Yesterday, J. K. Rowling wrote on Twitter about the use of the term “cis,” short for “cisgender”: “‘Cis’ is ideological language, signifying belief in the unfalsifiable concept of gender identity. You have a perfect right to believe in unprovable essences that may or may not match the sexed body, but the rest of us have a right to disagree, and to refuse to adopt your jargon.”

Her intervention came after Elon Musk’s tweet saying that “repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions. The words ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ are considered slurs on this platform.”

Twitter’s “hateful conduct” policy page doesn’t ban specific words but prohibits “targeting others with repeated slurs . . . that intends to degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category.”

In Rowling’s case, the accusation that she is “cis” — as opposed to female — is supposed to reinforce the idea that her opinion is inferior to someone who identifies as trans.