- And you thought things would get better under Elon Musk.
Not so fast.
The co-founder of Daily Wire, Jeremy Boreing, whipped up a tweet storm Thursday – detailing how Twitter will essentially be silencing one of his company’s films.
To make matters worse, Twitter initially struck a deal to blast out Daily Wire’s “What is a Woman”, directed by Matt Walsh.
Boreing says that he wanted to re-promote the film for their one year anniversary, and connected with Twitter. He said they expressed enthusiasm about the idea, and that he purchased a promotional package from them.
Twitter promised, according to Boreing, that they would promote the movie to every single Twitter user in the first 10 hours of its drop.
The movie itself would be viewed for free.
Boreing said they even “accepted and signed an agreement.”
That means any business or strategy decisions on the Daily Wire’s part would be centered around the big Twitter drop.
Then, Boreing notes, Twitter asked to see the movie. They said they wanted to if there were any potentially offensive points they’d have to respond to.
But then it all hit the fan:
Twitter canceled a deal with @realdailywire to premiere What is a Woman? for free on the platform because of two instances of “misgendering.”
I’m not kidding.
Here's what happened:🧵1/16
— Jeremy Boreing (@JeremyDBoreing) June 1, 2023
Boreing said, “After reviewing the film, though, Twitter let us know that not only could we no longer purchase the package they offered, they would no longer provide us any support and would actually limit the reach of the film and label it as ‘hateful conduct’ because of ‘misgendering.'”
But here’s the catch. Twitter actually removed their misgendering policy under their hate speech clause. Even GLAAD, the premier LGBT rights organization, blasted the decision. Still, it is a no-go to discriminate against someone because their gender identity.
But did Matt Walsh actually do that in his film? Boreing says two specific incidents of misgendering were the reasons Twitter gave for burying the movie.
Boreing said Twitter “clarified they only removed ‘misgendering’ from their policy because they didn’t need to be that specific, but that they still consider ‘misgendering abuse and harassment.”
However, is misgendering someone general hate speech? That clause was completely taken out under Musk.
On Thursday afternoon, Musk took to Twitter to respond, and said the whole thing was a mistake made by “many people at Twitter.”
Still, however, he said, he “objects to rude behavior, ostracism or threats of violence if the wrong pronoun or name is used.”
Doesn’t give a ton of clarity as to whether or not he’ll actually reverse course, but we’ll leave the tweet here for you to decipher:
This was a mistake by many people at Twitter. It is definitely allowed.
Whether or not you agree with using someone’s preferred pronouns, not doing so is at most rude and certainly breaks no laws.
I should note that I do personally use someone’s preferred pronouns, just as I…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2023
So, looking at the bigger picture, what does this mean for Twitter and conservative thought? They were expected to be the a beacon of liberty for conservative media.
Tucker Carlson already hitched his wagon to the tech behemoth. But what will he actually be allowed to say before he gets silenced?
Time will tell, and we’ll let you know when Musk adds a bit of clarity to the whole thing.
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