Twitter has prohibited misgendering and deadnaming trans users in an effort to curb harassment and hate speech on its service. In its new Terms of Service, Twitter now states that the microblogging platform “[prohibits] targeting individuals with repeated slurs, tropes or other content that intends to dehumanize, degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category.”

Twitter hinted at implementing these new guidelines for its more than 330 million users back in September. The website announced it would ban “content that dehumanizes others based on their membership in an identifiable group,” including members of the LGBTQ community.

However, the specifics of that policy have been met with expected criticism by right-wing activists on Twitter.

“It is now a violation of Twitter rule to misgender a trans individual or say “there are only *** genders,” claimed alt-right Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec in a Nov. 24 tweet, adding: “Remember when Conservatives laughed at people getting censored?”

Posobiec, who commands almost 400,000 followers, also predicted these policies would create a slippery slope to other kinds of “censorship.” “Next will be climate change denying,” he argued.

Reaction, though, was largely positive — especially among trans activists who have been fighting for these guidelines for years.

Twitter’s new Terms of Service went viral just hours after Facebook ignited national controversy over its contentious relationship to content moderation. Read more via INTO