It’s not often the home entertainment release plans of documentaries generate much attention, but the one for The Daily Wire’s controversial film What Is A Woman? was the source of much conversation this week after the specifics of a deal with Twitter went public. The two sides allegedly agreed to a plan to make the film available for a twenty-four hour period on the social media site, but a battle over the content of the film resulted in it being labeled as hateful conduct. The war of words that followed eventually led all the way up to owner Elon Musk, as well as numerous executives from The Daily Wire.
The back-and-forth started yesterday morning when The Daily Wire Co-CEO Jeremy Boreing dropped a sixteen tweet thread saying Twitter agreed to platform What Is A Woman? for twenty-four hours on the first anniversary of its initial release. The conservative brand wanted to “expand” the viewerbase and generate conversation. Twitter allegedly agreed to the paid package and said it would host the movie and promote it to every user for the first ten hours, but after seeing the film, the social media service canceled the planned rollout over content concerns, specifically that the movie misgenders participants. It said it would label the documentary as “hateful conduct” and limit its reach if The Daily Wire posted it organically.
The Daily Wire did post the film organically, along with the sixteen tweet thread and numerous other comments from star Matt Walsh, talking head Ben Shapiro and more. Twitter quickly responded by putting the hateful label on it and adding a note that it was “limiting visibility.” Twitter’s owner Elon Musk, however, then jumped into the conversation and said limiting the movie’s reach was a “mistake” and it should be allowed on the platform without restrictions.
Hours later, however, the warnings were still on the movie, which led to another round of angry comments from those involved with The Daily Wire. Musk responded that the issue was being fixed. Then news broke that Twitter’s Head Of Trust And Safety Ella Irwin resigned. It’s unclear if her departure was directly related to this specific issue, and many online have been arguing about it. Eventually, the restrictions on the video were mostly taken off, and this morning, Musk quote tweeted the movie itself from his own profile.
What Is A Woman? explores questions of gender and transgender theory. Critics have called the movie transphobic and said it conspires to paint many of those it interviews and transgender people in a negative light. Supporters have argued there’s nothing illegal in the documentary and The Daily Wire and those involved should be allowed to talk about their perspectives on transgenderism.
Exactly what happened behind the scenes at Twitter yesterday is unclear. Different departments clearly reacted in a disjointed and uncoordinated way, and at this point, it’s unclear how Twitter might handle a similar situation in the future. Would they be willing to partner with another movie to release it free on the platform for a certain amount of time? If so, would they avoid films that are espousing certain viewpoints? We don’t know. But given all the attention this has attracted, it’s likely we may see additional movies, specifically those looking to advocate for a certain position, try to work out a deal with Twitter in the future.
