MEAWW.COM / NEWS / CELEBRITY NEWS

Will Elon Musk BAN pronouns on Twitter? Internet digs up CEO's old tweet describing 'esthetic nightmare'

'I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare,' Elon Musk had tweeted in 2020

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is known for his antics on social media as much as he is for his innovative leadership qualities. Musk, who owns two of the most profitable businesses in the world - Tesla and SpaceX - and is behind a host of other futuristic ventures such as Neuralink and The Boring Company, stunned the world last year with the sudden purchase of microblogging platform Twitter. 

After buying a majority share of the social media platform, Musk in a sudden announcement declared that he wishes to buy the site in its entirety. Following the $44B takeover, he pushed for mass layoffs, firing almost 80% of its employees till now. "The bird is freed", Musk, who was an avid user of the platform even before the deal, had tweeted after the purchase. Now, a 2020 tweet from the current CEO has resurfaced online making netizens wonder if Musk plans to ban pronouns on the microblogging site.

ALSO READ

Can a deceased user's Twitter account be verified? Bob Saget's wife Kelly Rizzo asks Elon Musk for help

Meet Alex Spiro, Megan Thee Stallion's high-powered lawyer who also represents Elon Musk and Jay-Z

Responding to a 2020 CleanTechnica article that accused the Tesla CEO of "attacking" marginalized people and allies over a post representing the "he/him" pronoun with some dark humor, Musk had tweeted, "I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare."

Bringing the two-year-old tweet back to the spotlight, entrepreneur and social media personality Matt Wallace started a Twitter thread with the question, "Do you support Elon Musk banning pronouns on Twitter?" He also linked a video that he uploaded on his YouTube channel exploring the possibility. The video starts with the narrator saying, "Have you noticed that every single Twitter employee no longer has pronouns in their bio. Did Elon Musk ban pronouns for Twitter employees, and if he did, do you support that?" with Musk's December 16, 2020 tweet being highlighted. 

Since being posted on January 22, Wallace's tweet has garnered over 5 million views, 129K likes, and 6K retweets. However, the veracity of Wallace's claim is highly debatable as it is unlikely that Musk would take any step to restrict free speech that does not threaten any sort of harm. Musk has, in the past, described himself as a "free speech absolutist" and in a tweet described Twitter as "the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated." 

It should, however, be noted that Musk has been accused of censoring public personalities in the recent past. As per a Time report from last November, Twitter suspended the accounts of several comedians, including Kathy Griffin and Ethan Klein, for parody tweets impersonating Musk. Musk's Twitter has also been accused of banning several journalists last year. As per a Gizmodo report, Musk banned at least nine journalists, many of whom had tweeted about a Twitter account that tracked the Tesla CEO's private jet using publicly available information.

Meanwhile, commenting on Wallace's post, netizens were divided in their opinions. Malaysian journalist Ian Miles Cheong, known for his commentary on US politics and his involvement in Gamergate, dismissed the post writing, "Sounds like fake news." Stockholm University professor Christian Christensen wrote, "That would be “censorship,” right?" Criticizing the use of pronouns, music producer and YouTuber Jay Cartere opined, "Banning them is unnecessary. Also, people with pronouns in their bio are usually crazy so it’s a great red flag to help you avoid the insanity."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.