The saga of censorship on Twitter does not seem to be over after The Daily Wire’s posting of its “What Is a Woman?” documentary faced throttling on Twitter even after Elon Musk said the censorship of the documentary was “a mistake.”
With Musk-owned Twitter purportedly set to be the “free speech” social media outlet, the conservative outlet decided to post a free viewing of its until now pay-per-view documentary exploring the left’s corruption of what it means to be a woman.
Still, after taking the time to make a deal with Twitter for the showing and then announcing the event, The Daily Wire found the Matt Wash film was unable to be shared and carried a “hateful content” label.
It turned out Twitter’s “free speech” policy was not quite as “free” as advertised — although that appeared to have been remedied by Friday morning.
The Daily Wire film was finally free to view and repost without any hindrances.
It’s the movie they really don’t want you to see: #WhatIsAWoman?
Watch the explosive documentary starring @MattWalshBlog FREE on Twitter for 24 hrs. pic.twitter.com/qDi7thCNid
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) June 2, 2023
Musk himself shared it, saying, “Every parent should watch this.”
Things were much different on Thursday, when Walsh posted a message to The Daily Wire saying the social media platform was “suppressing” the posting of the documentary.
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“The only problem is that Twitter — which professes to be a free speech platform — has already told us that the film will be labeled hate speech and suppressed,” the Matt Walsh Show account said.
After The Daily Wire and some of its hosts went on Twitter to ask why they were being censored, Musk jumped in to insist it was a “mistake.“
The outlet’s CEO, Jeremy Boreing, posted, “Twitter canceled a deal with @realdailywire to premiere What is a Woman? for free on the platform because of two instances of ‘misgendering,’” adding, “I’m not kidding.”
But Musk addressed the issue a few hours later.
“This was a mistake by many people at Twitter. It is definitely allowed,” he said in a tweet. “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 use someone’s preferred name, simply from the standpoint of good manners,” he continued.
“However, for the same reason, I object to rude behavior, ostracism or threats of violence if the wrong pronoun or name is used,” the Twitter owner concluded.
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
Despite Musk’s assurances, though, Boreing noted excerpts of the documentary posted to Twitter were indeed labeled as “hate.”
“I appreciate the reply. We posted the two clips flagged by Twitter and they were indeed labeled ‘hateful conduct’ and the share functions were disabled on the posts,” Boreing wrote.
“I appreciate your view of polite behavior, but our business is to debate public policy and philosophy. As such, we have an obligation to speak in ways consistent with our position,” The Daily Wire chief said, adding, “Our hope is that Twitter remains a place where we are free to do so.”
I appreciate the reply. We posted the two clips flagged by Twitter and they were indeed labeled “hateful conduct” and the share functions were disabled on the posts.
We are trying to reach your team to determine what this means for those posts, whether or not our event tonight…
— Jeremy Boreing (@JeremyDBoreing) June 1, 2023
Walsh asked the Twitter boss, “Does this mean we can post the film with full reach and everything else we originally agreed to? Also, the What Is A Woman trend keeps disappearing from the trends list. Is it still black listed?”
The erratic Musk again replied, this time saying that advertising would be cut off for The Daily Wire’s tweet of the documentary.
“It will be advertising-restricted, as advertisers have the right to decide what content their ads appear with, which will impact reach to some degree,” he said.
It will be advertising-restricted, as advertisers have the right to decide what content their ads appear with, which will impact reach to some degree
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2023
One has to wonder what was going on when the posting of “What Is a Woman?” was quashed despite Musk’s assurances.
As conservative commentator Robby Starbuck noted, “Despite @elonmusk promising that the @realDailyWire film ‘What Is A Woman’ by @MattWalshBlog wouldn’t be censored, it seems someone @Twitter staff chose to censor it anyways less than 20 minutes after it was posted. You can’t even comment.”
That sent “free speech” advocate Musk scrambling to make another reply to the situation: “We’re updating the system tomorrow so that those who follow @realDailyWire will see this in their feed, but it won’t be recommended to non-followers (nor will any advertising be associated with it).”
We’re updating the system tomorrow so that those who follow @realDailyWire will see this in their feed, but it won’t be recommended to non-followers (nor will any advertising be associated with it)
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 2, 2023
Things took yet another turn Thursday when Twitter’s head of trust and safety suddenly announced that she had resigned from the company.
Per the wire service Reuters: “Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, told Reuters on Thursday that she has resigned from the social media company.”
“Irwin, who had joined Twitter in June 2022, took over as head of the trust and safety team in November when previous head Yoel Roth resigned. She oversaw content moderation,” it said.
Twitter’s head of trust and safety has resigned. https://t.co/7opQgRJPZV
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) June 2, 2023
Did Musk quickly fire Irwin on the tail of a very embarrassing day, or did she quit over his decision to unleash The Daily Wire’s documentary? That was unknown early Friday.
Whatever is going on inside Twitter, however, it certainly looks like, despite his waves of firings and his many proclamations about his desire to make Twitter a place for free speech, Musk’s decrees are being thwarted by his own employees.
He always seems to be playing catch-up on these instances of throttling and censorship.
Or is he? Is Elon Musk really the free speech advocate he keeps telling us he is, or is he only putting out brush fires when he is caught instituting the same old censorship policies old Twitter was constantly perpetrating?
