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Did Twitter Suppress COVID Lockdown Protests? Elon Musk Should Find Out

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During the Covid lockdowns, did you ever wonder why there weren’t more peaceful protests as we lost our basic liberties?

The release of the “Twitter Files” has shown the government collaborated with the Big Tech platform to suppress free speech by censoring disfavored news stories and speakers. But as journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and others comb through years of Twitter data, they should seek to discover whether another of our most basic rights was also subverted: the First Amendment “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

A month into the Covid-19 lockdowns, anti-lockdown protests were taking place nationwide. Politico reported: “Facebook is blocking anti-quarantine protesters from using the site to organize in-person gatherings that violate states’ stay-at-home orders.” A Facebook spokesman said the company was removing posts “when gatherings do not follow the health parameters established by the government and are therefore unlawful.” Protest organizers’ Pages were also shut down by Facebook for violating its terms of service by allegedly inciting violence.

But protest organizers knew to encourage participants to wear masks, socially distance, and not carry guns to avoid criticism. How much did Twitter, Facebook, and other tech giants restrict protesters from organizing under the guise of concerns about health risks or incitement to violence?

While there were those calling for revolution and saying menacing things on social media, did groups clearly advocating nonviolent demonstrations get blocked too? What was Twitter’s policy on sharing posts inviting people to demonstrate peacefully? (Read more from “Did Twitter Suppress COVID Lockdown Protests? Elon Musk Should Find Out” HERE)

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Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey Clash Over Twitter’s Record on Child Porn

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CEO Elon Musk and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey clashed on the social media site Friday over Twitter’s track record on dealing with child pornography.

“It is a crime that they refused to take action on child exploitation for years!” Musk responded after conservative commentator Mike Cernovich tweeted at one of three people who resigned from Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council. Cernovich’s post linked to a Jan. 2021 New York Post report on a lawsuit over Twitter’s alleged failure to remove a pornographic video featuring a child.

Ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded to Musk, saying that the claim was, “false.”

“No, it is not,” Musk responded in another tweet. Musk added that Ella Irwin, the new head of Trust and Safety at Twitter, raised the issue with former CEO Parag Agrawal and former CEO Ned Segal, but they denied her request for more staffing to address child porn.

Musk has previously said that dealing with child sexual exploitation on the social media site would be the top priority.

(Read more from “Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey Clash Over Twitter’s Record on Child Porn” HERE)

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Third Batch of Twitter Files Shows Twitter’s Lead Censor Joking About FBI Collusion

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The third batch of “Twitter Files,” published by independent journalist Matt Taibbi, revealed Twitter’s former lead censor, Yoel Roth, joking about the company’s collusion with government intelligence entities.

“After [Jan. 6, 2021], internal Slacks show Twitter executives getting a kick out of intensified relationships with federal agencies,” Taibbi wrote, publishing internal Slack messages that show Roth “lamenting a lack of ‘generic enough’ calendar descriptions [for] concealing his ‘very interesting’ meeting partners.”

“I’m a big believer in calendar transparency,” Roth said in one message. “But I reached a certain point where my meetings became… very interesting.”

In response to a colleague who commented “Very Boring Business Meeting That Is Definitely Not About Trump ;)” Roth responded “Preeeeeeeetty much.”

“DEFINITELY NOT meeting with the FBI I SWEAR,” Roth wrote in another message. (Read more from “Third Batch of Twitter Files Shows Twitter’s Lead Censor Joking About FBI Collusion” HERE)

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Twitter Files Reveals Blacklists and Shadowbanning – Elon Musk Is Embracing the Same Tactics

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In the latest Twitter Files exposé, it was revealed that Twitter shadowbanned accounts to suppress their reach and virality, especially prominent conservatives. There’s just one problem — these tools are almost identical to Elon Musk’s current policy of “freedom of speech, not freedom of reach.” Based on Musk’s comments, it seems unlikely any of the freshly exposed tools are going to be dropped from the platform, leaving Americans seeking free speech at the mercy of nebulous terms like “hate speech.”

Forbes reports that according to former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss, Twitter created “secret blacklists” and conducted a covert operation to reduce the visibility of certain tweets, accounts, and topics. This information comes from the second round of Elon Musk’s “Twitter Files,” which were released on Thursday. These practices, reported on for many years by Breitbart News, are just now being proven true with the release of insider information from the left-wing company.

Many have also noted that Twitter’s previous moderation actions mirror Musk’s own Twitter policy of “freedom of speech, not freedom of reach,” meaning that the platform will continue to shadowban and reduce the reach of certain users and posts. In fact, Musk has bragged about lowering the impressions of tweets containing “hate speech,” likely using the exact tools described in the Twitter Files. “Hate speech” is a word seemingly described differently by every person asked, for example, former Twitter leadership banned women under the hate speech policy for saying that men cannot be women.

Twitter employees allegedly blacklisted a number of accounts, including Stanford health policy professor Jay Bhattacharya, conservative figures Dan Bongino and Charlie Kirk, and the controversial right-wing TikTok account “Libs of TikTok,” according to Weiss. These are just a few examples of what was clearly a common moderation practice for the leftist anti-Trump platform. (Read more from “Twitter Files Reveals Blacklists and Shadowbanning – Elon Musk Is Embracing the Same Tactics” HERE)

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Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Urges Elon Musk to Release ‘Everything Without Filter’

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Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, has urged current CEO Elon Musk to release all “Twitter files” related to the Hunter Biden laptop story. Dorsey never released such information when he ran the company, choosing instead to run an astoundingly opaque company.

Fox Business reports that Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, has requested that current Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk make all of the company’s “Twitter files” public after the departure of James Baker, the former deputy general counsel, for his alleged involvement in the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story. Dorsey believes that the information should be released “without filter.”

Elon Musk has hinted that he may release additional “Twitter files” which reportedly show how the social media platform has censored conservative speech. In response, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has called on Musk to make all internal documents available “without filter” and to explain the actions that the company plans to take under its new management.

“If the goal is transparency to build trust, why not just release everything without filter and let people judge for themselves? Including all discussions around current and future actions?” Dorsey asked. “Make everything public now.”

(Read more from “Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Urges Elon Musk to Release ‘Everything Without Filter’” HERE)

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Latest ‘Twitter Files’ Reveal Secret Suppression of Right-Wing Commentators

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Independent journalist Bari Weiss revealed on Thursday how Twitter used blacklists to limit the visibility of tweets coming from conservative users in the latest disclosure of the social media giant’s internal operations.

Right-wing talk show host Dan Bongino, Stanford University’s anti-COVID lockdown advocate Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, and conservative activist Charlie Kirk were among the users targeted for suppression by Twitter, according to Weiss.

Weiss’s tweets followed Friday’s bombshell revelations by fellow independent journalist Matt Taibbi, whose Twitter posts were promoted by new company owner Elon Musk as “what really happened with the Hunter Biden suppression story by Twitter.”

Taibbi said his reporting uncovered the “extraordinary steps” Twitter took in response to The Post’s blockbuster scoop about Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop in October 2020, including “removing links and posting warnings that it may be ‘unsafe.’”

“They even blocked its transmission via direct message, a tool hitherto reserved for extreme cases, e.g. child pornography,” he wrote. (Read more from “Latest ‘Twitter Files’ Reveal Secret Suppression of Right-Wing Commentators” HERE)

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FBI Official Casts Doubt on Twitter’s Rationale for Censoring Hunter Biden Laptop Story

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An FBI official’s testimony last week is setting up a potential showdown with Twitter over the social media company’s censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election.

FBI supervisory special agent Elvis Chan disputed former Twitter executive Yoel Roth’s claims that the FBI warned that Russia would likely release Hunter Biden’s emails before the 2020 election. Roth, who led Twitter’s Site Integrity team until he resigned last month, told the Federal Election Commission that the FBI warnings prompted Twitter to censor an Oct. 14, 2020, news article that detailed Biden’s business emails.

But Chan said in a Dec. 3 deposition that FBI officials did not mention Hunter Biden in their weekly meetings with Twitter prior to the election. “I do not remember us specifically saying ‘Hunter Biden’ in any meeting,” said Chan. “So this would have been something that [Roth] would have just thought of as a hot-button issue on his own that happened in October.”

Chan’s testimony further clouds Twitter’s controversial decision to censor the Hunter Biden story, which detailed emails from the troubled businessman’s laptop. According to Roth’s version of events, the FBI warnings were a factor in Twitter’s decision to censor the story.

“I was told in these meetings that the intelligence community expected that individuals associated with political campaigns would be subject to hacking attacks and that material obtained through those hacking attacks would likely be disseminated over social media platforms, including Twitter,” Roth said in a Dec. 17, 2020, affidavit to the Federal Election Commission. (Read more from “FBI Official Casts Doubt on Twitter’s Rationale for Censoring Hunter Biden Laptop Story” HERE)

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Poll: Majority Support Musk’s Efforts To Make Twitter ‘More Free and Transparent’

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A majority of Americans “support Elon Musk’s ongoing efforts to change Twitter to a more free and transparent platform,” a December Trafalgar Group poll shows.

Out of 1,085 likely general election voters polled between Nov. 30 and Dec. 3, a majority — 52.3 percent — say they support Musk’s Twitter endeavors, 31.3 percent say they do not, and 16. 3 percent are unsure. The margin of error is ±2.9 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.

When the “not sure” option is removed, 62.6 percent say they support Musk’s ongoing effort, while 37.4 percent say they do not.

(Read more from “Poll: Majority Support Musk’s Efforts To Make Twitter ‘More Free and Transparent’” HERE)

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Leaked Email Alleges Arizona Gov-Elect Katie Hobbs, Twitter Employees Colluded to Censor ‘Election Related Misinformation’

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Internal email documents at Twitter reveal Arizona Governor-elect and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs allegedly colluded with former Twitter officials last year by flagging accounts related to so-called election misinformation.

The bombshell leak comes amid Elon Musk releasing internal company communications through journalist Matt Taibbi late last week, showing the company had previously censored conservatives at the behest of the Democrat Party.

According to an email on January 7, 2021, the communications director for Hobbs’ Secretary of State office emailed the Center for Internet Security (CIS), a 501 nonprofit cybersecurity organization, saying they are “flagging” an unidentified Twitter profile for review under the subject line titled “Election Related Misinformation.”

The email also included an unknown employee at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a branch under the federal government’s Department of Homeland Security.

A representative with CIS then forwarded the message to a Twitter employee, saying, “Please see this report below from the Arizona SOS office. Please let me know if you have any questions.”

(Read more from “Leaked Email Alleges Arizona Gov-Elect Katie Hobbs, Twitter Employees Colluded to Censor ‘Election Related Misinformation’” HERE)

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Musk Claims Dispute With Tech Giant Over Twitter’s Potential Removal From App Store ‘Resolved’

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Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced that he and Apple CEO Tim Cook met Wednesday and claimed to have resolved a dispute over the social media site’s presence on the tech giant’s App Store.

“Good conversation,” Musk posted on Twitter two and a half hours after he tweeted a five-second video showing a pond at Apple’s headquarters. “Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.”

Musk claimed Monday that Apple threatened to boot Twitter from the App Store, targeting Cook in a series of tweets, as well as amplifying a claim from LBRY, a content creation site, about censorship. Musk noted that the option of designing a smartphone was on the table if Twitter was removed from the app stores of Apple and Google.

(Read more from “Musk Claims Dispute With Tech Giant Over Twitter’s Potential Removal From App Store ‘Resolved’” HERE)

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