Twitter CEO Elon Musk said after releasing the “Twitter Files” document on Thursday that there is evidence that censorship is almost exclusively targeting right-leaning and conservative accounts.
Evidence provided to independent journalists Bari Weiss shows top officials who were behind the decision to build blacklists and filter content without users’ knowledge.
Weiss tweeted about “Twitter’s secret blacklists,” which it said employees created to work in tandem to “prevent unwanted tweets from trending and aggressively limit access to entire accounts and even trending topics.” Visibility.”
Efforts to silence voices “are all done in secret and without notification to users,” she explained.
Targets of the scrutiny include some prominent figures in conservative media.
1. A new #TwitterFiles The investigation revealed that teams of Twitter employees created blacklists to prevent unwanted tweets from becoming trending topics, and proactively limited the visibility of entire accounts and even trending topics — all in secret and without notification to users.
— Bariweiss (@bariweiss) December 9, 2022
Elon Musk: Shadow ban is almost exclusively used against the right
And these revelations have no Causing the left to take a second look, they’re still making excuses.
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left wing’internet detective,’ Ashley Feinberg dismisses explosive evidence and suggests Twitter employees are simply following public policy on ‘spammy behavior’.
This has been on Twitter’s help page since at least 2018 https://t.co/nCRHB3x5Vy pic.twitter.com/sxLxc2j6wD
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) December 9, 2022
Weiss’ report does suggest that Twitter executives have created a “policy escalation” group, which flags accounts for further scrutiny and places them under potential “spam enforcement.”
But the group was used as a means to circumvent the security team’s “inadequate enforcement of its policies”.
Tesla entrepreneur and co-founder David Sacks scoffed at the notion that Twitter’s shadow ban was merely an attempt to enforce a spam policy.
New narrative: They are not shadow ban political opponents. They are just enforcing a spam policy. https://t.co/mizB1ssxJ2
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) December 9, 2022
Musk responded to Sacks’ tweet by insisting that even if such a policy was the reason behind the shadow ban, enforcing it was targeting one type of account.
as [Weiss] Clearly describe,” he wrote, “that these rules are enforced against the right, not the left. “
as @Barry Weiss Clearly describe that the rules are enforced against the right, not the left
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022
In another tweet, Musk noted, “Some accounts on the right have been suspended even though Twitter has internally acknowledged that no rules were violated.”
That’s right, some accounts on the right were suspended even though Twitter internally admitted there was no violation of the rules
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022
inmates who run a shelter
The drop of the first two “Twitter files” documents now provides irrefutable proof that conservatives are under scrutiny on platforms and big tech companies deliberate censorship Hunter Biden’s laptop story guided by the DNC and President Joe Biden’s campaign.
As Musk puts it, “Prisoners are running the shelter.”
as @Barry Weiss Clearly describe that the rules are enforced against the right, not the left
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022
Conservative radio host Dan Bongino was specifically cited by Weiss as the account of a “search blacklist” dubbed a “Soviet-style bull***.”
‘SOVIET-STYLE BULLS–T’: On ‘Hannity,’ @dbongino Conservative shadow ban after bashing mainstream media for ignoring second batch of Twitter documents. pic.twitter.com/Rp7plRgIlR
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 9, 2022
According to a poll by the Pew Research Center, nearly a quarter of Americans Use Twitter as Last November, 69 percent of them said they read news stories on the Web.
Reported from @pewjournalism | News on Twitter: Used by Most Users and Trusted by Many https://t.co/QIqvsjN9vM pic.twitter.com/LnLCR2Zb9x
— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) November 22, 2021
The apparent bias revealed by the “Twitter dossier” suggests that suppressing true news stories that reflect poorly on the left and hindering conservative information sharing undoubtedly affected voter proportions in the past two elections.
Believe it or not, there could be more explosive evidence of Twitter suppressing speech in the coming days.
29. Our reporting has only just begun. Documents don’t tell the whole story. A big thank you to everyone we’ve spoken to so far. If you’re a current or former Twitter employee, we’d love to hear from you. Please write to: [email protected]
— Bariweiss (@bariweiss) December 9, 2022
Musk has vowed to implement a system that would provide more transparency for future shadow bans.
“Twitter is working on a software update that will show your real account status so you can clearly see if you’ve been banned, why and how to appeal it,” he wrote.
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