News and Commentary

Progressive Feminist Suspended From Twitter After Criticizing The Transgender Movement

   DailyWire.com

Meghan Murphy, founder of the Feminist Current website and podcast, has been suspended from Twitter.

Murphy, a self-described socialist and radical feminist, has been an outspoken critic of the transgender activist movement, claiming that it has an outsized sociopolitical influence, especially in her native Canada.

In 2017, Murphy testified before the Canadian Senate against the C-16 pronoun legislation, stating in part that “the rights of women and girls are being pushed aside to accommodate a trend,” and that “treating gender as though it is either internal or a personal choice is dangerous and completely misunderstands how and why women are oppressed under patriarchy as a class of people.”

In August, Murphy’s Twitter account was locked after she sent out several tweets criticizing Lisa Kreut, a transgender individual who allegedly “targeted Feminist Current’s ad revenue and led efforts to have Vancouver Rape Relief blacklisted at the 2016 BCFED Convention.”

In order to regain full access after having violated Twitter’s rules regarding “hateful conduct,” Murphy deleted the tweets. She then complained publicly to Twitter, asking if she was “no longer permitted to report facts” on the social media platform. For this, Murphy claims that she was suspended for half a day, and told by Twitter to delete her public complaint.

In October, Murphy sent out a pair of tweets in which she questioned the transgender movement, writing, “Men aren’t women,” and asking, “How are transwomen not men? What is the difference between men and transwomen?”

Murphy was notified by Twitter on November 15 that her tweets had once again violated the company’s “hateful conduct” rules.

After deleting the allegedly hateful tweets, Murphy took her complaint to Twitter, writing in part:

This is f**king bulls*** @twitter. I’m not allowed to say that men aren’t women or ask questions about the notion of transgenderism at all anymore? That a multi billion dollar company is censoring BASIC FACTS and silencing people who ask questions about this dogma is INSANE.

What ARE we allowed to say here??? How tf is simply saying ‘men aren’t women’ hateful??? I am losing my goddamned mind over this. Enjoy your brave new world, sjws. Here’s your f***ing social justice … I’m assuming my account is going to get locked again simply for speaking about this. But this is not f***ing ok and I’m not going to let it go silently … Trans activists have been targeting my account for a few months now. Either someone at Twitter or with an in at Twitter has been combing through old tweets and reporting them for “hateful conduct.” Twitter seems to instantly shut my account down without a second thought.

In a subsequent thread, she updated her followers, and called out the “cowardice” of Canadian progressives:

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Hi everyone! I’ve been locked out of Twitter since Monday morning. They demanded I remove the viral tweet complaining about having been locked out last week for saying that men aren’t women. The tweet was at like 20, 000 likes so I guess they didn’t like that.

In any case, I would like to announce that I’ve changed my mind about some things. Brace yourselves. I am tired of the ‘right=bad’/’left=good’ dichotomy. Things are not as simple as that. It’s not ‘good’ to limit ourselves to engaging only with those we already agree with. It is intellectually boring and will not encourage the development of good, coherent, evidence-based ideas, politics, and policies.

Right wing media has been the only media to cover Twitter’s attempts to silence me, and has been the only media to reach out to me. Mainstream, liberal, progressive media continues to refuse to even acknowledge that feminists have a critique of transgender ideology.

In Canada, at least, the media and, more broadly, progressives/the left refuse to say a word about the harassment, bullying, silencing, and threats against those of us who do speak out. The cowardice is appalling.

I am not abandoning my principles, but what I will grant ‘the right’ (or ‘free speechers,’ or whatever you want to call them) is that at least they are interested in engaging with those they may disagree with on various issues. The left, on the other hand, wants an echo chamber. It’s not only boring, but it’s unproductive. How tf are you going to get anywhere by ignoring what so many in the world think and believe? Or by simply vilifying those who don’t toe the line?

Despite receiving support on social media, Twitter has suspended Murphy’s account as of Saturday.

The Daily Wire spoke with Murphy about the situation.

DW: Has this experience with Twitter changed your perspective regarding online political life?

MURPHY: It’s blowing my mind how much power trans activists have. I’m not able to make my arguments. What they’re doing is ensuring I can’t talk about this stuff at all on Twitter.

It’s not, “you can’t say offensive things,” or “hateful things,” or “you can’t be mean,” because what I’m saying isn’t hateful or mean or offensive in my opinion. I’m trying to show that this ideology is incoherent and irrational. I’m trying to get them to explain their own arguments and defend their own claims.

If I can’t articulate my position, or ask questions – like “how can a man become a woman?” – then I can’t engage in these conversations at all.

The fact that there’s no accountability is crazy. Twitter doesn’t respond to my appeals; they just send me these form responses that don’t actually explain their policies or explain why I can’t say what I’m saying.

DW: Is there anything you want people to know regarding this situation that hasn’t been touched on?

MURPHY: Like I said before, the amount of power that trans activists have over public debate is incredible and kind of scary. It’s just a few people. There are a few people who have connections to Twitter or work for Twitter who are either trans themselves or allied with this movement who are just dictating these rules.

With the stuff that I’m saying, I have more supporters than detractors – not only online, but in the world. Most people in the world don’t believe it’s possible for a male to become female. Most people think this ideology is ridiculous. A lot of people are afraid to say so, and others are just regular people who aren’t aware this debate is going on.

This minority of people, who have an incredible amount of power, are claiming to be the most marginalized people on the planet. You can’t really be that marginalized when you’re controlling the entire conversation, and changing legislation and policy faster than anyone else has been able to do.

Despite the repeated locks and recent suspension, Murphy says she has received great support from her allies, as well as from conservatives and free speech advocates.

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