Twitter has just banned deadnaming and misgendering. This means you must call people by their preferred name and pronouns. You can’t refer to someone by what they were previously known as. As I posted on Twitter:

In the new Twitter terms of service, you must say, “Caitlyn Jenner won the men’s decathlon at the 1976 Olympics.” In Orwell’s 1984 this was called Newspeak. https://t.co/Hz8WwnEDDV — Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC (@FrMatthewLC) November 25, 2018

Banning Deadnaming

As the new “Hateful Comment Policy” says.

We prohibit targeting individuals with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category. This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals. [emphasis mine]

This was first brought to everyone’s attention by a Twitter user whose pinned tweet includes “trans lesbian anarchist.” She thinks this is a good thing.

I agree with most of this because targeted harassment or dehumanizing slurs are not a good thing. However, banning references to what people were seems to go a little far.

Consequences of Such a Ban

The title of this article shows how such a ban erases history. A person named Bruce Jenner won the 1976 Olympic Decathlon. Later, that person decided to change names to Caitlyn. A historically accurate description would note Bruce won. The Olympic site includes this while Google has changed the winner to “Caitlyn.”

Along with this, a different individual who struggling with sexual identity issues pointed out a few other issues with this policy.

From the first time I heard the malapropism “deadnaming”, I’ve criticized it for promoting the idea that changing one’s name or pronouns is a form of death. It is’t. Changing your name introduces a new chapter; it doesn’t destroy the book. — Corinna “Stop Breaking the Web” Cohn (@corinna_cohn) November 24, 2018

I don’t think the “new chapter analogy” is the best but changing your name doesn’t mean the old self is dead.

Twitter is also taking a very specific ideological policy: it is a policy that even many trans individuals don’t agree on.

There is not a unified position in the trans community on “deadnaming”. For Twitter to add it to its prohibited speech restrictions, it means that Twitter has taken a specific, ideological stance and is choosing to ban a wide swath of speech. — Corinna “Stop Breaking the Web” Cohn (@corinna_cohn) November 24, 2018

Finally, this person notes the problems that people may have when they want to bring out an individual’s ugly past.

in practice, Twitter’s “deadnaming” policy will be a boon to anyone who wants to hide their past, particularly sex offenders and other violent offenders. This policy strips a victim’s ability to name their abuser. — Corinna “Stop Breaking the Web” Cohn (@corinna_cohn) November 24, 2018

Deadnaming as Newspeak

In George Orwell’s 1984, the ruling English Socialists (Ingsoc) of Oceania invent Newspeak to exert social and mental control over their populace. Newspeak at first sounds like English but it forbids using certain words so that people will avoid certain ideas. Banning deadnaming bans names instead of words like Newspeak. However, like Newspeak, there is a certain banning of thought. If you can’t deadname, it would seem difficult or impossible to debate topics around transgenderism like if a gender can really be changed.

In general, I think it is proper politeness to call someone the name they say is theirs but banning prior names creates other problems.

I’m against bullying and harassment but we should be able to do so without banning whole categories of speech. We should be able to have a respectful debate without such bans. Free speech is important for a just debate of ideas.