Several third-party journalists banded together with current Twitter owner Elon Musk to uncover the company’s internal affairs.
This includes a series of communications alluding to the existence of employee-built blacklists and the prevention of disfavorable tweets from ever making it to the “trending” page.
While this is certainly nothing new coming from the woke echo chamber that is Twitter, the fact we have solid evidence to back it up is a major step in the right direction; it will allow Musk’s battle for free speech on the platform to continue.
Twitter’s “secret blacklists” unveiled in the latest file dump
The initial batch of Twitter files that the Tesla CEO released was an effort to show exactly how much the company previously engaged in censorship, which was met with discomfort from the average left-leaning Twitter user.
They suspended me multiple times knowing I never violated any policies. This is what happens when you talk about things that they don’t want you to talk about. So glad those days on Twitter are over. Thank you @elonmusk.
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 9, 2022
In a series of his own tweets, former NY Times opinion columnist and newsletter writer Bari Weiss outlined a number of cases where Twitter limited the distribution of and censored certain posts on their platform.
His first point was the several accounts that were constantly targeted by the company’s moderators, those being that of Charlie Kirk, an avid conservative activist, and Chaya Raichik’s accounts, one of which is the infamous LibsOfTikTok satire page.
The latter has engaged in criticism of those providing gender-affirming care for youth on numerous occasions, prompting several back-to-back bans from the platform, albeit without a permanent one, like some civil rights groups called for.
Per @mtaibbi, a handful of Twitter execs coordinated with the FBI, DHS and DNI in their widespread rigging of the 2020 election.
This is just the tip of the iceberg – and it’s already the biggest political crime in U.S. history.
— Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) December 10, 2022
Major updates coming to Twitter
The previous files released by Musk, compiled by Matt Taibbi, another newsletter author, focused on the company’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
This was highly censored and suppressed on both Twitter and Facebook, just weeks before the 2020 election.
As it turns out though, the company’s previous board of executives had long made it clear they might reduce the visibility of tweets made by users who consistently violated the platform’s guidelines; although they’ve failed to remain completely transparent about this.
In spite of there being conclusive evidence of the company also engaging in what’s commonly referred to as “shadowbanning,” Twitter execs have vehemently denied it.
The Twitter Files, Part 3
Deplatforming the President https://t.co/nvdlRNYXxA
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2022
As a response to the company’s previous governing model, Musk announced Twitter will now double down on suspending fewer users and taking down less content in favor of limiting the reach of content violating the platform’s rules.
He announced the platform’s new policy will be freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach, meaning negative, hate-inspired content will still not be allowed to thrive on the platform; albeit it will not be removed.
Additionally, Musk revealed the company is working on several software updates to the social media platform; one’s account status will be available to every user, letting them know if they’ve been shadowbanned, and if so, what they can do to appeal it.
