Hundreds of gender-critical social media accounts were suddenly suspended by X this week
Elon Musk (Getty Images)
Hundreds of gender-critical social media accounts on X, formerly Twitter, have been temporarily suspended in a move condemned as “preposterous” by one affected account user.
Over the past few days, people claimed their accounts had been suspended, with many hitting out at platform owner Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed free-speech advocate.
It wasn’t just gender-critical users who were affected. A supporter of former president Donald Trump wrote that they had their account suspended for a raunchy meme featuring Joe Biden and the first lady.
“Is X starting to censor Americans right before the presidential election again like they did in 2020,” they asked.
Shelley Charlesworth, of gender-critical account Transgender Trend, was also suspended. She claimed that the ban caused her to lose all of her former followers.
Charlesworth told the Daily Mail her account had been suspended without any reason being given, adding that the platform had been useful to discuss her beliefs about gender and “it’s really worrying that there are those who want to stop me from speaking out”.
Ann Sinnott, a heterosexual woman who was one of the founders of the divisive LGB Alliance, also had her account temporarily suspended. She she isn’t “an extreme person” she told the Mail and said people being “penalising” without explanation was “preposterous”.
Sinnott quit her role on Cambridge City Council in 2018 because it brought its policy in line with the 2010 Equality Act to make it clear that trans women could use the women’s toilets.
The suspensions come in the wake of a clash between Doctor Who star David Tennant and anti-LGBTQ+ Tory figurehead Kemi Badenoch.
Tennant hit out at the equalities minister at the British LGBT Awards on Friday (21 June), where he said he wished she would “shut up”.
In response, she spouted a series of right-wing clichés, describing him as “rich, lefty, white male celebrity.”
Some X users have linked the two events, with one person writing: “Lots of large accounts suspended yesterday. Particularly gender-critical ones”, and another person commenting that it happened “after the whole David Tennant debacle.”
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