Dump of Twitter Files confirms platform was targeting conservatives, which led to Trump ban
By jdheyes // 2022-12-15
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The latest dump of the so-called "Twitter Files" provides definitive proof of what most conservatives had suspected of the platform: That, under the old leadership, right-leaning organizations, media companies, and users were not only censored, many were suspended just because of their views. That includes the then-president of the United States, Donald Trump. The newly-released files showed that “Twitter activist employees, without basis, suppressed and censored the President of the United States, @realDonaldTrump in the days before the 2020 election,” wrote Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton. “This is damning evidence of election interference.” “Unequivocally true,” Musk responded. “The evidence is clear and voluminous.” In addition, according to the file dump from journalist Matt Taibbi, Twitter worked hand-in-glove with federal agencies like the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to censor and ban Twitter users -- like the platform was nothing more than 'state media' like you find in dictatorships. "The world knows much of the story of what happened between riots at the Capitol on January 6th, and the removal of President Donald Trump from Twitter on January 8th," Taibbi began his thread. "We’ll show you what hasn’t been revealed: the erosion of standards within the company in months before J6, decisions by high-ranking executives to violate their own policies, and more, against the backdrop of ongoing, documented interaction with federal agencies." While the "bulk of the internal debate leading to Trump’s ban took place" in the days immediately following the Jan. 6 false flag attack on the U.S. Capitol Building, "the intellectual framework was laid in the months preceding the Capitol riots," Taibbi wrote. "Before J6, Twitter was a unique mix of automated, rules-based enforcement, and more subjective moderation by senior executives. As reported, the firm had a vast array of tools for manipulating visibility, most all of which were thrown at Trump (and others) pre-J6," he added. But, as the 2020 election approached, "senior executives – perhaps under pressure from federal agencies, with whom they met more as time progressed – increasingly struggled with rules, and began to speak of 'vios' as pretexts to do what they’d likely have done anyway." "After J6, internal Slacks show Twitter executives getting a kick out of intensified relationships with federal agencies," he wrote, noting that Twitter senior executives appeared to favor and maybe even push for a more authoritarian approach to conservatives on the platform, eager to please their new federal masters. " There was at least some tension between Safety Operations – a larger department whose staffers used a more rules-based process for addressing issues like porn, scams, and threats – and a smaller, more powerful cadre of senior policy execs," Taibbi noted. "The latter group were a high-speed Supreme Court of moderation, issuing content rulings on the fly, often in minutes and based on guesses, gut calls, even Google searches, even in cases involving the President." In a subsequent Twitter Files dump, journalist Michael Shellenberger revealed that there was a lot of pressure on Twitter executives to ban Trump, including from former first lady Michelle Obama. “After the events of Jan 6, the internal and external pressure on Twitter CEO @jack grows. Former First Lady @michelleobama, tech journalist @karaswisher, @ADL, high-tech VC @ChrisSacca, and many others, publicly call on Twitter to permanently ban Trump," he wrote, as reported by Conservative Brief. On January 7, Obama issued a long statement regarding her thoughts on what Silicon Valley should do. “Now is the time for those who voted for this president to see the reality of who they’ve supported – and publicly and forcefully rebuke him and the actions of that mob,” she said. “Now is the time for Silicon Valley companies to stop enabling this monstrous behavior – and go even further than they have already by permanently banning this man from their platforms and putting in place policies to prevent their technology from being used by the nation’s leaders to fuel insurrection.” Never mind that her husband ordered his deep state agencies to spy on Trump's 2016 campaign in the most unconstitutional manner possible; who is the real threat to democracy? Sources include: ThreadReaderApp.com ConservativeBrief.com
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