomers” 3,600 times. After his takeover, the number rose to 48,000. Gogarty told Ars that Twitter’s rollback of transgender protections is “another reason why advertisers” who don’t want branded tweets alongside anti-LGBTQ rhetoric “should be very skeptical” about a return to the platform.
In November 2022, when Musk’s revamped Twitter Blue subscription first rolled out, digital rights organization the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reported that there was a “surge of abuse” from “anti-transtrolls, far-right extremists, and conspiracy mongers.” .” The abuse reportedly contributed to Musk’s decision to pause Twitter Blue’s rollout, but Gogarty told Ars that since Twitter Blue is available again, the blue tick now “gives a layer of credibility” to anti-LGBTQ users who expect that their paid subscription increases the visibility of anti-LGBTQ posts on the platform.
At the marketing conference, Musk promised advertisers his plan was to strike a “sensible middle ground” where Twitter remains a “valuable” platform for brands by limiting the reach of hate speech rather than removing it.
“If someone has something hateful to say, it doesn’t mean you have to hand them a megaphone,” Musk said. “We’re not going to recommend hateful content to people.”
This month also Twitter published a blog post further explaining the plan to label potentially harmful speech and pledging that “we will not place ads next to content we label.”
Gogarty told Ars that Media Matters would continue to monitor hate speech on the platform.
