X quietly changed his rules about dead naming and misgendering without further explanation. With apparently X will have no penalties for misgendering or naming people after death, except as “may be required by local law”.
Update, it was by Mashable, comes after it emerged that X has reinstated some aspects of Twitter’s past policy of being subject to hateful conduct guidelines. Before Elon Musk’s takeover, Twitter banned targeted name changes and misgendering. Then that part of the company rules last April. Then, last week ArsTechnica He noted that he has a policy to indicate that X will “reduce the visibility of posts that purposely use different pronouns to refer to someone other than that person uses for themselves, or that use a previous name that someone no longer passes as part of their transition.”
While it wasn’t a complete reversal of the previous policy — which under the company’s previous leadership was aimed at stopping intentional misogyny — it appeared that there would once again be penalties for such harassment. That section of Twitter’s rules now prefaces “where required by local law.”
As with much of what happens at X, there is considerable confusion about politics, as the company’s rules change based on Musk’s whims rather than a calculated process. That’s been on display in the past few days, as Musk fielded several complaints from right-wing figures about last week’s change. Musk said one such thing on Thursday update “deals with repeated, targeted aggression against a specific individual.” But on Saturday, Musk offered a new explanation. “It turns out that this is due to a court decision that has been appealed in Brazil, but should not be enforced outside of Brazil,” he said. .
X did not respond to a request for comment about the policy or its two changes in as many days. But Musk is known to sympathize with people who engage in anti-trans harassment on a regular basis. It was one of his first steps after taking over the company a number of accounts have been banned for violating the company’s previous hateful conduct policy. He has done it many times people who clearly identify their pronouns and Crew X for trying to apply the company’s “free speech, not reach” policy to a transphobic documentary.
