Musk says ‘cis,’ ‘cisgender’ considered slurs on Twitter

Elon Musk said the words “cis” and “cisgender” are now considered slurs on Twitter and suggested that “repeated, targeted” use of those words could be subject to suspensions.

“Repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions,” Musk wrote on Twitter just after midnight Wednesday morning. “The words ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ are considered slurs on this platform.”

Musk was responding to a tweet by James Esses, a self-described “advocate on gender ideology” who has repeatedly expressed views that widely would be considered anti-trans. In his tweet, Esses said he received “a slew of messages from trans activists” that were critical of a previous post, in which he rejected the term “cis” and said he no longer wants to be described that way. 

The word cisgender is commonly used to refer to people who are not transgender or gender-fluid. Merriam-Webster defines the word as “of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity corresponds with the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth.” 

Musk’s pronouncement that cisgender would now be considered a slur on his platform comes after a series of changes to policies at Twitter that some say make trans people feel less safe on the platform.

In April, Twitter quietly rolled back a policy that banned “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.” In 2018, Twitter enacted the policy against deadnaming, which refers to the purposeful use of a trans person’s name before they transitioned. Twitter previously categorized this behavior as a form of harassment.

In a tweet on the first day of Pride month, June, Musk said misgendering was “definitely allowed” on Twitter. 

A recent report declared social media companies were failing to keep LGBTQ people safe on their platforms, with all five major platforms receiving low or failing grades. The only social media platform to see its rating decline in the past year was Twitter, while YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook all saw their scores increase. 

The report indicated the declining score was a result of several policy changes put into effect since Musk took control of the company in the fall of 2022.