Twitter enforces its ban on calling people groomers as anti-LGBTQ hate speech

This week, Twitter confirmed that the term “groomer” is banned as hate speech on the platform under its Hateful Conduct policy.

Facing calls for the social media company to follow the lead of other platforms like Reddit, Facebook, and TikTok which ban the term when used to imply a link between the LGBTQ community and pedophilia, a Twitter spokesperson sent the following statement to The Daily Dot.

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“We are committed to combating abuse motivated by hatred, prejudice, or intolerance, particularly abuse that seeks to silence the voices of those who have been historically marginalized. For this reason, we prohibit behavior that targets individuals or groups with abuse based on their perceived membership in a protected category,” Lauren Alexander, Twitter’s health product communications lead, said in an email. “Use of this term is prohibited under our Hateful Conduct policy when it is used as a descriptor, in context of discussion of gender identity.”

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Twitter also addressed accusations that it was not actually enforcing this policy. “We recognize we have more work to do to ensure this content is addressed in a timely and consistent manner and we continue to invest in our automated tools and people teams to identify and address gaps in our enforcement.”

Earlier in the week, The Daily Dot reported a tweet in which rightwing commentator James Lindsay called a transgender woman a “groomer.” Twitter declined to remove the tweet at the time, claiming it was not in violation of the platform’s safety policies.

Twitter later suspended Lindsay’s account for tweeting “Ok, groomer” in response to a tweet from Media Matters LGBTQ program director Ari Drennen. Lindsay was locked out of his account for 12 hours and required to delete the tweet in question. He is now back on Twitter.

Twitter announces that use of “groomer” to demean LGBTQ people violates its hate speech policy. James Lindsay is locked out of his account for violating this policy.

Chris Rufo: This is just like North Korea pic.twitter.com/t0fDZ7RDW5

— Sam Hoadley-Brill