Twitter has quietly made a change to its hateful conduct policy, removing some protections for transgender users of the social media platform. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) spotted the change and released a statement on Tuesday, April 18, in response to the policy line removal.

Previously, one bit of the hateful conduct policy said, “We prohibit targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category. This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”

The current live version of the hateful conduct policy removes the line about misgendering and deadnaming transgender individuals. Deadnaming refers to the act of calling a transgender or non-binary person by a name that they used prior to transitioning.

The wording providing protections against misgendering and deadnaming transgender users was placed in 2018, with The Verge noting the disappearance of the line occurred around April 8, or around the time Twitter announced changes to its policies around targeted harrassment.

Twitter unsafe ‘for users and advertisers alike’

GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said the rollback of the policy “is the latest example of just how unsafe the company is for users and advertisers alike.”

Ellis added, “This decision to roll back LGBTQ safety pulls Twitter even more out of step with TikTok, Pinterest, and Meta, which all maintain similar policies to protect their transgender users at a time when anti-transgender rhetoric online is leading to real world discrimination and violence.” – Rappler.com