The day after The Daily Wire was set to begin streaming all its podcasts on Twitter, the right-wing media company claimed Twitter balked at a deal to stream an anti-transgender documentary.
In a series of Thursday morning tweets, Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing accused Twitter of refusing a deal to spotlight What Is a Woman?, an anti-trans documentary The Daily Wire had intended to broadcast on June 1 for the start of Pride Month. Boreing claimed Twitter labeled the film as hateful, citing instances in which it misgendered transgender people.
The fallout comes amid a right-wing turn for Twitter. In April, the company removed its policy explicitly prohibiting misgendering. Conservative media personalities subsequently announced plans to stream shows on the site, which they say is less likely than sites like YouTube to ban them for making false or anti-LGBTQ statements.
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Boreing’s tweets, however, suggest potential trouble for the partnership.
The Daily Wire boss claimed that the conservative media company had reached out to Twitter for a deal allowing them to stream the film for free on the social-media platform, with promotion in users’ feeds.
“Twitter responded with enthusiasm and offered us the opportunity to buy a package to host the movie on a dedicated event page and to promote the event to every Twitter user over the first 10 hours,” Boreing tweeted.
But Twitter called off the deal after reviewing the film, Boreing alleged.
“Twitter let us know that not only could we no longer purchase the package they offered, they would no longer provide us any support and would actually limit the reach of the film and label it as ‘hateful conduct’ because of ‘misgendering,’” he wrote.
Twitter representatives did not return requests for comment. Twitter’s media email auto-responded with a poop emoji, as it has done since shortly after Elon Musk’s takeover last year.
Twitter, as Boreing noted in his thread, no longer explicitly bans misgendering. In April, the company removed language from its content moderation guidelines that prohibited “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.” Boreing further claimed Twitter told The Daily Wire that misgendering still violates the site’s broader policy against harassment and abuse.
Twitter’s current rules state that “you may not directly attack other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”
Right-wing Twitter personalities, meanwhile, were quick to blast the move as a betrayal by the social-media giant. Under Musk’s leadership, the site has adopted policies friendly to the far right, including revoking bans on users who had previously been ousted for hateful conduct.
The site has also recently pivoted toward streaming arrangements with right-wing figures. Following his termination from Fox News, Tucker Carlson announced that he would start a new show on Twitter, although Musk tweeted shortly after Carlson’s May 9 announcement that Twitter had not signed a deal with the former Fox star.
Matt Walsh, the far-right personality behind What Is a Woman? began streaming his Daily Wire web show on Twitter in April. In an announcement last month, The Daily Wire stated that it would begin streaming all of its podcasts on Twitter.
“Beginning Tuesday, May 30, all of The Daily Wire’s top-ranked shows will stream for free on Twitter, the largest social media platform that refuses to allow leftist censors to gatekeep content based on politics,” The Daily Wire’s announcement read.
After Boreing’s tweets on Thursday, critics on the right were quick to blame Linda Yaccarino, Twitter’s new CEO.
Yaccarino, who did not respond to a request for comment, was previously an ad executive at NBCUniversal and has been tasked with the challenge of rebuilding trust with advertisers that cut ties with Twitter after Musk’s takeover.
Yaccarino’s appointment sparked outrage among the right, which took issue with both Musk’s departure as CEO and Yaccarino’s past work for the World Economic Forum.
On Thursday afternoon, Musk responded to The Daily Wire by criticizing Twitter’s decision.
“This was a mistake by many people at Twitter. It is definitely allowed,” Musk responded to one of Boreing’s tweets claiming Twitter had prohibited “misgendering.”
However, it is unclear whether Musk’s interpretation of the policy regarding misgendering will prompt Twitter to reconsider the What Is A Woman? streaming deal. As of early Thursday evening, the site still restricted visibility for clips of the film that showed transgender people being misgendered. “This Tweet may violate Twitter’s rules against hateful conduct,” reads a note on the film clips reads.
