Staff Reports
Elon Musk's new book revealed that Twitter has a policy of "shadowbanning." This practice is used to suppress certain users' accounts.
The latest batch of corporate information was released by journalist Bari Weiss. He discussed the topic after the first Twitter Files didn't provide definitive proof that the US government was involved in blocking a story about Vice President Joe Biden's laptop.
"According to Weiss, a new report revealed that Twitter employees worked on a variety of strategies to suppress certain users' accounts. These include building blacklists and preventing the publication of disfavored content."
In his report, Weiss showed a series of images that appeared to be from inside Twitter's system. These included a list of prominent users who were tagged with tags that indicated their account's limitations. For instance, Dan Bongino was tagged with the Search Blacklist tag.
3. Take, for example, Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) who argued that Covid lockdowns would harm children. Twitter secretly placed him on a “Trends Blacklist,” which prevented his tweets from trending. pic.twitter.com/qTW22Zh691
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 9, 2022
Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was also tagged with various tags. These included the words "Do Not Amplify."
The practice of shadowbanning, which is also referred to as visibility filtering, is a method that social media platforms use to limit the visibility of their users' accounts. Employees of Twitter reportedly use this method to prevent the publication of biased content.
One of the executives who spoke with Weiss claimed that visibility filtering is a powerful tool that Twitter uses to suppress the content that people see. Other employees also said that they try to control the visibility of their content.
These groups are also responsible for making decisions regarding the content that users should see on Twitter.
A group led by several executives on the site was responsible for making decisions regarding the content that people should see on Twitter. This group was also responsible for handling issues related to controversial accounts such as TikTok.
In 2022, Twitter suspended TikTok multiple times. Although the executives of the company did not find any evidence that the accounts were violating the company's policies, they decided to continue with the bans due to the allegations that the content had led to the harassment of children.
Although Weiss focused on the limitations on content, Twitter also stated that it would limit the reach of an account if it discovers that it has been abused or manipulated. Musk noted that he would rather limit the spread of hateful speech than completely remove it.
The first set of the Twitter Files included a review of the company's handling of the bans on Hunter Biden's laptop. The documents, which were provided to journalist Matt Taibbi, showed multiple internal conversations between staff members and members of the Democratic National Committee and the Biden administration.
In response to the release of the Twitter Files, Dan Bongino, a conservative commentator, called the documents "Soviet-style bulls***." He noted that the labeling of the banned individuals as conservatives confirms what he has long believed about the mass shadow-banning of individuals.
In response to the release of the files, Twitter CEO Elon Musk said that the company would implement a software update that would allow users to see their account's true status. It is not yet clear when this update will be released.
Musk had previously claimed that the company and the federal government had been in communication regarding the possible removal of content. However, Taibbi noted that he did not find evidence suggesting that the authorities had ordered Twitter to take down a story published by the New York Post. Instead, he said that the company received vague warnings about foreign actors.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on Washington Examiner.
