X, formerly known as Twitter, a platform owned by the infamous Elon Musk is filled with all sorts of hateful rhetoric that is passed as “freedom of speech.”
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and freedom of speech, but online harassment is a very real thing. Social media can be a safe space for a lot of people; having to beg for respect for your pronouns isn’t something anyone should have to deal with online. Of course the infamous Elon Musk claims to care enough to make a ban on anti-trans hate speech. But does he really mean that, or is this something he must do for the sake of keeping his platform on good terms with companies that don’t support hate speech, nor want to be represented in the light Elon Musk doesn’t mind showing himself in at all?
As many of you could have easily guessed: He doesn’t mean it. He took back everything this would do with a simple response to another tweet. As he reassures those so distraught at the fact that they will have to respect another human being by letting them know: “You’re not going to get suspended.” Heavily and clearly implying that the ban won’t really be set in place, but it’ll be said that it is, to what I assume, to get people off his back when it comes to the disrespect and intolerable harassment that takes place on X.
It is very hard to believe there is any good intent or truthfulness behind this recent anti-trans hate ban. Only seven months ago, Elon Musk was suing a nonprofit that fights various hate speech rhetoric. X accused nonprofit CCDH of “asserting false claims and encouraging advertisers to pause investments.” With “false claims” getting proved correct all over X of course for the sake of keeping his advertisers Elon would show minimal effort to make it seem as if the platform has changed.
