Elon Musk suggests removing ‘groomer’ slur from X’s hate speech guidelines

Elon Musk has yet again signalled his disdain for LGBTQ+ people by suggesting he wants to remove the “groomer” slur from X/Twitter’s list of discriminatory terms.

The social media platform owner made the suggestion after responding to right-wing political pundit and self-proclaimed “gender-ideology” opponent, Billboard Chris, who complained that his post using the “groomer” slur had been flagged as hateful.

The post, which claimed that a video of Philadelphia Flyers hockey team mascot Gritty raising an LGBTQ+ flag was being used to “groom children,” was flagged by X’s rules against hateful conduct.

When the pundit complained that he didn’t understand how this could possibly violate hateful-conduct terms, Musk said that he was “fixing” the issue.

The slur and conspiracy theory falsely equates LGBTQ+ people with paedophilia and is regularly used to attack the community.

Hate speech has reportedly rocketed on X following Musk’s acquisition of the platform, with anti-LGBTQ+ remarks rising to at least 1,458 instances a day.

The Centre for Countering Digital Hate’s chief executive, Imran Ahmed, said Musk “sent up the Bat Signal to every kind of racist, misogynist and homophobe that Twitter was open for business”.

Musk disagrees, however, sharing a graph in 2022 that claimed hate speech impressions had dropped. The graph was criticised for having very few timeline indicators and failing to define hate speech.

Meanwhile, Musk continues to make and endorse a number of anti-trans and right-wing dog-whistles from his personal account, including saying “pronouns suck”. He has also branded the word cisgender a slur. The term is now considered hate speech on X.

Musk’s anti-LGBTQ+ leanings have reportedly strained his relationship with his transgender daughter.

According to biographer Walter Isaacson, eldest daughter Jenna has refused to speak to the space mogul for several years.

“It’s full-on communism… and a general sentiment that if you’re rich, you’re evil,” Musk said. “Can’t win them all.”

It is unclear whether the “groomer” slur has been removed as hateful conduct from the site’s conditions at the time of reporting.