Elon Musk's tweet on #WhatIsAWoman fans Twitter buzz. Here's all you need to know

On Twitter, a very peculiar hashtag is trending. As per an analysis, WION ran using Tweet binder, in the last seven days, the hashtag #WhatIsAWoman has already garnered around 166,361 tweets. But what is it about? About one year ago, conservative commentator Matt Walsh released a documentary film titled 'What is a Woman' on the Daily Wire. 

The film, which tackles gender and transgender issues, was initially only available for subscription-only streaming services. However, on June 2nd, the American conservative news website and media company posted the 1 hour 34 minutes long film for free viewing on Twitter.

Needless to say, the film and the hashtag #WhatIsAWoman have since then spread like wildfire. Here's everything you need to know.

What is a woman?

The controversial film, which criticises gender and transgender issues, follows its maker Matt Walsh as he travels across the United States and Africa, posing a seemingly simple question that left many individuals stumped: "What Is a Woman?"

The movie has garnered a lot of praise from conservatives. However, it has also faced criticism from many who deemed it "transphobic." 

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Walsh, as per Express UK, claims to have even received death threats following the film's release. He reportedly had to involve the police.

What is a Woman? and Twitter

As mentioned earlier, the movie was released around a year back. Now, coinciding with the beginning of Pride Month, 'What Is a Woman?' has been made available for free streaming on the Daily Wire's official Twitter account. This was originally posted for 24 hours but given the views, the outlet said: "We've decided to leave it up the rest of the weekend, so the sky's the limit!"

The movie has accumulated 102.4 million views, 297.8K likes, 112.8K retweets, and 18.6K quote tweets since it was posted. Additionally, around 82K people have bookmarked it.

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In a tweet posted hours after the movie was shared on Twitter, Walsh said: "Our film has been posted for a couple of hours. You cannot retweet it. It will not appear in anyone’s feed. It has been flagged as hate speech. It has been blacklisted from the trends list. It still has nearly 900 thousand views."

Walsh and the outlet, as per Express UK, assert that they were asked to edit certain scenes involving "misgendering" before the launch. They reportedly refused to comply with the request.

Elon Musk enters the chat

Supportive accounts on social media soon began accusing Twitter of stifling free speech. 

CEO Elon Musk has since joined the conversation. Reportedly, once he got wind of Twitter attempting to restrict the film's view as potential "hate speech" he declared the move a mistake. Since then, he has even retweeted the movie with the caption "Every parent should watch this."

(With inputs from agencies)

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