On April 8, Twitter made a significant change in its policy by removing the aspect of the “Hateful Conduct” policy under which a Twitter user might get suspended if he or she was found misgendering or deadnaming transgender individuals. The change was noticed by social media users and media houses only on April 18, when it made headlines. Some reports suggest that such changes would make Twitter “less safe for marginalised groups”.
The policy against deadnaming or using a transgender’s name from the time before transitioning, as well as purposefully using “wrong gender” for someone, was considered to be a form of harassment on the social media platform since 2018.
Furthermore, Twitter has announced it will be adding warning labels on some tweets that might violate the rule against hateful conduct. Earlier, the tweets were removed without warning. Twitter will now initially reduce the reach of the Tweet. The user will be able to appeal against the decision to limited visibility. However, the illegal content will be removed, and bad actors will be suspended as per the regulations set by Twitter.
We’re adding more transparency to the enforcement actions we take on Tweets. As a first step, soon you’ll start to see labels on some Tweets identified as potentially violating our rules around Hateful Conduct letting you know that we’ve limited their visibility. 🧵…
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) April 17, 2023
What changed in the policy?
In November 2018, Twitter introduced a section in its policy against Hateful Conduct that read, “We prohibit targeting individuals with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanise, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category. This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”
Interestingly, you can still report a tweet over misgendering or deadnaming, as it has not been removed from the list of reasons for reporting a tweet.
Deadnaming is using a transgender or non-binary person’s name that they used before transitioning, such as a birth name. It remained part of the policy for almost five years and was removed in April 2023 without making much noise by the social media platform.
