Twitter has prohibited misgendering and deadnaming on its platform in an effort to curtail anti-trans abuse.

The social media company has changed its rules to ban the practices and has warned that any user who deliberately targets a trans person in these ways may face permanent suspension.

These offensive techniques—which involve using the wrong gender to refer to a trans person or a trans person’s old name—are often used on Twitter to insult and erase trans people’s identities and right to exist.

In Twitter’s updated terms of service, the company states: “We prohibit targeting individuals with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanise, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category.

“This includes targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”

The move, which was made in late October but only broadly noticed on the platform on Friday (November 23), also involved adding a section in which Twitter acknowledges that LGBT+ people suffer abuse online more than most.

“We recognise that if people experience abuse on Twitter, it can jeopardise their ability to express themselves,” the paragraph begins. Read more via PinkNews