Is the word 'cisgender' being flagged as 'hateful content' by Elon Musk?

Users on Twitter/X are discovering that if they use the words "cis" or "cisgender" in their posts, no matter the context, they get flagged for "hateful conduct."

Many began to realise the new policy after one user tested the theory. They quickly posted statements that should be flagged by X as "hateful conduct" such as "I hate gay people" and "I hate trans people" - these went unmonitored by X.

However, once they posted the phrase "I hate cis people", the user received a warning under the post that read: "Visibility limited: this Post may violate X's rules against Hateful Conduct."

It didn't take long for others to try it out for themselves, and realise that X doesn't like the word "cis" in any context.

One user received a message from X telling them their post violated their rules. The post in question? "@elonmusk is cis".

Another user who simply tweeted the words "cis man" also had their post flagged.

Back in June 2023, Musk posted that he considered "cis" and "cisgender" to be slurs. However, there were no updates to X's official guidelines.

X's Hateful Conduct policy states: "We prohibit targeting others with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category." Although there is no explicit mention of "cis" being considered a slur within official policy, but it seems as though it is.

After realising content can be flagged mentioning the term "cis", people didn't hold back their disbelief and criticism towards the move.

Indy100 have reached out to X for comment.

Sign upto our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel