Elon Musk, Twitter, and Disability

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Elon Musk says he bought Twitter “because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.” But in November, shortly after his purchase of the company was finalized, he laid off Twitter’s accessibility team and thus brought to a halt the company’s plan to launch tools to make Twitter more usable for people with disabilities. In February, Twitter wiped out closed captions for iOS, and such captions don’t work for its Android or desktop versions.

Historically, Twitter has allowed nonspeaking autistic people who might otherwise be ignored to elevate their voices in dialogues. The platform’s (relatively) low barrier to entry had also helped many people with disabilities, who may not be able to participate in other forms of political organizing, to mobilize around political causes. See the #CripTheVote hashtag for an example. But under Musk, not only has Twitter granted a “general amnesty” to Twitter users who have engaged in racist, homophobic or transphobic rhetoric, but it has also made it more difficult for people with disabilities to engage in the same public square.

In a letter Friday to the Musk, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., correctly argues that eliminating the accessibility team “represents a dramatic and unwelcome shift, one that has already had devastating consequences for Twitter users with disabilities.” Markey asks Musk whether his platform complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and accessibility regulations under the Federal Communications Commission. Markey also asks Musk whether he will commit to change Twitter’s default setting so users are reminded to use alt-text to describe images, user-friendly closed-captioning, and audio-description tools for videos. All of those changes would make Twitter a much more accessible place.

But Musk has shown little interest in making Twitter more accessible. If anything, he likes to revel in digging into the muck of anti-disability rhetoric, even going back and forth with the right-wing extremist Libs of TikTok account to say a laid-off employee suffered from a “tragic case of adult onset Tourette’s.” With that comment, he elevated one of the worst stereotypes about the syndrome, the one that suggests everybody with Tourette’s engages in uncontrollable swearing, when the most common symptom is involuntary tics that can be incredibly painful.

Almost two years ago, when Musk said on “Saturday Night Live,” “I’m actually making history tonight as the first person with Asperger’s to host SNL,” plenty of people who use the hashtag #ActuallyAutistic let out a collective groan.

First, Musk’s announcement showed how little he has kept up. Over the last 10 years, naming specific permutations of autism has been replaced by the use of the umbrella term “Autism Spectrum Disorder.” Second, the term “Asperger’s Syndrome” specifically has fallen out of favor because of the collaboration of the man it is named for, Hans Asperger, with the Nazis during the regime’s occupation of Austria. Third, Dan Aykroyd, who not only has hosted “Saturday Night Live” but was also one of the most iconic original cast members, identifies as being autistic.

In response, though, autistic people were able to discuss on Twitter their thoughts about one of the world's most publicly visible executives being among us, and they could debate whether his announcement was or was not a step forward for autistic people. Furthermore, autistic people could interact with non-autistic people or non-autistic people could simply observe and read what autistic people had to say. This was public discourse at its best: productive, nuanced and, at times, incredibly funny.

Musk’s actions as the “Chief Twit” have distressed not just autistic people, but also people of all disabilities. For example, one of Markey’s concerns is that Twitter has begun charging a fee for third-party to access its application programming interface, which many worry will make it harder for accounts that create alt-text to survive.

I also have Asperger’s but I can manage it. It wasn’t diagnosed until the early Eighties when my wife persuaded me to see a doctor.

In 1992, AS became a standard diagnosis when it was included in the tenth edition of the World Health Organization's diagnostic manual, International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). It was added to the fourth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic reference, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), published in 1994.[10]

Asperger's wasn't officially recognised by psychiatry until 1992 and the US 1994. So no one was diagnosed with Asperger's before then.

Why people are gullible enough to keep believing in these silly claims of the self diagnosed i don't know.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome

While "Aspergers Syndrome" was very occasionally used in psychology journals before then it was not until 1981 that it received significant notice in the field when Lorna Wing published her paper proposing "Asperger Syndrome". The DSM is a guideline, not a mandate that if you don't follow you lose your license. So while it is theoretically possible Asperger's diagnosis was given out any claim of an Asperger's diagnosis when Adam Ant, Duran Duran, and Boy George were popular pin-up material ought to ring all sorts of alarm bells. Never mind Aspergers, Autism diagnosis was rare then.

As for why people are gullible when you are struggling it is comforting to think you have something in common with people that a lot of other people like. This goes on not only with self-diagnosed celebrities, but celebrities such as Bill Gates who have made no such claim, and historical figures who can't make any claim because they are dead.

The 80’s was a different world

Anyone younger born before the early 90’s would find it difficult to imagine.

No internet or mobile phones researching information was extremely difficult and literally meant visiting a library or driving / getting a plane to an information center of some kind like a university.

It’s highly unlikely any professional doctor or psychiatrist would go outside the framework of official diagnosis labels to use an obscure word last seen in Nazi Germany 40 years previously.

I understand the motivation behind imagining a celebrity sharing the struggles we face.

However in the long term it does more harm than good, most of these self diagnosed celebs probably have personality disorders, BAP or other neurotic problems rather than ASD, made worse by living in a bubble.

As a result they give false expectations to people and society that ends up depressing the autistic people that look up to them and whitewashes real disability which can be dangerous.

The article calls the twitter account Libs of TikTok a ‘right wing extremist’. Which seems a bizarre phrase to use about an account which reposts mostly anti child safeguarding and anti women’s rights self owns by misguided people. Anyone who thinks child safeguarding is ‘rightwing’ is pretty much claiming that the left wing are all child abusers. An implication which I take as a personal insult.

In the year since Chaya Raichik was unmasked as the operator of the hate-filled Libs of TikTok Twitter account, a primary vector of the right’s outrage, she’s doubled down on her attacks on the LGBTQ community, teachers, and medical professionals across the country.

In June she posted the location of a drag show in California that was then stormed by the Proud Boys. She also posted the locations of drag shows in Dallas, and in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, where 31 members of the Patriot Front were arrested before they could reach the show.

In August she tweeted over a dozen times about Boston Children’s Hospital and its gender-affirming care facilities, falsely claiming that they were providing gender-affirming hysterectomies to minors. As a result, doctors and nurses received death threats and the hospital received a bomb threat.

In the days and weeks after these threats were made, Raichik made false claims about numerous other hospitals, including Akron Children’s Hospital, the Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C, and at least half a dozen others. After Raichik tweeted about them, staff at those facilities were threatened and harassed.

And in November, hours after a man shot and killed 5 people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Raichik targeted a group that supports young drag performers and that was holding an event in Colorado.

Raichik has also targeted dozens of teachers who promote inclusion and diversity in their classrooms, many of whom have faced online harassment or have lost their jobs after being features on LibsOfTikTok.

The article calls the twitter account Libs of TikTok a ‘right wing extremist’. Which seems a bizarre phrase to use about an account which reposts mostly anti child safeguarding and anti women’s rights self owns by misguided people. Anyone who thinks child safeguarding is ‘rightwing’ is pretty much claiming that the left wing are all child abusers. An implication which I take as a personal insult.

What is Libs of TikTok?

Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) is the handle of a right-wing, anti-LGBTQ+ social media presence, most popular on Twitter. It often peddles misinformation and alt-right propaganda, fueling outrage about hot-button issues and events, like all-ages drag shows, gender-affirming care for trans youth, and more. These sometimes include outlandish and false claims, like posts about a second grade curriculum teaching children about furries or a conspiracy theory that schools had installed litter boxes for students identifying as cats. Often, the page reposts TikTok videos or social media posts from others, adding commentary to humiliate and draw negative attention to the user, whose name or handle is rarely censored.