Elon Musk sparks outrage with threat to ban ‘cisgender’ as a ‘slur’ on Twitter

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has apparently decided that "cis" and "cisgender" will now be considered a slur on the social media platform.

"Cisgender" typically refers to individuals whose gender identity matches their birth sex. If an individual is born male and has a male gender identity then they would be considered "cisgender."

The proclamation was made in the replies of James Esses, an Irish right-wing media figure, who was complaining that commenters on social media were calling him a "cissy."

"Yesterday, after posting a Tweet saying that I reject the word ‘cis’ and don’t wish to be called it, I receive a slew of messages from trans activists calling me “cissy” and telling me that I am ‘cis’ 'whether or not I like it,'" he wrote. "Just imagine if the roles were reversed."

Mr Musk responded with an announcement that "repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions."

While that police seemed reasonable and even good for the site, Mr Musk then took it a step further.

"The words 'cis' or 'cisgender' are considered slurs on this platform," he wrote, prompting backlash on the platform.

NYT bestselling author Seth Abramson doubted that Mr Musk knows what the word means.

“I’m 102.3% sure Elon has no idea what “cis” or “cisgender” mean, either connotatively or denotatively or etymologically,” he wrote. “Threatening to suspend users on your ‘free speech’ platform because they uttered a word you don’t understand but fear emasculates you is quite the fascist flex.”