Elon Musk's X revives policy against using former, incorrect pronouns to address users

After reinstating policy, X vows to discourage and penalise usage of incorrect or former pronouns to address others
An undated image of the logo of X (formerly named Twitter). — Unsplash

An undated image of the logo of X (formerly named Twitter). — Unsplash

Elon Musk-owned social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has revived its policy against the use of former, incorrect pronouns to address other users on the paltform.

The platform, after making some amendments into its abuse and harassment policy in April 2023, had eliminated the the rule which was enacted in 2018. The move was being attributed to the policy being violated by the company's owner himself, Elon Musk, in his tweets. 

Despite the revival of the ethical regulation, X will not remove older tweets contravening the policy. However, their appearance will be minimised from people's feeds and search results.

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After reinstating the policy, the social media platform has vowed to discourage and penalise the use of incorrect or former pronouns by users to address others. 

As reported by PCMag, the appearance of the policy was spotted on the platform's “Abuse and Harassment” page which is now blatantly warning against the use of former names and incorrect pronouns. 

The statement on the microblogging site's “Abuse and Harassment” page states, “We will reduce the visibility of posts that purposefully use different pronouns to address someone other than what that person uses for themselves, or that use a previous name that someone no longer goes by as part of their transition. Given the complexity of determining whether such a violation has occurred, we must always hear from the target to determine if a violation has occurred.” 

The policy grants victims of the harassment the privilege to take the matter to X, so an action by the platform be taken instantly against the elements.

Since the target of the harassment is required to report to the platform before an action is taken, there remains potential for the offending tweet to be disseminated widely.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in a report, published last week, urged social media platforms to consider intentional misgendering and deadnaming as hate speech.