- One of the world's richest men spent the last 24 hours sharing anti-trans content.
- Elon Musk promoted increasingly radical takes after right-wingers criticized him on Twitter.
Elon Musk went all-in on sharing anti-transgender talking points after conservative pundits criticized him online on Thursday.
Right-wingers were furious at the billionaire Twitter CEO after "What is a Woman?", a 2022 online film by The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh that urges intolerance of trans people and opposes medical intervention for trans children, had its visibility slashed on the platform for violating rules on hateful conduct.
Musk chimed in amid the blowback, saying the throttling was "a mistake by many people at Twitter" and that he was stepping in to make sure it would be changed.
He later said that the movie was available for those who followed The Daily Wire, but that "sensitive content just won't be pushed to people unless they ask for it or a friend sends it to them."
That promise didn't last long.
In a tweet hours later to his millions of followers, Musk himself shared the video and declared "Every parent should watch this." As of Friday afternoon, Musk had pinned the tweet sharing the video to the top of his profile.
"Consenting adults should do whatever makes them happy, provided it does not harm others, but a child is not capable of consent, which is why we have laws protecting minors," Musk added.
Republicans and conservative commentators have been pushing laws to limit the rights of transgender people, including restricting which bathroom they can use and threatening parents and doctors if they provide gender-affirming care to kids.
Prominent doctors and medical practitioners agree that options like puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy can be medically appropriate for trans youth.
During his latest tweetstorm, Musk vowed to start "actively lobbying to criminalize" healthcare options for transgender children that he called "severe, irreversible changes." He also backed throwing advocates in jail without parole.
Musk didn't immediately respond to questions about his tweets or whether he was addressing the decision at Twitter to limit the video with staff.
Musk has a teenage daughter who is trans; she successfully petitioned a court last year to change her name from Musk, telling a judge that she no longer wished to be related to her father "in any way, shape or form."
It's the latest rightward turn for one of the world's richest men.
Musk first explicitly announced a shift toward the Republican Party just over a year ago after Insider contacted him for comment about a former SpaceX worker's allegations of sexual harassment against him. Since taking over Twitter and vowing he is a "free-speech absolutist," Musk has reinstated banned right-wing accounts while cutting staff at the social media company.
He's flirted with conspiracy theorists and helped launch the presidential campaign of GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a glitchy announcement on Twitter.
Top Twitter executives have fled en masse, with the platform's head of safety quitting on Thursday. The brand safety team also lost its head and possibly other staff, according to the Wall Street Journal and Ryan Mac of the New York Times.
The Journal reported that the departing A.J. Brown was one of the key executives responsible for making advertisers comfortable spending money to promote their brand on the website, an increasingly difficult job during Musk's tenure as the company has reportedly lost significant advertising revenue since he took over.
Mac reported that multiple members of Twitter's remaining staff have made their accounts private over harassment from Twitter users stemming from Musk's reversal and other comments on the "What is a Woman?" controversy.
Musk himself appeared to confirm Friday morning in an interaction with Walsh and another user that the recent departures were connected to the controversy.
Zoe Schiffer of Platformer reported Friday that Brown's resignation may have been due to changes in Twitter's ad policy, adding that the trust and safety team has been told only to enforce the company's policies on ads that are scams or illegal. The directive has reportedly caused some confusion as policies are changed, and some staff are questioning what to do with ads that include hate speech, according to Schiffer.