Elon Musks Twitter disbanded its Trust and Safety Council in December, not long after the self-described free-speech absolutist bought the social media platform. But while the Council is gone, it seems as if the tech tycoon himself is deciding what will be considered hate speech on the site based on his own private views.
In March, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO told his millions of followers that he found cis to be personally offensive, and now it appears that it will be an indexed term whose use could result in an account suspension for those who employ it.
The words cis or cisgender are considered slurs on this platform, Musk posted in response to a man who claimed to have been harassed by the term used perjoratively.
Repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions.
The term cis-gender and its short form cisfrom the Latin meaning on this side that is the root opposite of transcame into popular use as a way of describing people who feel comfortable with the gender they were assigned at birth.
Twitters new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, did not respond to a request for comment from Fortune.
Cis as a slur
Behavioral scientist Caroline Orr Bueno, who tracks online misinformation and hate speech, said Musk may have ventured into new territory with his latest policy.
As far as Im aware, this is the first time a social media platform has designated the term cis as a slur, she wrote.
When the Tesla and SpaceX CEO acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October, Musk promised to foster a town hall atmosphere where even his most ardent detractors were welcome because that is what free speech means.
However, the serial entrepreneur and worlds richest person appears to at times have let his own personal views shape and inform his policies governing what can and cannot be said on the platform.
The Twitter owner, who has a transgender child who has disowned him, has been critical of trans protections and in April removed rules banning deliberate misgendering or deadnaming of usersin other words, prohibitions on employing the name trans users had before they transitioned.
Repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions.
The words cis or cisgender are considered slurs on this platform.
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 21, 2023
Also, to coincide with the start of Pride Month, Musk agreed to actively promote What is a Woman?, a online film meant to delve into gender definitions that was produced by the right-wing Daily Wire and is considered offensive by many in the LGBTQ community.
Initially the Twitter content moderation team had limited the reach of What is a Woman? by flagging the controversial film for hateful conduct, but they were subsequently overruled by Musk. The movie has since gone on to garner over 185 million views, thanks in part to Musks explicit endorsement.
In the immediate aftermath of that reversal, Musks second head of trust and safety left the company, claiming to have resigned.
His first, Yoel Roth, resigned in November shortly after Musk took over, and went on to openly criticize the entrepreneur for his impulsive changes that made clear that at the end of the day, hell be the one calling the shotsa claim that appears to be prescient.
A month later Musk implied the former Twitter safety chief was in favor of sexualizing children, reportedly forcing Roth to flee his home alongside his husband.
Limiting content
Twitter does belong to Musk and his investors, meaning they are within their rights to act with their property as they see fit. But Musk has often adopted the moral high ground of untrammeled free speech in his justification for buying the platform. In this context, applying new prohibitions on certain terms could be seen as contradictory to this claim.
This isnt the first time Musk has appeared to use his influence as owner to remove or limit content he deemed to be personally damaging, undesired or that does not align with his views.
The Tesla boss suspended an account called ElonJet that posted the movements of his private Gulfstream, claiming it was a threat to his personal safety by doxxing him in real time.
And this month, he blocked one of his critics that had made available redacted legal filings involving X Corp that revealed the parent company of Twitter sought to keep the identity of its 95 shareholders under seal.
