‘Not safe for trans people’: Munroe Bergdorf deletes Twitter amid ‘daily abuse’

The campaigner and activist, who lives in London, announced her departure from the social media app on Friday, where she shared a statement on Instagram about the alleged abuse she’s experienced on a “daily basis”.

“I’ve deleted my @Twitter account,” she wrote.

“No one should have to endure even a fraction of the abuse that I am exposed to and have to put up with on a daily basis.”

In her statement, Ms Bergdorf asked when social media companies will ‘clamp down’ on transphobia on social media apps.

“If you can design algorithms to identify Covid-19 vaccine misinformation then you can combat transphobia. It’s clearly a matter of won’t, rather than can’t.”

She concluded: “Tired of being a punching bag. Twitter is not a safe app for transgender people.”

Many took to Ms Bergdorf’s Instagram to share messages of support.

Singer Zara Larsson wrote: “Just know for every one person abusing you online, you got AT LEAST a 100 backing you up, loving you!”

Model Leomie Anderson added: “Sorry you have to go through this for literally doing nothing babe.”

Twitter’s hateful conduct policy states users must not “not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”

However, many from the LGBTQIA+ community have expressed their frustration at the levels of abuse they have faced on the app.

Paris Lees, a journalist and author, supported Ms Bergdorf’s statements.

She said: “This app’s not safe for trans people. Bullying is permitted. Sick of Twitter telling me no rules have been broken when I report daily abuse that ranges from rude to libellous. Young trans people are highly vulnerable and bullied here every day.”

In 2019, a study from anti-bullying charity Ditch The Label and its analytics partner Brandwatch analysed 10 million posts on the topic of transgender identity, shared from the UK and the US over a period of three-and-a-half years and found more than 1.5 million of them were anti-trans.

Other common transphobic themes found on online posts included misgendering people, which means to purposefully label somebody as a gender that they do not identify as.

Evening Standard has approached Twitter and Munroe Bergdorf for comment.