Is Twitter Censoring LGBTQ+ Content? What We Know, What We Don't

Twitter has been accused of censoring language associated with the LGBTQ+ community.

Several transgender groups first noticed that certain words, such as "trans", "LGBT" or "BLM" (Black Lives Matter), would not appear in the preview pane if sent as a private message, known as a DM, on the platform.

Instead, a link to the original tweet would appear with no other further information, but other tweets that did not feature the key words would show as normal in the DMs.

The chair of Trans Media Watch, jane fae, first noticed the issue on Saturday, April 1, and contacted her network to discover that many other people were experiencing the same issue.

"Clearly something is up, it makes life difficult if you're trans and you want to talk about trans and then mention to your friends that you've done it," fae, who does not capitalize her name, told Newsweek.

"I can see no good reason for it and it feels petty to me and seems to be deliberately done to make life difficult for people at the queer end of the spectrum. That's what it feels like."

fae encouraged Twitter to explain what the "good reason" would be for the alleged censorship, but added that "any argument that it's for 'sensitivity' falls" because you're likely speaking to friends in you DMs, and therefore know the boundaries of what is safe to discuss.

"But also they're not doing this for words that offend trans people," fae said, adding that she was "against banning words."

When Newsweek contacted Twitter via email for a comment, we received a "poop" emoji as a reply. CEO Elon Musk wrote in a March 19 tweet that all emails sent to Twitter's press email would receive an automatic "poop" emoji in response.

Trans Safety Network, a U.K.-based organization made up of journalists and data analysts who provide research to decision-makers influencing actions that affect trans people's safety, also looked into the issue.

It found many more words seemed to have been banned from Twitter DMs, including "queer," "sex," "lesbian," "homosexual," "bisexual," and "intersex."

The group also found that while "gay" would not appear in DMs, the homophobic slur "f*****" passed the filter.

The term "gender identity" also seemed to be blocked but the more controversial term "gender ideology" was allowed. The term "gender ideology" has been co-opted by some conservatives to refer to the rights movements of women, transgender and LGBTQ+ people.

Trans Safety Network found it could bypass the alleged censorship by replacing certain letters in the words with symbols or numbers, but discouraged people to do so because it could negatively impact the user experience for dyslexic people or those who use screen readers.

fae confirmed that many Twitter users around the world were experiencing the same issue, and had a number of people complaining that it seemed their tweets were being "deboosted" and not reaching the same number of views as those not talking about trans topics.

"It would appear Twitter is making life harder for LGBTQ people and do anything to make less likely that anyone who is not themselves trans would find out about what trans people are saying," fae said. She criticized Musk, who when he bought the company in October vowed the "return" of free speech to the platform.

"For someone who came to power in Twitter claiming to be a great 'free speech warrior', it's not a good look," fae said.

In the first few days after Musk's $44 billion purchase of Twitter the use of hate language, including racist, homophobic, transphobic and antisemitic slurs, rose significantly compared with the 2022 average, according to the U.K.-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).

Yoel Roth, Twitter's former head of safety and integrity, wrote on October 29: "Over the last 48 hours, we've seen a small number of accounts post a ton of Tweets that include slurs and other derogatory terms. To give you a sense of scale: More than 50,000 Tweets repeatedly using a particular slur came from just 300 accounts."

Twitter says that it never censors content on its site and instead aims to "encourage a space that is safe and healthy, and censorship is not a part of our mission or platform."

"We only suspend an account or ask you to remove content when there is a violation of our rules," it says on its website.