The former head of trust and safety at Twitter recently defended the company’s choice to suspend a Christian satire outlet for misgendering a public official.
Ex-Twitter safety chief Yoel Roth slammed conservative Twitter accounts during a discussion with journalist Kara Swisher that was later released on her Thursday podcast.
The Babylon Bee (The Bee) was suspended from Twitter after it made a joke at the expense of transgender Health and Human Services assistant secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, who identifies as a female. The Bee had published a satirical piece congratulating the government official for being dubbed its "Man of the Year" for 2022.
While letting him know that she did not agree with Twitter’s choice to suspend The Bee, Swisher invited Roth to explain his company’s course of action at the time.
"It’s interesting to think about what the competing tensions around that are. I want to start by acknowledging that the targeting and the victimization of the trans community on Twitter is very real, very life-threatening, and extraordinarily serious," Roth claimed. "We have seen from a number of Twitter accounts, including LibsOfTikTok notably, that there are orchestrated campaigns that particularly are singling out a group that is already particularly vulnerable within society."
He went on to say, "Not only is it not funny, but it is dangerous, and it does contribute to an environment that makes people unsafe in the world."
The former Twitter official then went on to shield himself behind Twitter’s regulations, suggesting that his team was merely enforcing the rules on the books.
"So let’s start from a premise that it’s fu**ed up. But then again let’s look at what Twitter’s written policies are, Twitter’s written policies prohibit misgendering, full stop. And the Babylon Bee, in the name of satire, misgendered Admiral Rachel Levine."
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Swisher interjected by defending the post, saying it was "satire."
Roth held his position, "Nominally, but it’s still misgendering, and there can be a very long and academic discussion of satire and sort of the lines there," he added, "But we landed on the side of enforcing our rules as written."
Swisher responded, noting in hindsight, "and that’s how it got bought by Elon Musk, just in case you’re interested. He was mad about that, I remember that."
As it stands, while Twitter under new owner Elon Musk has reinstated accounts suspended for policy violations from the past, the terms of service still lay out the old rules about misgendering.
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"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, Twitter’s Hateful Conduct Policy reads as of the writing of this article. This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals. We also prohibit the dehumanization of a group of people based on their religion, caste, age, disability, serious disease, national origin, race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation."
