Anti-Free Speech Twitter Bans 'Misgendering' and 'Deadnaming' Trans People

Ferlon Webster Jr. | November 27, 2018
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On Twitter, if you call someone by the “wrong” gender, guess what? You’re going to be banned.

If you call someone by the name they were given at birth -- when they don’t want you to -- guess what? You’re going to be banned.

And if you do a whole bunch of other stuff that doesn’t seem like a big deal, guess what? You’re going to be banned!

Get the idea here? 

In an effort to restrict speech even more -- wait, I mean in an effort to combat "abuse motivated by hatred" -- Twitter has updated their hateful conduct policy to forbid “misgendering” and “deadnaming" transgender individuals.

“Misgendering” refers to calling someone the gender they don’t identify with, and “deadnaming” refers to calling someone by the name they had before they “transitioned.”

In the policy, Twitter writes:

“We prohibit targeting individuals 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.”

The hateful conduct policy is quite lengthy and restricts a great deal of speech; violent threats, racial slurs, and hoping someone dies are all lumped into the forbidden speech category along with calling a transgender person the gender or name they were born with.

There's no clear way at the moment how the social networking site will enforce these new laws -- I mean rules, not laws, rules -- but it's pretty clear they want to put the fear of being banned in any person's mind who dares to go against their way of thinking.

If you want to know how bad this can get, remember that Meghan Murphy, a well-known Canadian feminist, was suspended from Twitter (and ultimately banned) for tweeting that “men aren’t women.” A pretty basic fact, right? Well, a statement like that is considered hate speech, according to the social media website. 

Twitter continues to find ways to force this world to be politically correct. In the process, they are continuing to damage the ability for people to state facts and speak truth without some idiotic consequence. Some may celebrate the company’s policing, but for those who are okay with it, know this: it won’t be long before the social networking site starts to shut down your ability to freely speak and tell it like it is.

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