Teen Vogue Contributor Permanently Suspended From Twitter Over Tweet Directed at TERFs [Updated]
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Danielle Corcione—a freelance journalist who writes for Teen Vogue, ReWire, and other outlets—had their Twitter account permanently suspended on Thursday after the writer posted a tweet about TERFs. (Corcione uses they/them pronouns.) Emails, which Corcione provided to Jezebel, show that Twitter suspended Corcione for “violating rules against posting violent threats.”
The tweet in question, which can be seen in screenshots circulating on Twitter reads:
“If any TERFs like or retweet this, I’m shoving my foot up your ass.”
According to the emails Twitter sent Corcione, the above hyperbole amounts to a specific threat of violence against a group of people. But that singular tweet leaves out the crucial context: Corcione was preparing to handle a potential barrage of hate speech from individuals ready to mock trans people—ironically, perhaps without repercussions from Twitter. Twitter’s decision to permanently suspend Corcione’s account raises a bigger question about what kind of speech is protected on social media platforms, and which groups of people are considered worthy of protection from threats.
TERFs—trans-exclusionary radical feminists who do not believe that the rights of trans people should be included in discussions of women’s rights—seem to qualify as one such protected group, per Twitter’s policies. This protection mirrors growing insistence from conservative circles that “TERF” is a slur—a talking point that is creeping into mainstream discourse. Last year, the Guardian ran an opinion column in which the author refers to TERF as a “as a bullying tool” that has “already succeeded in repressing speech.” Last week, in the guidelines for an essay series on trans issues, The Economist referred to “TERF” as a slur “which may have started as a descriptive term but is now used to try to silence a vast swathe of opinions on trans issues.” (The series includes an essay warning that trans rights should not be won at the expense of women’s “fragile gains.”)
Speaking over the phone, Corcione told Jezebel on Friday that the tweet that got them suspended was not an out-of-the-blue threat, but a response to an earlier tweet that was meant as a joke. “The original tweet was actually kind of funny,” Corcione said. “It was part of a meme. I [tweeted]: ‘My pronouns are Yee-haw.’” (The tweet, which Jezebel verified, is no longer accessible because Corcione’s account is suspended.)
Corcione said when they saw the number of retweets on the first tweet, they figured it would go viral, and thought: “I don’t want any fucking TERFs. You know, I didn’t want them to mock trans people because it’s a meme that was obviously created by a trans person just to be goofy.”
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