Conservatives were outraged when Twitter suppressed the Daily Wire’s “What Is a Woman?” documentary in a chaotic rollout Thursday.
This was despite Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s commitment to free speech on the social media site and assuring the movie did not violate the platform’s policies.
“Twitter canceled a deal with @realdailywire to premiere What is a Woman? for free on the platform because of two instances of ‘misgendering,’” Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing tweeted Thursday morning.
Musk responded by tweeting that the threat to suppress the film was a “mistake” by staff.
“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,” insisted Musk. “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. However, for the same reason, I object to rude behavior, ostracism or threats of violence if the wrong pronoun or name is used.”
But when the hour-35minute-documentary dropped it was posted with a warning that it “may violate Twitter’s rules against Hateful Conduct.”
Matt Walsh, the host of the doc, tweeted, “our film has been posted for a couple of hours. You cannot retweet it. It will not appear in anyone’s feed. It has been flagged as hate speech. It has been blacklisted from the trends list.”
Best-selling author Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, who is featured in the film, tweeted, “Who is in control at Twitter? The problem is no one seems to know… This is actually worse than outright suppression. Why? Because it’s not comprehensible.”
Journalist Matt Taibbi tweeted, “There are no possible legitimate grounds for suppression” of the film, adding, “If this can be suppressed, anything can.”
Musk responded shortly after the movie premiere.
“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),” Musk said.
“Commenting & deliberate sharing will be allowed. Sensitive content just won’t be pushed to people unless they ask for it or a friend sends it to them,” he continued. The billionaire went on to attempt to pacify Boreing and the Daily Wire by predicting that “the controversy will drive viewership.”
“The Streisand Effect on this will set an all-time record!” added Musk, who promised that the issues bemoaned by Daily Wire personalities “will be fixed tomorrow.”
In the midst of the mayhem, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, resigned Thursday night, Reuters reports.
“The controversy will drive viewership,” Musk tweeted at Boreing.
On Friday, Musk retweeted the film saying, “Every parent should watch this.”
Musk said the situation was “fixed” in response to Chloe Cole, a detransitioner who has been vocal about the harm of transgenderism on minors.
The movie has over 43 million views on Twitter as of publishing.