A viral tweet highlighting Twitter's decision to allow users to report targeted misgendering and deadnaming has been praised by some and struck a chord with others accusing the site of attacking free speech.

On Saturday, Twitter user @trgrrl posted a screenshot of the social media company's terms of service, claiming that repeated misgendering or deadnaming was now a reportable offence on the site, which could lead to account suspension.

According to LGBTQ news site Pink News, the changes went largely unnoticed in late October, but only gained attention after the tweet went viral with users divided over the social media site's decision.

The term misgendering refers to addressing someone with a word that does not correctly reflect the gender for which they identify and is often used as a form of discrimination against transgender people.

Similarly, deadnaming means to repeatedly use the name given to an individual before they changed their sex or began identifying as a different gender.

Twitter's terms of services says the site doesn't allow targeting individuals with slurs or content that "intends to dehumanise, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category".

The company specifically notes "targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals" as an example of such actions.

Under such a policy, Twitter says it retains the right to take action against individuals who commit such practises, including asking the offender to remove the content, not allowing them to tweet, or permanent account suspension.