Is Twitter Censoring LGBTQ+-Related Words under 'Free Speech Absolutist' Elon Musk?

Tweets sent via direct message that contained certain words related to LGBTQ+ arrived in the form of URLs rather than plain English, raising questions as to whether those words are being deliberately obscured.

Business Insider reported that the conversion of tweets into URLs seemed to happen with DMs "that include terms to describe gender identity and sexual orientation," and noted that the "move could be a departure for Elon Musk, who often criticizes social media content moderation and censorship."

Insider recalled that Musk "has in the past called himself a 'free speech absolutist' and recalled that the billionaire tech innovator bought the platform "for $44 billion last year."

"Insider conducted a test to verify the claims by using a Twitter account to tweet sentences like, 'Here's a test tweet that has the word gay in it,' to see which tweets populate into previews in direct messages," the article relayed. An accompanying screenshot showed more than half a dozen tweets had been converted into URLs, while one term – "bisexuality" – made it through intact.

Insider detailed which words had been used in tweets that had been converted. The affected DMs "included the words 'trans,' 'transgender,' 'gay,' 'lesbian,' 'queer,' 'bisexual,' and 'intersex,'" the article said.

"As part of the test, Insider also sent 2 additional test tweets," the writeup went on to detail, "one containing the word 'guns' and one that included the word 'drugs.'"

"'Guns' appeared as a URL, similar to the LGBTQ+ terminology, though 'drugs' populated as a preview message."

UK newspaper the Independent relayed that, according to "trans rights activists... 'LGBT' [and] 'BLM' in tweets do not appear in the preview pane when sent as a direct message on the platform."

"The UK-based research collective Trans Safety Network accused Twitter of deboosting tweets containing certain words, including preventing them being shown as previews in DMs," the Independent added.

"Users also pointed out that while the word 'gay' does not appear in DMs, the homophobic slur 'f*****' passed this filter and appeared in the preview pane," the Independent detailed.

"The term 'gender identity' also seemed to be blocked out in the preview while the controversial 'gender ideology' was allowed."

The Independent noted that the "alleged censorship could be bypassed by replacing some letters in the words with symbols or numbers," but also quoted a tweet from Trans Media Watch that cautioned, "We don't encourage others to use punctuation to avoid the filters – it makes this site even more inaccessible for screen reader users. Other misspellings affect those with dyslexia."