Twitter Removes Tweets About 'Trans Day of Vengeance'

THE AP: SAN FRANCISCO Twitter claims to have taken down thousands of tweets that featured a poster for a Saturday "trans day of vengeance" demonstration in favor

of transgender rights in Washington, D.C.

The company automatically deleted more than 5,000 tweets and shares of a banner advertising the event, according to Ella Irwin, Twitter's director of Trust and Safety, in a message posted on Wednesday.

"We oppose tweets that call for bloodshed, regardless of who writes them. "Vengeance" does not indicate nonviolent resistance. It's acceptable to plan or support nonviolent demonstrations, Irwin stated in the post.

Twitter claimed that in order to rapidly remove the messages on a large scale without taking into account the context in which they were shared, it used automatic processes. As a result, tweets that backed the demonstrations as well as those that were critical of them were deleted.

Many conservative Twitter users who claimed the rules were unjustly applied to them because they posted the picture of the demonstration flyer to voice their opposition to it appeared to be upset by this.

Twitter removed the posts in support of the demonstration, but trans activists were quick to point out that "trans day of vengeance" is a meme that has been around in the trans community for years and is not a call to violence. They claimed Twitter's justification for doing so was erroneous.

The actions of Twitter, according to Evan Greer, head of the leftist nonprofit advocacy organization Fight for the Future, are "the latest example of Big Tech companies employing double standards in content moderation."

"They take a while to control transphobic content, but when we stand up or fight back, they quickly silence us. No particular day or appeal to violence is referred to as the "Trans Day of Vengeance." It's a joke that has been around for a while, a way to show rage and irritation about the violence and discrimination the trans community has to deal with every day, according to Greer. "Context is everything in content moderation, which is why content policies should be based in human rights and applied consistently, not changed quickly based on public pressure or news cycles," states the statement.

The in-issue sign is a digital flyer that is primarily text-based. "We want more than visibility," "trans day of vengeance," "stop trans genocide," and the date and time of the demonstration are written across the top of the sign.

Many of the posts Twitter deleted came from right-wing users who shared a picture of the flyer in an effort to link the upcoming demonstrations to the recent school murder in Nashville, Tennessee. Following the killing, some right-wing activists and commentators have used the shooter's gender identification to attack transgender people and their supporters, label transgender people as violent and "evil," and imply that they intend to use violence. Affected Twitter users included Georgia Republican and U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.