Twitter restricted the launch of The Daily Wire’s hit documentary “What Is A Woman?” on the platform Thursday evening after Elon Musk, the company’s owner, said earlier in the day that attempts to restrict the film were a “mistake” and would be “fixed.”
Daily Wire co-CEO Jeremy Boreing revealed in a lengthy Twitter thread Thursday morning that Twitter had canceled a deal to stream “What Is A Woman?” and “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.’”
“Specifically: In the film, a father refers to his 14-year-old daughter as ‘her,’ and a store owner uses the ‘wrong’ pronoun in a confrontation with a transgender woman,” Boreing said.
Musk responded to Boreing’s Twitter thread by saying that “this was a mistake by many people at Twitter,” adding that the streaming “is definitely allowed.”
However, when the entire hour-and-a-half documentary was uploaded to Twitter at 8:13 p.m., the film was quickly restricted and received a label that read: “Visibility Limited. This Tweet may violate Twitter’s rules against Hateful Conduct.”
Ella Irwin, the head of Twitter’s trust and safety department — the department that appears to have been responsible for the label being applied — abruptly resigned from the company Thursday afternoon. Her internal Slack account was quickly deactivated by the company, Fortune reported.
The designation on the film blocked Twitter users from being able to retweet or share the video with their audiences. The video garnered 5,000+ retweets/quote retweets in just a couple of minutes after being published before it was restricted.
“That was fast,” Boreing responded. “Even after @elonmusk said Twitter’s threat to label What Is A Woman ‘hateful conduct’ and to throttle the film’s reach was a mistake, Twitter did that very thing instantly upon the film going live.”
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That was fast. Even after @elonmusk said Twitter’s threat to label What Is A Woman “hateful conduct” and to throttle the film’s reach was a mistake, Twitter did that very thing instantly upon the film going live. pic.twitter.com/RF5K5oHyOq
— Jeremy Boreing (@JeremyDBoreing) June 2, 2023
Ben Shapiro — editor emeritus of The Daily Wire and host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” the top conservative podcast in the nation — also slammed Twitter’s move to restrict the film.
“Twitter is now visibility limiting ‘What Is A Woman?’ as premiering on Daily Wire’s Twitter page,” he wrote. “They did it within seconds of its premiere. It cannot be [retweeted]. Nothing has been fixed.”
Twitter is now visibility limiting "What Is A Woman?" as premiering on Daily Wire's Twitter page. They did it within seconds of its premiere. It cannot be RTed. Nothing has been fixed. pic.twitter.com/3cP8JxXoBM
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 2, 2023
Matt Walsh, star of “What Is A Woman?”, responded to his documentary being restricted by writing: “Twitter put the hate speech tag on my embed of the film. There is someone actively and manually suppressing the film at Twitter.”
Twitter put the hate speech tag on my embed of the film. There is someone actively and manually suppressing the film at Twitter. pic.twitter.com/TRPrHyOvcp
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 2, 2023
The groundbreaking documentary released last summer was watched by people in over 70 countries, even as legacy media reviewers ignored the film and its effect on the culture. Soon after its release, “What is a Woman?” became the most watched movie at home, according to Rotten Tomatoes, which also showed that audiences scored the film with a 97% rating.
The documentary arguably sparked a movement to protect children from the harmful effects of sex change procedures. Following the film’s release and Walsh’s subsequent rallies and events speaking out about the potentially tragic consequences of so-called “gender-affirming” care, at least a dozen states have banned transgender surgeries on minors.
The Daily Wire’s Zach Jewell contributed to this report.
