Billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk has decided to ring in Pride month by sticking to his transphobic trolling.
The latest Musk-adjacent Twitter dumpster fire kicked off last Thursday when he publicly supported What Is A Woman?, a 2022 anti-trans film from right-wing media outlet The Daily Wire that argues against trans kids receiving access to gender-affirming healthcare. Although the film became available to stream for free on The Daily Wire’s Twitter page on June 1, Twitter soon flagged the video for violating the site’s standards for hateful conduct, lessening its visibility as a result, per NBC News.
However, after Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing took to Twitter to complain about the platform “[limiting] the reach of the film,” Musk swooped in to back him up.
“This was a mistake by many people at Twitter,” Musk wrote in response to Boering’s tweet. “It is definitely allowed. Whether or not you agree with using someone’s preferred pronouns, not doing so is at most rude and certainly breaks no laws.”
He then went so far as to share What Is A Woman? on his own Twitter account, writing, “Every parent should watch this.” That’s a rich statement coming from a guy whose trans daughter understandably no longer wishes “to be related to my biological father in any shape or form.” Still, it’s a pretty dystopian and terrifying move from one of the (regrettably) most influential people alive.
It’s also worth noting that on June 1 — the same day that Musk threw his lot in with The Daily Wire’s film — two high-profile Twitter employees departed. Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, resigned from the company that same day. According to The Wall Street Journal, A.J. Brown, Twitter’s former head of brand safety and ad quality, also left in June 2023.
Meanwhile, the bird app owner has been busy going on yet another anti-trans tweeting spree. Over the weekend, Musk replied to a number of anti-trans tweets, calling gender-affirming care for minors “pure evil” and even equating it to castration. In April, he even suggested that doctors who treat trans youth should be imprisoned for life.
Since the Tesla billionaire took over Twitter seven months ago, the smoldering remains of the platform have become an increasingly hostile place for trans people and other marginalized groups. A December study found that anti-LGBTQ+ remarks have increased by roughly 1,458 times per day, while anti-Black comments have risen by 3,876 times per day. In April, Twitter also removed its ban on misgendering trans users, a policy initially instituted in 2018.
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