Anti-trans hashtag trends on X as hate continues unabated – despite ban in Brazil
Elon Musk (Getty Images)
An anti-trans hashtag is trending on X/Twitter, revealing once again the platform’s failure to crack down on hate speech, while at the same time Elon Musk’s baby has been blocked in Brazil.
Brazilians found they were unable to access X after a ban was put in place in the South American country on Saturday (31 August).
Supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes, who is responsible for the ban, accused Musk of treating the platform “like a no man’s land, a veritable land without law” by allowing “massive propagation” of misinformation, hate speech and anti-democratic attacks, The Guardian reported.
The ban was implemented after X failed to meet a deadline set by the court to block content and appoint a new legal representative. In response, Musk called Moraes “Voldemort”, a reference to the Harry Potter villain, accusing him of being “a dictator and a fraud, not a justice”.
Meanwhile, on Monday (2 September), the hashtag #TransWomenAreConMen was trending in the UK and its content is everything the platform’s hateful conduct policy claims to be in place to prevent.
An overview of the policy dictates that users “may not directly attack other people on the basis of ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability or serious disease”.
Furthermore, the platform is “committed to combating abuse motivated by hatred prejudice or intolerance”. Hateful content is supposed to be less visible or removed. Most severe cases can result in accounts being suspended.
Some users have accused trans athletes of being “cons” while others have parroted the words of right-wing figureheads such as Donald Trump.
In 2022, someone commented on the “terrifying” the amount of anti-trans hashtags on X and posted a poll asking: “Do you think Twitter is getting more anti-trans and/or anti-LGBTQ+?”
A total of 471 people answered and 85.6 per cent agreed that the platform had become more anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+. A report confirmed that anti-queer rhetoric, including the use of the “groomer” slur, rocketed after Musk’s $44 billion (approximately £32.4 billion at the time) takeover of the social media site in October 2022.
Two months ago, Musk again signalled his disdain for LGBTQ+ people by suggesting he wants to remove the anti-LGBTQ+ “groomer” slur from the site’s list of discriminatory terms.
PinkNews has contacted X for comment.
