Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, which he has since renamed X, caused a wave of reactions and triggered emotions in many people — some of whom are still having difficulty coping with it today even though it’s been close to a year since it happened. Musk’s acquisition was heralded by many on the Right as a new day for free speech on the social media platform. And, in many ways, they are correct — though the repressive nature of the previous ownership set quite a low bar in that regard.
Nevertheless, some censorship and speech restrictions still exist on Musk’s Twitter or X or whatever we are officially calling it nowadays. Sure, some of this includes egregious hate speech and arguably inappropriate content. However, some things that should be considered uncontroversial are still given a restriction or warning.
For example, I posted a picture of my dog. It was wholesome and adorable, and… X/Twitter blurred the image and branded it with a warning. The warning prevented me from embedding the tweet in this article.
“Content Warning: Graphic Content,” a message reads on a blurred-out picture of my fantastic canine, Kitt. “X labeled this post as containing Graphic Content.”
At the time of this publication, I have not been able to clarify if this was an error or if there is now an anti-cute dog picture initiative going on at X. I tried to contact someone, anyone at X, but to no avail. It’s easier to find Sasquatch than communicate with a live human at X. I checked Elon Musk’s account to see if he posted any messages warning of an outage. None of his posts mentioned anything about an outage or issue — at least at the time of this story being published.
This isn’t my first bout with Twitter censoring and putting a graphic content warning on my posts. Shortly after I broke several stories about Lia Thomas, the transgender former University of Pennsylvania swimmer, any picture, video, or web page link I posted was accompanied by a graphic content warning. I also did not appear in the search bar, and my account was hidden from users who searched for my username. It became so bad that I had to start a new Twitter/X account.
Additionally, earlier this year, when discussing the abortion debate with an X user, I posted a picture from the movie Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer. It was a picture of Baby Boy A, one of the babies who was evidence in the actual court case the movie was based on. And while that warning was arguably understandable, it was also indicative of the unfair ways in which those who wish to show the horrors of abortion are censored and restricted in delivering their messages.
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An inability to show the Gosnell graphic suppresses one of the main things about those who want to protect the lives of the unborn. It reveals the horrors of the decisions made by abortion supporters. And, if X/Twitter is to be genuinely free, images such as Baby Boy A should be allowed without warning.
I will assume this issue with the picture of my dog is some glitch, though, admittedly, I have no idea. And, as mentioned above, all my inquiries have yet to be returned. It’s a sad reflection of the times that this uncertainty could go either way; however, I’m going to assume it is a glitch at X. Nevertheless, even if it is just a glitch, the social media platform’s administrators still censor content that limits political speech. And, if Musk’s free-speech guarantee is to hold, these kinds of restrictions must not happen.