Important Facts For Prelims
Twitter's Hateful Conduct Policy and Deadnaming
- 21 Apr 2023
- 3 min read
Why in News?
Twitter recently changed its hateful conduct policy that once prohibited misgendering and deadnaming of transgender individuals on its platform.
- This has sparked controversy among many who believe that the social media platform's safety standards for marginalized groups are being compromised under the leadership of Elon Musk.
What are the Changes in the Twitter’s Policy?
- The policy once read, “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”.
- Twitter has removed this protection for transgenders.
- In addition to changing its “hateful conduct policy,” Twitter has announced that it will only put warning labels on some tweets that might violate its rules against hateful conduct. Previously, tweets that violated these rules were removed from the platform entirely.
- This change could lead to an increase in harmful content on the platform, which could negatively impact the safety of marginalized groups.
- Critic's Views:
- Concerns about the safety of marginalized groups on Twitter have surfaced several times, with many critics arguing that the platform has become less safe under the leadership of Elon Musk.
- Critics believe that the platform can no longer protect users from "trolling, state-coordinated disinformation, and child sexual exploitation".
What is Deadnaming?
- Deadnaming is the act of calling a trans, non-binary, and/or gender-expansive person by their birth name or the name they used before they adopted their chosen name.
- This practice is harmful because it invalidates a person's identity and may reveal personal information that the person does not want to be disclosed.
- Deadnaming is harmful because refusing to use a person’s chosen name or pronouns is a form of transphobia or cis-sexism which may result in harassment, discrimination, and assault, and contributes to mental health conditions such as depression and suicidality.
