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POLITIKOFF

Elon Musk's response to an anti-trans video sparks 24 hours of chaos on Twitter

Politiko 2023-06-04 15:14:40

Elon Musk's response to an anti-trans video sparks 24 hours of chaos on

A week ago, Elon Musk's Twitter seemed to be taking shaky steps toward a new phase: mass layoffs had abated, Musk had hired a new permanent CEO, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had chosen the site for helped launch his Republican presidential bid. Within a day, however, the turmoil that has marked Musk's seven-month ownership of the social media platform returned.

On Thursday, Twitter was rocked by an organized pressure campaign by conservative pundits seeking to promote a 95-minute anti-transgender video called "What Is a Woman?" Musk , who has shown hostile views toward transgender advocates, initially responded in ways that didn't seem to please anyone before he eventually relented and agreed to promote the video himself. The incident resulted in two high-profile departures within 24 hours.

Abuse of trans people had been limited on the platform since 2018, but under Musk the company quietly repealed that rule. Musk responded to Boreing's thread by saying that, although he personally uses people's preferred pronouns, the wrong gender is allowed on the platform.

"This was a mistake by many people on Twitter. It is definitely allowed. Whether or not you agree with someone's use of preferred pronouns, not doing so is mostly rude and certainly not breaking any laws.

LGBTQ organizations quickly denounced Musk's decision, saying it opened the door to more harassment of transgender people online. But the controversy over the video did not end there. After Musk allowed it to be posted, Twitter users were still unable to share the video or comment on it, limiting its spread, Boreing said Thursday night. He pushed Musk to do more. In a series of tweets Thursday night, right-wing influencer Robby Starbuck called on Musk to take action against anyone involved in limiting the reach of the video.

"Whoever did this should be fired."

Musk, who has a grown trans daughter who is said to no longer want to be in a relationship with him, initially did not fully side with conservative pundits. Defending his support for the video, Musk tweeted at 8:57 p.m. ET on Thursday that the video was "sensitive content" and that Twitter would not actively recommend it to people. But the pressure campaign continued overnight, with some conservative Twitter users saying they could cancel their monthly subscriptions to the premium Twitter Blue service if video continued to be restricted at all.

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