Sydney transwoman soccer player ‘misgendered’: warning from e-Safety cyber watchdog
Australia’s cyber security watchdog has warned an overseas magazine over naming a transwoman player in Sydney. But its editor mocked the edict, saying ‘What are they going to do, throw a boomerang at me? I’m in Canada.’
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Australia’s cyber security watchdog has served a notice to an overseas “pro-woman” magazine to remove a story that named a transwoman playing soccer in Sydney, and has also approached Twitter to remove links to the article.
The national eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant served a notice to Reduxx independent website advising them to “heavily censor or delete” an article they published which revealed the identity of a transgender woman, following allegations of injuries to female players and “unfair” competition.
“In addition to demanding we remove or censor the article, the eSafety Commissioner advised Twitter we had broken Australian law,” the Canadian-based Reduxx editor Anna Slatz told readers.
“Twitter then informed us the content would be withheld in Australia.
“After a comprehensive analysis of the compelling arguments presented by the eSafety Commissioner, including that it was ‘offensive’ to have called (the player) a ‘man’, Reduxx has decided to leave the article up without alteration.”
The Canadian editor mocked the edict, saying “What are they going to do, throw a boomerang at me? I am in Canada.”
The Sydney-based transgender soccer player is currently sitting on top of the league table for most goals scored, 10, along with another player, in this season’s FNSW League One Women’s First Grade.
Another small overseas website, Ovarit also received a warning on April 26 from the Australian eSafety Commissioner, claiming comments made underneath one of their stories about the soccer player “degraded and targeted” her on the basis of gender identity.
“Ovarit users have repeatedly misgendered (the player) referring to her using he/him pronouns,” the Cyber Abuse Team at the eSafety Commissioner office warning letter stated.
Asked what Australian laws were broken, the office of the eSafety commissioner said it would not comment on specific cases but issued a statement:
“Importantly, when assessing whether content constitutes adult cyber abuse, context does matter and content that might not be seen as harmful by one group, may cause great trauma to another especially if it targets someone’s sexuality, ethnicity, disability, or even gender identity.
“If material is deemed to have reached this threshold, eSafety favours an informal request for removal to the site or platform on which the material appears in the first instance.”
Twitter has now restricted the Reduxx article for Australians, claiming it “violates the laws of Australia.”
Kirralie Smith the founder of Binary Australia, which advocates that “sex is binary” and promotes what it claims as male and female “biological truth”, was served an AVO in early April by NSW Police for posting publicly available information about the soccer player online.
She said she was determined to fight the matter in court.
“I am 51, with a busted knee and have never been violent in my life,” Ms Smith said.
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