‘What is a Woman?’ documentary tweet goes viral after Musk retweet

LONDON: Elon Musk retweeted on Saturday the Daily Wire’s documentary on gender in the digital age, sparking a debate that saw the film gain over 110 million views and get retweeted at least 120,000 times.

The owner of Twitter wrote in his pinned tweet: “Every parent should watch this,” promoting “What is a Woman?”, which features American right-wing political commentator Matt Walsh.  

The move came a day after his platform was accused by users of stifling free speech for curtailing the film’s exposure on the basis of “misgendering.”

But Musk’s promotion of “What is a Woman?” was hailed by many Twitter users, including British broadcaster Piers Morgan, who replied with three claps.

Twitter user Silvia Penack said Musk’s backing for the film provided “two sides of the story” as opposed to “one-sided reporting.”

Another commentator shared a meme showing Musk standing up to a group of people who reject the documentary.

However, not everyone was pleased with Musk’s stance. Columnist Donna Miles said in response to the retweet: “People who want you to watch this so-called documentary clearly neither care about children’s safety nor women’s rights.”

Musk also promoted the film in his response to a tweet by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, in which the latter asked: “If aliens were to visit us right now, what’s one thing we’ve chosen to do as a society (that feels relatively simple or obvious) that would be super hard to explain?”

“What is a Woman?” was censored on Thursday by Twitter staff, but following accusations of “throttling free speech,” to which Musk did not respond, the film was allowed and retweeted by the platform’s owner, who said the initial rejection was “a mistake by many people at Twitter.”