An X update removes options for reporting anti-trans abuse

After a seemingly endless stream of alienating business decisions, X (formerly Twitter) has quietly updated its reporting system to remove references to anti-trans abuse.

Journalist Alejandra Caraballo reported the change on Tuesday. Posting screenshots of the new reporting system, Caraballo wrote, “Twitter has overhauled its reporting system. It has removed the ability to report targeted misgendering and transphobic harassment. It has also removed the ability to add context to the report.”

PinkNews confirmed that the previous reporting system iteration included specific forms of anti-trans harassment. Those options called out slurs and harmful tropes, misgendering and deadnaming, fearmongering and harassment based on a person’s identity. The context option also gave users the ability to include open-ended details about the specific instance.

Although the update still specifies sexual orientation and gender identity under the Dehumanization and Hateful Imagery categories, most trans-specific harassment has been replaced with generalized wording.

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This update comes barely a week after certain global markets (notably Australia) found that Twitter had removed options to report misleading or misinformation. “There now appears to be no channel to report electoral misinformation when discovered on your platform,” Reset.Tech Australia wrote in an open letter to the company last Wednesday.

“It is extremely concerning that Australians would lose the ability to report serious misinformation weeks away from a major referendum,” the group added.

Ever since Elon Musk took over the company last fall, he has repeatedly gone mask-off with transphobia. Under his leadership, the site has rolled back moderation of anti-trans content, if not actively pushing it. While the new update removes reporting options for anti-trans slurs, Musk tweeted in June that “cis” would be considered a slur (for those wondering…it’s not).

These and other troubling decisions—including reversing bans on neo-Nazis—has led media watchdogs to call out the site for advancing hate speech and online radicalization. In June, the Center for Countering Digital Hate released a report detailing how Twitter was failing to follow its own moderation policies. In response, “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit.

The company has experienced at least 50% loss in ad revenue since Musk took over. But in spite of turning off users and advertisers, X/Twitter seems to be barrelling ahead in support of far-right users.