OPINION:
My, my, my. The latest in a string of intriguing files released by Twitter CEO Elon Musk through a couple of select journalists shows that “shadow banning” was real, it was targeted and it was frequent, and that conservatives were the ones normally caught in the crossfire.
Well, well, well. Sunshine shines at last.
Maybe this should be subtitled, “More Questions Congress Must Demand Vijaya Gadde Answer,” Twitter’s former legal eagle and leading denier of shadow-banning — that is to say, of censoring.
And it is censoring that’s occurred at the company.
Twitter long ago shed its status as a private company, with a right to stifle or amplify whatever voices its executives wanted. It’s clear politicians — particularly Democrats — held massive influence over the content of posts on the platform. That moots the company’s Section 230 protections. That puts the company under the umbrella of the First Amendment.
As Fox News wrote, “Twitter suppressed stories based on requests from both Dems and GOP in 2020, but it favored liberals.”
That’s ‘cause most of Twitter’s employees leaned left and liked Democrats more than Republicans. The bubble brought the echo chamber.
From journalist Bari Weiss, one of Musk’s go-to for Twitter Files’ investigation: “Twitter once had a mission ‘to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.’ Along the way, barriers nevertheless were erected.”
Like what?
Like how?
“Take, for example, Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBattacharya) who argued that Covid lockdowns would harm children,” Weiss tweeted. “Twitter secretly placed him on a ‘Trends Blacklist,’ which prevented his tweets from trending.”
That’s not all.
Conservative talk radio host Dan Bongino was “slapped with a ‘Search Blacklist,’” Weiss tweeted.
That’s not all.
“Twitter set the account of conservative activist Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) to ‘Do Not Amplify,’” Weiss tweeted.
But oh contraire, Twitter told us for so many years, both during congressional hearings and on its own company website.
“Setting the record straight on shadow banning,” Gadde, along with Twitter’s product lead executive, Kayvon Beykpour, wrote in a July 2018 blog post. “People are asking us if we shadow ban. We do not. But let’s start with, ‘what is shadow banning?’”
Then came the definition — the purposeful, deliberate “making” of “someone’s content undiscoverable,” yada yada, we know the definition already, thank you. Then came the additional denial.
“We do not shadow ban,” Gadde and Beykpour wrote.
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said similarly during testimony before Congress in September of 2018.
From Rep. Mike Doyle, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, to Dorsey:, as Fox News reported: “Social media is being rigged to censor conservatives. Is that true of Twitter?”
Dorsey, in answer to Doyle: “No.”
Doyle to Dorsey: “Are you censoring people?”
Dorsey to Doyle: “No.”
Doyle to Dorsey: “Twitter’s shadow banning prominent Republicans … is that true?”
Dorsey to Doyle: “No.”
Now fast-forward to today.
Turns out, it’s not called shadow banning. It’s called “visibility filtering.”
“‘Think about visibility filtering as being a way for us to suppress what people see to different levels. It’s a very powerful tool,’ one senior Twitter employee told us,” Weiss tweeted.
Another revelation: “‘VF’ refers to Twitter’s control over user visibility. It used VF to block searches of individual users; to limit the scope of a particular tweet’s discoverability; to block select users’ posts from ever appearing on the ‘trending’ page; and from inclusion in hashtag searches,” Weiss tweeted.
And this: “All without users’ knowledge.”
Musk, once again, is on the move.
As he quickly “exited” top influencers of Twitter policy — like Hunter Biden laptop cover-upper James Baker; like Gadde — so, too, he’s quickly taking action to restore free speech to his social media platform.
“Twitter is working on a software update that will show your true account status, so you know clearly if you’ve been shadow banned, the reason why and how to appeal,” Musk tweeted.
Republicans are getting in the game, as well. Now that the GOP is slated to control the House, several in the party say they’re going to haul in former Twitter executives — namely, Gadde, Baker and Yoel Roth, former site integrity chief — to account for their roles in “suppressing information regarding President Biden and his family prior to an American election,” CNN reported.
All good.
All warranted.
“Truth brings reconciliation,” Musk tweeted.
It does.
But for many on the left, unfortunately, reconciliation is not the end game. For far too long, Democrats have enjoyed the favor of their water carriers in media and social media — favor that has allowed them to shut out voices of opposition and criticism and pretend as if their leftist views are shared by vast majorities. That’s coming to an end. Twitter is falling to freedom.
Just don’t expect the left to let it fall without a fight.
As the White House said, when Musk first started opening Twitter doors to sunshine, Democrats are “keeping a close eye” on Twitter. That’s a clear indication that leftists are already plotting their next path of subterfuge. Maybe it’s a new committee to root out hate; maybe it’s a new commission to stop the anti-Semitism, or stifle the violence, or put a cease and desist to so-deemed dangerous rhetoric; maybe it’s a new policy or piece of legislation or proposal with some tame-sounding, sane-sounding name. Whatever it’s called, what it will be is censorship.
Today’s Democrats, more like Marxists than pro-American patriots, will stop at nothing to stop free speech.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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