Io Dodds 🌔🏳️⚧️
@iododds
Followers
4,572
Following
3,210
Media
1,241
Statuses
19,839
Senior Reporter @Independent covering US news, tech, politics, & social change. Formerly @Telegraph . She/her. DMs open; on Signal; io.dodds @independent .co.uk
San Francisco
Joined May 2012
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
#LinglingNNGFirstMeet
• 680413 Tweets
LINGLING IRREPLACEABLE
• 675718 Tweets
SAROCHA REBECCA WITH CERAVE
• 574512 Tweets
نيوكاسل
• 348648 Tweets
Tiktok Awards x NuNew
• 230113 Tweets
Cardi B
• 183003 Tweets
#TikTokAwardsTH2024
• 169035 Tweets
BTS FAYE BD PARTY
• 74315 Tweets
#SB19onAtomBoyz2
• 69892 Tweets
SB19 ELITE MENTORS IN TAIWAN
• 67000 Tweets
Janey
• 53897 Tweets
Tories
• 36983 Tweets
Kemi Badenoch
• 27078 Tweets
Gordon
• 25967 Tweets
Conservative Party
• 25428 Tweets
Arteta
• 21701 Tweets
Trossard
• 17318 Tweets
ロッキン
• 16626 Tweets
AioonMay Heartbeat
• 15435 Tweets
Isak
• 13550 Tweets
Jenrick
• 12319 Tweets
Merino
• 11249 Tweets
#放課後カルテ
• 11052 Tweets
ブラタモリ
• 10548 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
✨MY YEAR IN REVIEW✨
2022 was my first full year as a self-employed reporter, and as an openly trans reporter. Here are some of my favourite stories I've written in that time.
(If you just found my profile and are wondering what my deal is, start here!)
12
2
38
I've always struggled with explicitly asking people to "please share" on social media. It makes me anxious that I'm being presumptuous or tacky.
But please share this story, because public attention may be all that stands between Ali and deportation.
15
5K
6K
NEW: A young Saudi Arabian trans woman is feared dead after posting a suicide note alleging that her family pressured her into returning from the US and forced her to detransition.
Her name was Eden Knight, and she had just celebrated her 23rd birthday.
26
338
1K
@acechhh
Hello! I'm sorry to read this, and sincerely hope your sister is okay. I'm a reporter investigating chiropractic-linked strokes for
@Independent
. I'd be interested in interviewing you or her, if willing (can be anonymous). My DMs are open / email in bio. Best of luck either way
6
6
899
UK trans folks: with GIC waiting times now up to 6 yrs for a first appointment, is it fair to describe the situation as a soft ban on transition healthcare through the NHS?
I'm not super plugged in to trans life in the UK and I want to make sure I'm not missing something
53
83
707
NEW: For 18 months, I've watched QAnon & other extremist communities I monitor go increasingly bonkers over transgender rights.
Now, as attacks on LGBT+ people skyrocket in America, here is the story of how panic about trans people consumed the far right.
8
256
665
SCOOP: the UK Home Office has asked police in England and Wales to identify trans crime victims by their birth sex in official statistics.
The guidance is voluntary for now, but if implemented would likely mean systematic misgendering of trans victims.
24
150
475
NEW from me: For two months the Tories have been harvesting sensitive data from British voters with an innocuous-looking survey that experts described as "misleading" and potentially illegal.
When I contacted the party, they quietly took the survey down.
19
521
471
Community Notes about trans politics are getting quite weird and partisan, aren't they?
Whether you agree or disagree with
@notCursedE
's clearly labelled opinion piece, a layperson having the temerity to criticise a doctor is hardly a fact-checking matter.
11
47
389
NEW FROM ME:
It's 2020. The world is ending. Your life is falling apart. And a little inner voice says: but what if you're trans?
On the last day of Pride, I'm thrilled to present my longread on the mass egg-cracking event that was the Covid-19 pandemic.
4
102
367
Ali Muthyib is an openly queer and non-binary person from Saudi Arabia, who fled to the UK seeking asylum in January 2023.
They're also a social media influencer with a sizeable Arabic following – which they say makes it all but impossible to live in the closet.
1
51
377
I don't want to excite/alarm anyone, but that Yougov model which saw a hung parliament has actually been underestimating Labour so far...
10
206
323
And so football would wander the world for another age, moving restlessly from place to place, hoping each time that its next leap would be the leap home.
5
121
324
Strutt and Parker also says you "could" save £2,640 a year by not getting any takeaways. That's £50 a week. I love a takeaway, but how many of us spend £50 a week on them (especially when ordering with friends or partners)?
9
44
306
Back in Saudi Arabia, Ali says they were stopped on the road by police who recognised them from TikTok.
The officers detained them, laughed at them, interrogated them, & threatened prosecution.
"Ah, you're the one who dances on TikTok!" the cops said. "Can you dance for us?"
1
28
316
In another incident, Ali (who uses all pronouns) says that a cop called to aid after a homophobic assault instead mocked her & shared photos of her bloody face on Snapchat.
Then he handcuffed her to a hospital bed & left her there with no partition, so other patients could gawk.
2
29
273
Saudi Arabia doesn't have specific laws against LGBT+ folks (yet). But experts tell me it routinely finds ways to jail them for "indecency", "cybercrime", even "extremism".
Last year
@PatrickStrud
detailed the Kingdom's extensive queer-hunting apparatus
1
46
255
Yesterday I fought back tears as I tried and failed again and again to gather my thoughts on what Lynn Conway, who died at the age of 86 this week, meant to the world, to trans people, and to me.
Let me try now one more time, here in this thread.
"I think a lot of [trans folk] are living more interesting, more fun lives than most. It's our secret," Conway told me last May.
"We are highly empowered, in ways that people may not understand, because of the joyfulness we feel."
RIP, Lynn. 😭
1
17
94
2
61
249
This is a brilliant, bizarre thread about a rogue BBC subcommittee in 1926 trying to reinvent the English language
Today we speak of "BBC English" as a standard form of the language, but this form had to be invented by a small team in the 1920s & 30s. 1/
116
2K
4K
7
241
243
@PatrickStrud
Understandably, Ali decided to get out while they still could.
But last month, they found out their asylum claim had been rejected by
@ukhomeoffice
. A charity worker told Ali that officials weren't convinced she is really LGBT+.
(The Home Office declined to comment.)
1
32
238
TRANS FOLK: Did the pandemic crack your egg? Did you start transitioning under lockdown, or come out in the Covid era?
If the answer to any of those is “yes” (or even “kind of”), then I want to interview you for
@Independent
!
Fill our my survey here:
10
91
215
Peak America: the BBC reports that people chanted "USA! USA!" as a nationless celestial object crossed another nationless celestial object
5
85
213
"What is so illuminating about the Musk messages is just how unimpressive, unimaginative, and sycophantic the powerful men in Musk’s contacts appear to be."
5
52
209
@PatrickStrud
@ukhomeoffice
Not long after, Ali was moved from a mixed gender asylum seekers' dorm in London to a more prison-like facility in Luton, with mostly male residents.
They say they were lied to about where they were going, and given so little warning that they left behind many belongings.
1
27
217
For now, here is a beautiful tribute to Eden by Bailee Daws, a close friend who hosted Eden at her home in Georgia for five months last year when she needed a place to go.
Please take care of yourselves out there, and each other. 🖤
3
28
197
@PatrickStrud
@ukhomeoffice
Right now, the thing Ali needs most is a lawyer. But many asylum seekers' charities are overloaded and cannot take on new clients.
The bigger point is that none of what is happening to Ali is remotely unusual within the British asylum system.
1
34
211
No! Stop this. Making Twitter more civil is not worth destroying the ability of powerless people to speak anonymously or pseudonymously without reprisals!
This would be a good idea for
@Twitter
in 2019. Nobody can come on here without at least a photo of themselves
222
19
158
13
43
202
BREAKING: TikTok says it will stop reading iPhone users' clipboards after an OS update exposed its constant snooping – along with MANY other apps doing the same.
Problem: TikTok already promised me in March it would stop within weeks 🤔 (cc
@Techmeme
)
6
120
203
EXCLUSIVE: China has been flooding Facebook and Instagram with undisclosed political adverts valorising its coronavirus response and attacking Donald Trump.
Many were able to sidestep Facebook’s strict controls, obscuring their cost + who they targeted.
19
156
187
@PatrickStrud
@ukhomeoffice
(Later, they were told that they'd been evicted from the hotel due to complaints about them playing music in their room. They acknowledge receiving the first two complaints, but say they were never told that a third one could lead to eviction.)
1
21
197
The cost of a happy marriage is increasing with alarming speed
1
100
186
@PatrickStrud
@ukhomeoffice
The UK routinely keeps asylum seekers in potentially unlimited detention under demeaning conditions.
Self-harm and suicide are common, as are reports of violence & abuse (both between detainees & by staff).
1
50
187
As is so often true with UK trans healthcare, Cass's headline concerns are inevitable consequences of the extreme waiting lists that trans people face and the extreme lack of resources available.
Yet somehow the idea of increasing funding never enters the national conversation.
NEW: A damning letter from Dr Hilary Cass to NHS England bosses, detailing serious concerns about adult gender clinics has been published. NHSE haven't drawn attention to it, instead releasing an update on implementation of Cass’s recommendations for children’s gender services.🧵
63
1K
3K
16
25
171
@PatrickStrud
@ukhomeoffice
I only heard of Ali's case because I'd previously interviewed her for another story. What she's suffering isn't unique; it's routine.
Something to ponder for
@YvetteCooperMP
&
@AnnelieseDodds
(no relation), should they happen to end up in government.
1
27
169
Couple things to add:
1) Ali is currently appealing the Home Office's decision, and so /for now/ there are no deportation proceedings under way.
(As I mentioned, they are still looking for a lawyer to represent them)
1
25
169
@PatrickStrud
@ukhomeoffice
In a dark echo of Ali's experience in Saudi Arabia, one report even found that some UK asylum sites had a policy of "handcuffing vulnerable women" to their beds during visits to external hospitals – which the report condemned as "excessive and demeaning"
1
29
167
2) Ali has been in all-male accomms before, and had bad experiences.
After that, she was moved for safety reasons to a hotel for women and married couples seeking asylum.
On the last move, she says hotel staff falsely told her she was going to a similar 'family' facility.
1
20
164
Ali was moved on May 27. Within 48 hours, she says some residents had recognised her from social media and called her Arabic slurs (akin to "faggot").
"I'm really afraid, because they want me to be a person I don't like. They're pushing me to be a straight person," she told me.
1
22
162
"This is a signal to trans victims of crime that they will be misgendered if they seek support,"
@Chican3ry
told me.
She fears it'll have a "chilling effect" on trans people reporting crime, which surveys & trans community anecdote suggest they are already less likely to do.
2
28
150
As I said, Ali is appealing the decision , but they currently have no legal representation and often struggle with written English.
Hence, my fear is that their appeal could also denied through no fault of their own — unless public attention shifts the dynamic of their case.
1
21
146
Wow. I've watched this clip, and Musk outright says what many trans people suspected: that his daughter's transition was the trigger for his right-wing turn.
Please understand how often this happens. Trans folk have seen it in loved ones, again & again.
Elon Musk just deadnamed his own trans daughter to hundreds of millions.
He is exactly the kind of father so many trans people have had to run away from, hide from, stay closeted because of.
He should be ashamed if he were human enough to feel shame.
1K
7K
53K
1
37
146
Eden's suicide node did not just accuse her family. It accused two named Americans and a Saudi lawyer in Washington DC of acting as "fixers" for her parents, as part of an alleged plot to coax and pressure her back to Saudi Arabia.
2
7
127
Boris is using it. Farage is using it. Macron used it. Even the People’s Vote used it. But should you be worried about it?
I took a deep dive into NationBuilder, a powerful data-gathering & voter management system which has won elections across the world
7
95
136
✨NEW:✨ This Pride Month, I've written a lot about chilling threats to LGBT+ people.
But today? Today I get to tell you the beautiful, absurd story of how two trans women set up a secret surgical clinic in an old barn in the rural US. Hope you enjoy it.
6
55
129
EXCLUSIVE:
Remember last week when I profiled NationBuilder, the election software used by both Boris Johnson and Donald Trump?
Well, it turns out NB has been buying voters' data from a company accused by Facebook of vioolating its users' privacy.
8
146
137
On Monday morning, Eden posted a final message on Twitter saying she had killed herself after being denied access to her hormone medication.
Her spirit had been "broken", she said, by her conservative parents' attempt to make her "repent" and live as a man.
1
4
122
For legal reasons, the
@Independent
is not publishing those people's names while I work to gather more evidence and verify these claims. Hopefully we can say more soon.
Until then, I've been advised not to link to any material that names them.
1
4
114
The new policy says police should record the sex of victims + suspects based on birth certificates or gender recognition certificates (GRCs).
GRCs are onerous to get, and in 2018 only 4,910 people had done so. Even if that's doubled now, it's a TINY fraction of all UK trans folk
2
7
122
NEW: Facebook will send "hundreds" of employees out into public spaces recording everything they see in order to research privacy risks of AR glasses.
AR/VR boss Andrew "Boz" Bosworth says all faces & licence plates will be blurred, & wearers will get special training + clothes
30
65
120
Eden's friends told me that she was "terrified" of going back to the KSA and had hoped to claim asylum in the US.
She'd made a lot of friends here while studying computer science in at George Mason University in Washington DC, and earned a sizeable following on trans Twitter.
1
4
114
On Tuesday, a Saudi Arabian family that appears to Eden's announced on multiple social media accounts that a "young man" matching Eden's deadname had died, without giving the cause.
For now, that is the closest thing we have to confirmation that she is dead.
1
4
107
"Challenge fucking accepted!" Behold my interview from the campaign trail with
@AndrewYang
, the Democratic presidential candidate who wants to stave off the anti-robot uprising by giving every adult American citizen $1,000 a month via
@TelegraphTech
8
33
103
That includes Eden's note, her friends' evidence file, and a good summary by
@ErinInTheMorn
, who deserves credit as the first journalist to report on this.
If you have any evidence about Eden's fate, please get in touch. DMs open, email in bio, Signal details on request
3
2
101
As soon as her note dropped, Eden's friends raced to compile a dossier of evidence on her case, and my article is indebted to that effort.
But if you've been following this story, you might notice that I haven't linked to the dossier or Eden's note. There is a reason for this.
1
3
99
🎵doo, be doo, be doo, be doo 🎶
Deference is a preference for the deeply bizarre online subculture of what is known as a
TRAD WIFE
An intense psychosexual cocktail of anomie and fascist politics appears to be what motivates a
TRAD WIFE
We'll introduce you to a
#tradwife
, a young woman who has chosen to be a traditional wife, staying at home to take care of the household chores while her husband works, and she is fine with submitting to her husband as he makes the key decisions in their lives.
2K
61
273
7
40
111
Very pleased to have
@marinamaral2
in today's Telegraph writing about restoring colour to old photographs – her work makes the past real in a way I've never seen before. See before and after pics within!
2
32
104
Updated YouGov/reality comparison. Labour are outperforming their most optimistic prediction in 11/15 seats declared so far
3
91
103
"Preventing misinformation is a matter of life and death."
My interview with
@krmaher
about how Wikipedia is fighting the coronavirus "infodemic" – and why its leaderless army of sometimes eccentric volunteers can tackle fake news better than Big Tech.
4
64
106
Find someone who looks at you the way the world's financial and media institutions apparently look at George Osborne
0
58
104
NEW from me: A cache of leaked Labour documents lays bare the scale and sophistication of the fearsome data targeting apparatus with which the party will fight the next election – and privacy experts believe some its activities may be illegal.
22
83
96
Criminologist and govt data expert
@JohnnyHistone
described it as "a tool to bully gender non-conforming people and bully transgender people", saying:
"Any practical implementation of this would be extremely cruel, both to victims of crime and people that have committed crimes."
3
15
97
Somewhere in BBC HQ, a woman in a hi-vis jacket sighs and resets the "x days since a Jeremy Clarkson incident" sign to zero.
1
117
94
“Unfortunately, I am just a lawyer," says Michael Avenatti. "Michael Cohen evidently is a lawyer, a real estate agent, an accountant, a doctor, a business consultant and a venture capitalist. Who knew that Michael Cohen would be exposed as the Leonardo da Vinci of our time?”
2
24
90
Exclusive: At least three visibly trans or queer people say they've been attacked or harassed in public by strangers calling them "groomer".
It's a sign that Republicans' embrace of that word is already inspiring violence – and experts fear worse is ahead
8
43
86
"I think a lot of [trans folk] are living more interesting, more fun lives than most. It's our secret," Conway told me last May.
"We are highly empowered, in ways that people may not understand, because of the joyfulness we feel."
RIP, Lynn. 😭
1
17
94
They also said it would be a "nightmare" for police to actually collect this data – how many of us even have access to our birth certs?
It's hard to imagine cops asking /everyone/ for these docs, so more likely they'll take people's word for it unless they are or seem trans.
4
8
88
In theory, it tells cops to log gender identity separately if different from birth sex. But it's unclear how reliably they'd do so, & these stats currently are sliced by sex.
Unless that changes, trans women who are attacked or sexually assaulted would count as 'male' in stats.
3
7
83
I spoke to Ashley just two weeks ago – a hugely passionate advocate against police violence who was travelling the States to film a documentary.
I can’t verify the “false” here, but she is now in jail charged with assisting a criminal act and, for reasons unknown, denied bail.
1
44
73
The results are in... but it can't be... it's phenomenal! It's...
0
18
85
Wait, what the fuck? I skipped over this part but supposedly the White House (via Bannon) has been in communication w/ Mencius Moldbug (!?)
5
88
75
So, yes, some personal news: I will be moving to California later this year to work at the
@Telegraph
's new Silicon Valley bureau, covering all the weird and wonderful things the new masters of the universe get up to!
Our new Silicon Valley bureau will be headed up by
@jamestitcomb
with
@MargiMurphy
and
@LFDodds
as reporters
2
3
14
23
0
79
I am about to do something terrible, which I have hitherto attempted unsuccessfull to resist. Please forgive me.
5
22
77
📣 Some ACTUAL personal news:
I am leaving the Telegraph. After eight years, three job titles, two countries, many amazing colleagues, & some truly bonkers stories, it's time for something new.
I'll be available for staff or freelance work from Oct 31, and am open to anything!
11
4
79
The new guidance was first revealed in an FOI request by Keep Prisons Single Sex, a pressure group that wants trans women out of women's prisons.
A govt spokesperson confirmed it to me, saying it will "bring greater accuracy and consistency to recording"
1
3
73
Why are Silicon Valley companies so socially irresponsible even though they are staffed by idealists?
One rarely discussed reason might be their massive stock compensation packages, which incentivise employees to work against their leaders' promises.
2
30
74
I put a map of Ukip support next to
@RazAkkoc
's map of immigration in UK. Here's the result:
http://t.co/VG9mD41mBG
http://t.co/9b6AsDMsie
8
131
69
Users of the Matt Hancock app are touchingly supportive of the UK's new Health Secretary
1
11
70
I’m at
@Official_GDC
watching Rachel Kowert and Alex Newhouse’s talk on the state of far right extremism in videogames - including in kids’ games like Roblox and Minecraft
3
22
65
"I’m extremely worried [this] is going to lead to LGBTQ people getting murdered," said
@AriDrennen
in June about the rising far right obsession with trans people.
2
25
63
Genuine question: how can it be that, simultaneously:
A) there is a widespread opinion that people like Jordan Peterson are being suppressed and driven out of public life
B) I keeping reading about them in the mainstream press INCESSANTLY?
4
19
62
All year, trans people have been warning that Republicans' increasingly feverish and paranoid rhetoric about "groomers" and drag shows could trigger an act of mass violence.
In an LGBT+ nightclub in Colorado on Saturday night, we saw one.
2
26
63
The Home Office said it will be up to police forces how they determine what is on someone's birth certificate or GRC. So who knows?
Here's the full statement from the HO (NB: I am not treating the "background" part as off record because I did not agree to speak off record)
2
4
62
you, an idiot: WeWork is overvalued because it’s just real estate arbitrage with an iPad
me, a wise business journalist: WeWork is correctly valued because they give you free hash browns on National Potato Day
4
8
66
@jessbrammar
Ah come on: apart from racism, workplace bullying, suicide, media bias, the legacy of colonialism, the Commonwealth, alleged institutional betrayal, group silencing/scapegoating dynamics, royal omerta, & fundamental transformations of the monarchy's role, what's there to discuss?
2
5
64
Second Life is back, baby. It's good again. AWOOUU
I interviewed
@ebbealtberg
of
@lindenlab
– inside Second Life! – about why this seminal if wildly eccentric virtual world is enjoying a quarantine renaissance... and why, in fact, it never went away.
7
32
61
(FYI my notifications are overloaded and I have Twitter's 'qualify filter' switched on. If you have info I should know, best contact me another way!)
1
2
57
@LouisStaples
Bromley. No inner London area can match the sheer heterosexual power of outer London suburbia. Besides, most inner London straightness is still kinda camp, like they're doing it for a kink
4
1
61
@jeremyburge
Hello Jeremy! So I actually investigated this in March and found out why it's happening, for TikTok and other apps (TLDR: it's a weird and widespread SDK behaviour).
At the time, TikTok told me it would stop within a few weeks... 🤔
1
20
62
Cops mistake Afro comb for gun, then spend four months trying to prove the comb itself is an "offensive weapon"
http://t.co/gd0BGYMutr
3
141
57
NEW: Crypto-art was meant to give artists control of their art and stop fraud. For many, though, it has only created new ways to get ripped off.
Join me as I uncover scams, fakes, crypto-thefts & alleged copyright breaches involving... the Wu-Tang Clan?
3
29
60
I said it when I came out and I'll say it again: "Being trans is not a curse or tragedy, nor transition a regrettable last option."
1
8
60
Today has been my last day at
@TeleComment
. I have enjoyed it immensely – from brainstorming cartoon ideas to furious late-night legal rewrites to surreal debates about the precise significance of a comma – and am very grateful to all those who mentored me since joining in 2015.
6
0
61
"We haven't looked at known, evidence-based treatments... [such as] medications for anxiety and depression, that may be just as effective or more effective than puberty blockers."
Wow, I wonder if any trans people have ever tried to manage dysphoria with SSRIs? Crazy thought!
Dr Hilary Cass says the issue of puberty blockers has become "almost totemic".
"It has stopped us looking at other ways of managing young people's distress..."
214
126
433
4
4
59
If you tell doctors to treat us as cis men or women, they'll get things wrong. If you tell them to treat us as our birth sex, they'll get different things wrong.
The idea this can be fixed by just changing a form or database, without better training and research, is a fantasy🤷🏻♀️
1
10
60
Pleased to announce that regardless of my gender my attempts at byline photos still trend inexorably towards the opinion writer monkey
2
2
60
@TelegraphTech
PS: One might reasonably suspect the hand of Dominic Cummings here. He used a similar tactic during the EU referendum, gathering voter data via a football sweepstake without clear Vote Leave branding, which eventually contributed to a £40k fine... 🤷♂️
3
44
56
How a US Army helicopter pilot stopped the My Lai massacre, 50 years ago today. Incredible I'd never heard of this guy!
1
32
58
Stochastic terrorism = dehumanising rhetoric against a marginalised group that makes attacks on them more probable. Some do this deliberately, some recklessly.
Caraballo argues "groomer" functions to suppress empathy for LGBTQ people, laying "a path towards genocidal conduct"
2
13
54