‘Who Is In Control at Twitter?’ Conservatives Outraged After Daily Wire Doc Is Suppressed In Spite of Elon Musk’s Assurances

What Is a Woman?, a Daily Wire documentary featuring Matt Walsh, was suppressed on Twitter on Thursday evening despite Elon Musk’s assurances that instances of misgendering in the film did not violate the platform’s rules.

Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing announced on Thursday morning that his company had inked a deal with Twitter to release the film for free on Thursday evening to celebrate its one-year anniversary but that Twitter reneged on the deal, promising to limit rather amplify its reach after a review of it.

By Thursday afternoon, Musk had attempted to assuage conservatives’ concerns by assuring them that the threat to suppress the film had been “a mistake.”

“This was a mistake by many people at Twitter. It is definitely allowed. Whether or not you agree with using someone’s preferred pronouns, not doing so is at most rude and certainly breaks no laws,” insisted Musk. “I should note that I do personally use someone’s preferred pronouns, just as I use someone’s preferred name, simply from the standpoint of good manners. However, for the same reason, I object to rude behavior, ostracism or threats of violence if the wrong pronoun or name is used.”

But upon the film’s release that evening, it became clear that Twitter’s executives had won the debate with its owner. The platform affixed a warning that the tweet containing the film “may violate Twitter’s rules against Hateful Conduct,” prevented it from being retweeted, and suppressed it from appearing directly in the Daily Wire’s followers’ feeds.

Our film has been posted for a couple of hours. You cannot retweet it. It will not appear in anyone’s feed. It has been flagged as hate speech. It has been blacklisted from the trends list. It still has nearly 900 thousand views.

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 2, 2023

The anger and frustration of right-of-center users and other free speech advocates who have pinned considerable hopes on Musk’s stewardship of the platform was considerable.

Who is in control at Twitter? The problem is no one seems to know… This is actually worse than outright suppression. Why? Because it’s not comprehensible.

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) June 2, 2023

I thought this nonsense was over under @elonmusk. https://t.co/O53UsTgNa9

— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) June 2, 2023

There are no possible legitimate grounds for suppression of “What is a Woman?” by @MattWalshBlog. The movie contains no threats, no trick editing, and no hate speech — its satirical point is made using the statements of trans activists. If this can be suppressed, anything can. https://t.co/A1f2vUPYPu

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) June 2, 2023

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

Noooo

say it aint so @elonmusk , say it aint so https://t.co/NJUZiA0Lpc

— Tim Pool (@Timcast) June 1, 2023

Despite @elonmusk promising that the @realDailyWire film “What Is A Woman” by @MattWalshBlog wouldn’t be censored, it seems someone @Twitter staff chose to censor it anyways less than 20 minutes after it was posted. You can’t even comment. Whoever did this should be fired. pic.twitter.com/kAVuULhjkA

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) June 2, 2023

Musk attempted once again to explain the situation, characterizing Twitter’s action not as suppression but simply a decision not to “push” the content on others.

“We’re updating the system tomorrow so that those who follow @realDailyWire
will see this in their feed, but it won’t be recommended to non-followers (nor will any advertising be associated with it),” said Musk shortly after the movie premiered.

“Commenting & deliberate sharing will be allowed. Sensitive content just won’t be pushed to people unless they ask for it or a friend sends it to them,” he continued. The billionaire went on to attempt to pacify Boreing and the Daily Wire by predicting that “the controversy will drive viewership.”

“The Streisand Effect on this will set an all-time record!” added Musk, who promised that the issues bemoaned by Daily Wire personalities “will be fixed tomorrow.”

As of Friday morning, the film can now be shared and has been seen by 2.6 million users. Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, resigned on Thursday night.