by Laurel Duggan Media Matters, a left-wing activist organization, is urging Twitter to censor the word “groomer,” which it characterizes as anti-LGBT. The term “groomer,” which describes an adult who befriends a child without proper boundaries in order to prime them for for sexual abuse, has been used by conservatives to criticize child drag events and lessons on sexuality and gender identity targeting young children. Media Matters argued that the word is being used to smear LGBT people as sexual predators and urged Twitter to crack down on the term. “This is one of the latest violent acts resulting from a right-wing smear campaign on social media that has driven nationwide harassment and violence against members of the LGBTQ community and their allies,” Media Matters researcher Mia Gingerich, who works in the organization’s LGBTQ Program, wrote in an article. “In the face of this targeted hate campaign, Twitter has failed to act to protect its users.” “The platform continues to allow content promoting the offensive and flagrantly false accusation that LGBTQ people are attempting to sexually exploit children — a conspiracy theory with deeply rooted anti-gay and anti-trans origins — to spread unchecked,” the article said. Reddit will now enforce their hate speech policy…
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