Elon Musk defends reinstating rule against misgendering, says it’s only for ‘repeated, targeted harassment’

After Elon Musk acquired the Twitter platform in response to a satire outlet being banned for misgendering, he has since defended reinstating a version of rules against such conduct. 

Musk famously purchased the Twitter platform after it had suspended the Babylon Bee, a Christian satire outlet for tweeting a headline naming the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Rachel Levine, who identifies as transgender, as 2022’s “Man of the Year.”

But after having rebranded the platform as X, Musk appears to have replaced certain guidelines against misgendering or using the former names of transgender individuals. In an article headlined, “X quietly revived anti-misgendering policy that Musk dropped last year,” Ars Technica was reportedly among the first to note “X’s updated policy confirms that X 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.’”

“Musk has since been called out on his platform by some of its most popular users,” the activist behind LibsOfTikTok, Chaya Raichik, wrote. “Apparently X might’ve reinstated their “misgendering” rule so I gotta test it out… Richard Levine is male. He is a man. Dylan Mulvaney is male. He is a man. Ellen Page is female. She is a woman. If I get suspended you can find me at @libsoftiktok.”

As of Saturday morning, that tweet and the account are still active. 

C.E.O. of Tesla, Chief Engineer of SpaceX and C.T.O. of X Elon Musk speaks during the New York Times annual DealBook summit on November 29, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images / Getty Images)

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Musk responded to Raichik posting a screenshot of the platform’s “Use of Prior Names and Pronouns” policy by writing, “This is just about repeated, targeted harassment of a particular person.”

“Using the correct sex based pronouns for someone is ‘harassment’? We’re being forced to lie? What about harassment in general?” Raichik asked. “There are accounts who repeatedly target and harass specific individuals in an obsessive way. What constitutes ‘repeated’ and ‘targeted’ and why do only one group of people get this special treatment?”

In a tweet, Musk argued, “You’re not going to get suspended.”

Raichik replied, “Yeah just shadowbanned and less tweet visibility.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Twitter for comment. This article will be updated with any reply. 

Other prominent users called out Musk as well.

“‘Wokeness is a mind virus destroying our civilization…here’s how I’ll enforce it,'” conservative commentator Auron MacIntyre wrote, appearing to mock Musk. “Aren’t you going to have to hit @TheBabylonBee for this? Wasn’t that the whole point?”

“A man is a man. The truth is not harassment, unless someone wants to force others to lie,” conservative intellectual Christopher Rufo said.

Part of what made Musk’s acquisition of Twitter so noteworthy was his robust defense of free speech, but since being rebranded as X, some of his supporters have questioned his commitment. (Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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“You speak a lot about the mind virus which has infected the West,” the activist known as Billboard Chris said. “Nothing represents that more than gender ideology where authoritarians expect us to lie to affirm a delusion that people are the opposite sex. Now we’re going to be penalized for telling the truth? It’s absurd and an infringement on free speech.”

‘But you know that calling a man ‘he,’ no matter how often it’s done, isn’t harassment. This just punishes people for telling the truth,” conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey wrote.

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