On December 11, 2019, the 4thWaveNow Twitter account was disabled. That morning, we received an email from Twitter, claiming we had engaged in “hateful conduct” with this tweet:
Presumably, the “hateful conduct” was our use of the term “natal male” in the tweet’s concluding clause. In its Rules and Policies document, Twitter says a tweet that engages in “hateful conduct” will “promote violence against, directly attack or threaten” someone on the basis of their identity.
Did this tweet engage in hateful conduct?
Let’s let the founder’s daughter speak for herself, shall we? She belongs to a population of young lesbians who once believed they were trans—a population Katy neither advocates for (yes, we do) nor understands from personal experience, being a natal male.
The now-unavailable tweet also included a link to an article by the daughter of 4thWaveNow founder—a 22-year-old lesbian and cofounder of the Pique Resilience Project—wherein she describes her former trans-identification and subsequent desistance.
We appealed the false claim that the term “natal male” is “hateful” (more on that terminology shortly). Our appeal was immediately denied, and two subsequent appeals have been thus far ignored. Our only option appears to be deleting the tweet to end our total account lockout. Right now, this is what Twitter users see where the tweet originally appeared.
But the plot quickly thickened. On the day our account was frozen, the journalist Jesse Singal wrote an email to the Twitter press office, inquiring whether mention of biological [in this case, “natal”] sex was now against the Twitter rules. Singal expressed concern that such suspensions might affect his own work.
Singal received an email response from Twitter employee “Liz” which he posted on his Twitter feed. Liz couldn’t have been more unequivocal in her mea culpa on Twitter’s behalf:
“This was our mistake and shouldn’t have been actioned….We work quickly to make [it] right.”
Case closed? Evidently not.
It has now been 6 days since the lockout, with no responses to our appeals, no unfreezing of the account, no emails from Twitter…nuttin’. Since “working quickly” is highly unlikely to mean almost a week (especially given the use of past tense in Liz’s email), we can only surmise that the Twitter representative–clearly someone with significant authority–either lied to prominent journalist Jesse Singal (to what end, exactly?), or something else happened behind the scenes that caused “the team” to ignore Liz’s very clear admission of fault on Twitter’s behalf.
Our only option continues to be deleting the tweet (and taking an undeserved “strike” against our account–something we’ve not had in five years of tweets), but given Twitter’s self-admitted “mistake that should never have been actioned”—why should we delete it?
Since it’s unlikely Twitter suspended the 4thWaveNow Twitter account for anything other than referring to birth sex, let’s look a little closer at the term “natal male” and whether (and how) it should be interpreted as “hateful conduct.” This is of particular interest, since the very next morning after our account was frozen, another report against us turned up in our email—this time for using the term “natal boys.” But this time, Twitter rightly concluded the tweet broke no rules.
Putting aside the obvious inconsistency in Twitter’s “hateful conduct” policy, “natal male” is not, in fact, “misgendering,” a Twitter policy we are well aware of:
How does using the term “natal” in reference to birth sex “dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes”? The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), version 5 (DSM-5) uses the term at least six times in its latest rendition—including in its definition of “transgender:”
The DSM-5 defines “gender assignment” thusly:
And it’s not just the DSM-5: Natal [sex or gender] is a term used by many trans-supportive sources, websites, and scientific studies. It’s a standard term often used as a synonym for “assigned sex at birth” or AMAB/AFAB.
Be that as it may, whoever(s) reported our tweet clearly thought the term “natal male” was offensive. Fair enough: They could have (instead of tattling to the Twitter Thought Police) engaged an argument here, and there are at least two we’ve seen routinely before: (a) a trans woman has always been female, and/or (b) just because someone was “assigned” male at birth doesn’t mean they don’t understand the experience of lesbians born female [leading us back to (a)].
Mature adults who approach matters in good faith engage in discussion, usually hoping their conversation partner can, at the very least, see their point of view (if not agree with it). But that’s not what people who tattle to Big Tech censors do. Instead—like the authoritarians they are—they try to shut down those who don’t conform 100% to their point of view.
Mass reporting, gaming the Twitter terms of service, playing “gotcha” on Twitter—what, exactly, do the trans-activist scolds think they have achieved? When, in fact, has the suppression of dialogue resulted in changing anyone’s mind?
If “natal male” is a term of offense, can it be long before the term “transgender” itself is verboten? Because “trans” or “transgender” explicitly refers to transitioning from one state to another state. Why allow the term at all, since it points to the inconvenient truth that a person was at one time something different?
Perhaps that is the end game: Make any and all terminology that would differentiate a trans person from a “cis” person unsayable (oddly, “cis” is not on the Twitter Thought Police list of bannable Crime-Words, given that many of us take offense at it), and you’ve achieved at least one Orwellian goal:
“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”—George Orwell, 1984
The key point here is of greater import than one Twitter account (of many) being muzzled by this absurd but ominous censorship. The real issue is the chilling of everyone‘s discourse, the right to be exposed to many varied opinions on (like it or not) the social media platform most used by those with power to influence policy and public opinion.
To stay afloat on the platform, we are forced to write and converse with each other in coded, sanitized language; to paraphrase and obfuscate meanings. Orwell’s Big Brother couldn’t have thought of a better medium to control the masses.
When you silence someone by misusing the (already censorious) policies of one of the most powerful social-media companies in the world, you’ve tainted thought itself.
“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” — George Orwell, 1984
Is it any wonder so many people now question the motives and tactics behind (what many of us originally thought was) the Next Civil Rights movement–a movement we started off supporting?
Stay tuned for updates.
This censorship is outrageous. It’s almost as if Twitter profits from medically transing kids, and/or defending males bodied trans from scrutiny.
Almost…
I recall feeling quite shocked by the discovery that one of Twitter’s founders was a man who viciously raped his estranged wife – and who identifies as a woman https://www.womenarehuman.com/trans-identified-twitter-engineer-rapes-his-wife-dana-mccallum/
It’s a shocking, if instructive story.
Horrific that Trans dogma has led to this underming of sane discussion.
Same thing happened to me. They said I violated TOS against harassment. I appealed. They’ve said nothing for two weeks.
That’s sucks. Same thing happened to me about a year ago, during the big Yaniv sweep when Meghan Murphy was permanently banned. All I said was “Mr waxy balls“. His name wasn’t even in the tweet. I appealed it and waited a week, got no response and then just deleted the tweet to get my account back. And I’ve never known of any email account you can contact Twitter on. I’m pretty sure Harrop reported it because I didn’t have him blocked.
Holy crap. This is astonishing. And I’ve been around this stuff for years. They are censoring a medical term. At the behest of this subculture of strange political activists. I guess anybody who grew up in an authoritarian country could tell us censorship tries to stop you from saying certain things but also the censorship makes no sense which inhibits you in ways beyond what is explicitly for bidden. And wears you down. So on top of everything else social media companies are engaged in authoritarian like Confuse-You-Censorship. That’s a thing in our society. While they allow all kinds of vilification and the development of subcultures based on the traditional targets of hate. Fantastic.
One bright spot is this is an extremely well-written, thorough, easy to understand article. We must fight this. I mean all of society does, because this is censorship.
Exactly. The lines are intentionally blurry, so that people will stay well away from them just to be safe.
“Hateful” statements are not allowed? Oh, okay, I’d better not say “men are not women” just in case.
Language definitely affects thought, as the field of Linguistics has repeatedly shown. It’s frustrating to have to use only “approved” words on Twitter that detract from what is said. 4th Wave Now…You have always been a voice of reason on Twitter, and you are very missed. Hope you are back soon!
I was perm banned from Twitter because I said that I, as a transsexual am the only true transphobe in the world, since I fear other TS will steal my best pair of high heels.
I am way more radical and rabid than most of the people here on 4thWavenow, and this latest ban only shows what we are all up against.
This isn’t about logic, its about Twitter, acting as a Public Utility, censoring all questioning and conservative conversations, thought, logic, and science that does not support their world view.
When you have less than one percent of a population determining language, science, and public policy for the other 99% of society…
it’s called APARTHEID,
Keep the following in mind: most of the major IT firms…[and this is not a stereotype, it is a statement of fact] are laced with those, who want to police any language, argument or statements, which bring logic to the insanity they spew. And as had been mentioned here, if not directly, then via other terms [as well on other sites], that this censorship is being done by those who will blame their actions on [SIC] ‘a lack of social skills, due to their own mental or medical conditions, even though they possess cognitive abilities, which make them more than apt to handle writing algorithms’.
Put another way: there is a convenient series of different cerebral conditions, which can be used to explain away, why any postings, which contradict their horse manure, or displays in buildings like…libraries, are met with bans or violence. If those who were or are not part of the brigade, were to do this to other groups…..we all know that a place like Attica, would be the next stop.
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Agreed. Very well written article. It is odd the president of the United States does not get a suspended twitter account as he often spews racist and mysogenistic banter. I guess that is ok? “Natal male” must be overly scientific and not according to someone’s narative. I find it no coincidence that the increase in transgender identification and the newly minted gender “dysphoria” came about at EXACTLY the same time as social media dominated society and the internet. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr are but toxic garbage heaps controlled by the thought police. Orwell was a genius.
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Have you tried the route of filing a complaint against Twitter with the Better Business Bureau, because of their terrible business practices? It has worked for other Twitter users (and not for some). BUT it puts on record on the BBB website what our complaints against Twitter are (and their inane replies, as well). It’s worth doing just to get this on another website that Twitter can’t control. I’m not a lawyer, but it seems a good thing to use to document this whole thing as well. Anyone can use this method, because you file the complaint with the BBB in the locale where Twitter is doing business from (San Francisco).
This is beyond the beyond! We’re well and truly through a thousand Orwellian looking-glasses. There are shades of McCarthyism, when the least little supposed infraction against the conservative status quo could earn suspicion of Communism.
When Tumblr had to remove porn to get their app in the apple store, my very 1st thought was, “why is it apple’s job to play police?”. My initial thought on that hasn’t changed. It is not in the best interest of tech corporations or the general public, to be policed by tech corporations. The full implications of this are horrifying and just starting to be realized.
If it continues, more actual police will be beholden to taking action against citizens based upon these arbitray tech policies of “hate”. I’m not sure how any self respecting lawyer could condone this. (And yes, I understand the absurdity of what I just wrote.) It makes a mockery of law by creating actual thought crimes. And those thought crimes are themselves rather arbitrary.
It’s insane, or it makes otherwise logically reasoned people feel insane. Is that the end goal? Just mass confuse the general population to the point where truth and lies are blurred, so nobody is looking at the man behind the curtain? Unlike the wizard, who turns out to be kind but misguided, this wizard really just wants power, money, and your total submission, so we all continue to give them power and money.
Meanwhile, millions of humans on this earth are procreating, with their biologically sexed bodies. Women are giving birth and nursing babies. Men are doing whatever men do. And life marches on.
3 days later, the account still looks dead. The message for the tweet in question has changed to “This Tweet is no longer available. Learn more”. Did they quietly remove it? Or did the owner remove it but it didn’t help to unlock the account?
It sounds like a passive aggressive way to get rid of an account pretending it’s some bureaucratic problem or a glitch in software. But if it’s about waiting, then why would the message change?
I’ve been permanently banned for saying it was child abuse to introduce young children to the concepts of transgenderism. Twitter won’t reinstate me. The things I read by some in the trans community, the ones born as men, were so outrageous, offensive and violent–but they don’t get banned. Twitter is rife with men who demand women submit to their will.
One has to wonder, if they will also ban any accounts, associated with the New England Journal of Medicine.After all, in their latest edition, there is an article on medical care for the brigade and when one reads the FULL article, there are multiple mentions that, introducing children to the HRT cocktails is not recommended in the least.
Granted, this piece is behind a ‘sign up for 3 free articles’ wall, but worth creating an account. Also, it states that since there has been no official, peer-reviewed long term studies about what these medications can do to a person [although a check through the PDR, displays well over 32-35 DIFFERENT side effects of the steroids/hormones being used], extreme caution in their use, is recommended.
Another thing… what makes you believe that Katy Montgomerie is male? For me she looks like a biological woman (especially, without makeup; no Adam’s apple, female face) “identifying” as trans, spending a lot of time on Twitter trolling (about 90% of her activity are replies) and posting selfies on Instagram. She’s so pretty, she passes so well. Could it be some kind of fraudulent marketing to tunnel patients into treatments?
Here is her “transition” https://medium.com/join-the-gender-revolution/reallifetransadult-4133bd4121ce, it was “coming out” to co-workers and friends but no medical procedures mentioned. Basically, “tomorrow I’m coming in as a woman”. Changed pants for a dress, perhaps. Sometimes, if somebody looks like a woman, talks like a woman and presents as a woman is, indeed, a woman.
Anything is possible, but Montgomerie has been posting/tweeting about recent SRS in Thailand–and there are many other interventions (tracheal shaves, “facial feminization surgery”) available to help people “pass” better.
Katy is a male. And judging from the millions of selfies he has posted online, it is obvious that he has auotgynephilia and is totally enamored with women’s clothes and makeup.If you look at a closeup of his shoulders, you can see how they are much larger than his hips.
Since it is clear that 4th is now officially deleted from the public square, my thoughts are simple. These big companies are ether public utility platforms or publishers for others. As a Public Utility, they can and should be regulated and be required to follow all free speech laws. If they area Publisher, then they should be taxed, and held accountable (sued) for all violent content. They can’t be both at the same time, while skirting any particular law they don’t like.
From the correspondence I’ve seen, Katy’s representing the complaint and hasn’t approved resolution of the suspension. There is also reference to jurisdiction in Germany, which may indicate that someone used the dedicated reporting channel.
The latest published data on takedowns under the EU’s anti-terror CoC, established after Christchurch, shows an escalating & disproportionate incidence rate of reporting on LGBT complaints. Analysts suspect that US & UK activists are relaying complaints through the regional reporting orgs to censor political opponents. Trans advocacy is more strident in both countries and relies on victimization reporting for public financing.
Twitter has banned @HairyLeggdHarpy permanently as well after she tweeted minutes from the Scotish GRA debate in 2003 which revealed that the fusion of sex with gender in the 2004 GRA was to prevent having to pass a gay marriage law – they’d compel people to change sex. That’s obviously not information Trans activists want to see publicized.
Can you elaborate on what you said in the first paragraph? What do you mean by “representing the complaint“? What “correspondence“? Are you saying that Katy has the power to approve or disapprove a suspension on Twitter? If so, what is the evidence for that? Thanks.
Have you seen the tweet from Katy to Twitter admin starting with ‘let the founder’s .. speak for .. , shall we?’ It ends with ‘being a natal male’.
based on the published tweet history …
The admin hadn’t originally understood that to be the violation, and it isn’t explicitly identified as such in this tweet, which means they probably communicated elsewhere to establish that ‘natal male’ constituted a violation. It hasn’t until now. But it will be with the fruition of Self ID policies, which seek to revise birth certificates when fully implemented.
So Katy has asserted a new rule and the admin has enforced it as received. This is why I’ve characterized Katy as a representative, of the Trans community, as recognized by Twitter, with the power to define Twitter’s policy in this area.
@HairyLeggdHarpy’s last tweets don’t violate any known standards either.
But otherwise I don’t have direct evidence of Twitter’s internal policies or agreements. They’ve been very cagey about those.
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