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Update: Citing a “mistake” in the censorship of What Is a Woman?, Elon Musk has not only green-lighted the streaming of Matt Walsh’s documentary, he has endorsed it, saying “Every parent should watch this.” 

(LifeSiteNews) — On Thursday, Twitter broke its promise of dedication to free speech by censoring the groundbreaking documentary What Is A Woman? and refusing to stream it on the platform due to so-called “misgendering” present in the film. 

The movie, released last year on June 1, follows Daily Wire podcast host Matt Walsh as he travels the world in search of an answer to the question “what is a woman?” By interviewing academic scholars, medical professionals, victims of gender ideology, and random citizens, Walsh exposed the dark reality of transgenderism and sparked a movement to advocate for the truth. 

The Daily Wire had previously come to an agreement with Twitter to stream the film for 24 hours free of charge, in honor of the documentary’s one-year anniversary. However, co-CEO and co-founder of Daily Wire Jeremy Boreing announced this morning that Twitter had called off the deal, citing the film’s “misgendering” as “hateful conduct.”

“With Twitter’s recent commitments to free speech, we thought it would be the perfect place to distribute the film and drive the conversation forward on one of the most important topics of our day,” Boreing wrote in a Twitter thread, saying that the platform “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.” 

Twitter CEO Elon Musk responded to Boreing on Thursday, stating that the cancellation “was a mistake by many people at Twitter.” “It is definitely allowed,” he added.

In his Twitter thread, Boreing explained how the Daily Wire signed the agreement and then “sent them a screener” upon request. However, “after reviewing the film,” the platform “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.’” 

After pointing out that the term “misgendering” had been removed from Twitter’s policy, the Daily Wire was told that the term was “only removed … because they didn’t need to be that specific, but that they still consider ‘misgendering’ abuse and harassment.” The Nashville-based outlet “declined” an “opportunity to edit the film to comply” with the platform’s policy. 

Twitter also informed the outlet that, if the film was posted on the platform anyway, “our own followers would not be able to see it in their feeds.” 

“We brought all our shows to Twitter Tuesday because we believed Twitter was committed to free speech, especially on this issue,” Boreing wrote. “If Twitter is going to throttle one side of one of the most important debates facing society, it cannot claim to champion free speech.” 

Boreing also told followers that “we plan to post the movie anyway tonight at 8:00pm eastern.” 

The two scenes which Twitter demanded be edited before posting to the platform include an interview with a man who refused to call a local gender-confused councilman a woman and a phone call with an anonymous father who referred to his daughter as “she” instead of “he.” 

“Censorship around ‘misgendering’ is one of the primary catalysts that drove @elonmusk to buy Twitter in the first place,” the film’s creator Matt Walsh posted on the platform. “If this is allowed to stand, it will be for nothing.” 

“This is a gross betrayal of the free speech promises they have made to their users.” 

After the news broke, conservatives took to Twitter to express disappointment and call on Musk to amend the situation. 

“This behavior by Twitter corporate directly opposes @elonmusk’s commitment to free speech, and I sincerely hope he does something about it,” Daily Wire co-founder and host Ben Shapiro reacted. 

Turning Point USA’s Benny Johnson said that he “hope[s] this is a glitch” and that the censorship “seems like bad policy hangover from Twitter 1.0.” Catholic commentator Liz Wheeler reiterated that Musk should “rectif[y] this immediately.” 

Chloe Cole, an 18-year-old who has attracted national attention for speaking out against gender ideology after falling for its lies herself, expressed that the censorship is “so disappointing.” 

“The ‘What Is A Woman?’ documentary was a major inspiration to me to start speaking out on my detransition experience. How many other kids are out there waiting for that spark?!” 

Twitter’s unexpected censorship of Walsh’s documentary comes a year after Musk bought the platform with a commitment to free speech and barely a week after he appointed a new CEO with a history of involvement in left-wing propaganda.  

This article has been updated with information about Elon Musk’s response to Jeremy Boreing.

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