Bari Weiss releases “Twitter Files Part Two”, sharing images of accounts that Twitter allegedly put on “blacklists” and screenshots of internal Slack messages
all in secret, without informing users. Elon Musk / @elonmusk : @DavidSacks As @bariweiss clearly describes, the rules were enforced against the right, but not against the left Ashley Feinberg / @ashleyfeinberg : this has literally been on twitter's help page since at least 2018 https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Roberto Aram Ferdman / @robferdman : The Twitter Files are one of the best examples out there of why editors are so important in journalism Bari Weiss / @bariweiss : 28. The authors have broad and expanding access to Twitter's files. The only condition we agreed to was that the material would first be published on Twitter. Will Stancil / @whstancil : Bari Weiss is literally in the middle of a breathless “Twitter Files” thread describing Twitter implementing the exact policy that Elon Musk said he was going to institute three weeks ago. https://twitter.com/... Ted Lieu / @tedlieu : Dear @RepMTG: Have you read the First Amendment? It states “Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech.” The First Amendment prevents MAGARepublicans like you from making laws to regulate speech on @facebook @YouTube and @Twitter. Get it? https://twitter.com/... Darren J. Beattie / @darrenjbeattie : Make them available to the public, no need for mediators/gatekeepers https://twitter.com/... Jont Trubek / @jonttrubek : After Elon straightens out Twitter, hopefully he will buy Facebook too & shit can Zuck. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 / @rep … : The same communist censorship that has been exposed by Twitter files is happening on @facebook and @YouTube. It's been going on for years and there is nothing stopping it. Republicans have to end it. Scott Adams / @scottadamssays : Twitter indirectly answered your questions about YouTube (Google) and Facebook. Everything is exactly the way you thought it was. Mehdi Hasan / @mehdirhasan : Simple question: do you have access to Twitter's files under Elon Musk's ownership? If not, why not? https://twitter.com/... Seth Abramson / @sethabramson : I was shadowbanned in September 2020 under the very Twitter policy @ElonMusk is here falsely claiming was only applied to people on the right. It was a major topic of conversation on Twitter at the time, because I made a big stink about it. Elon is *flat-out lying* here, period. https://twitter.com/... Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : Well, I finally got a response to my proposal that Musk address his concern for political interference by publishing a database of moderation actions and communications with government actors. I just literally don't know what it means. Proposal: https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Elizabeth Spiers / @espiers : Imagine investing money into a social network and understanding this little about content moderation and how a TOS works. https://twitter.com/... Mike Masnick / @mmasnick : So we've now had two long threads, presented as if they were revealing some big conspiracy, that basically, just... confirmed a bunch of things the company had already said publicly, and showed pretty standard (boring) trust & safety work. What a world. Abigail Shrier / @abigailshrier : Our team was given extensive, unfiltered access to Twitter's internal communication and systems. One of the things we wanted to know was whether Twitter systemically suppressed political speech. Here's what we found: https://twitter.com/... David Sacks / @davidsacks : New narrative: they weren't shadowbanning political opponents. They were just enforcing the spam policy. https://twitter.com/... Brian Klaas / @brianklaas : This is all so tiresome. It's an entire industry that gins up outrage, and it thrives because it's really easy to take just about anything and make it sound sinister. https://twitter.com/... Janus Rose / @janusrose : like all reactionary “scandals” it's obvious this whole charade was designed for engagement farming - no sensible journalist will see any of this as “news,” but that's not the target audience. it's classic agitprop cherry-picked for musk's fanbase & network of right wing grifters https://twitter.com/... Mark Hemingway / @heminator : This disingenuously ignores Twitter censored credible scientific voices such as @DrJBhattacharya or the fact that people got censored for questioning official COVID narratives that were factually incorrect. https://twitter.com/... Josh Hawley / @hawleymo : Yet how many times did I hear @jack say, including to Congress, that Twitter never targeted conservatives. And how many “reporters” repeated this lie over and over and over and over https://twitter.com/... Jeffrey Sachs / @jeffreyasachs : “Our team”? https://twitter.com/... Bradley P. Moss / @bradmossesq : I look forward to the expose by the next owner of Twitter on how Elon cherry-picked this stuff. https://twitter.com/... Matt Walsh / @mattwalshblog : Please give us every name and trending topic that was on the blacklist https://twitter.com/... @hodgetwins : And I guarantee this same thing happens at Facebook, IG, YouTube, etc https://twitter.com/... Greg Sargent / @theplumlinegs : Yeah, the level of grift here is just stunning, but the problem is that tweeting debunkings also fuels the grift. https://twitter.com/... Elon Musk / @elonmusk : @libsoftiktok You're welcome. Twitter won't be perfect in the future, but it will be *much* better. Dan Bongino / @dbongino : We ALWAYS knew we were a target of the Twitter suppression machine. ALWAYS. Yet liberals insisted it was another “conspiracy theory.” Tonight is vindication, yet I expect no apologies from liberals. They live to abuse power and they'll make no apologies for doing so. Elon Musk / @elonmusk : @bariweiss @libsoftiktok Former head of censorship at Twitter was perhaps not entirely unbiased ... https://twitter.com/... Mehdi Hasan / @mehdirhasan : This entire thread from Weiss, and supposed exposé on Twitter's ‘secret blacklists,’ is exactly what @elonmusk says his current content moderation policy for Twitter is! https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... @jason : On top of all this twitter leadership claimed it wasn't happening, which is just peak gaslighting Social networks need to be transparent and fair in policing their services, letting Americans make their own decisions on who to follow or block. Eliot Higgins / @eliothiggins : Elon is going to have so much fun explaining to EU why Twitter shouldn't be regulated after all this. https://twitter.com/... @jason : The problem with these enforcements is threefold: 1. There was no transparency, 2 they were not evenly enforced, & 3. Shadow-banning/search banning feels underhanded (just block folks & say why). Citizens should block & mute who they want in my opinion — not the Stasi. https://twitter.com/... Ted Lieu / @tedlieu : This post by @elonmusk assumes the right and the left are somehow the same. We are not. Folks on the right said COVID was a hoax. Folks on the left said it was not. Twitter absolutely had the right to enforce rules against COVID deniers, who were disproportionally on the right. https://twitter.com/... @junlper : this new twitter files thread is so funny when you realize elons musk current policy is exactly what this one is complaining about https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Kyle Becker / @kylenabecker : This was the Twitter CEO before @ElonMusk misleading users by telling them “we don't shadowban.” #TwitterFiles https://twitter.com/... @cernovich : Rolling out these twitter files in waves is exactly the way to do it. Max Kennerly / @maxkennerly : As expected “Twitter Files 2” is drivel. This supposedly damning evidence is from yesterday. Literally “2022-12-07,” over a month after Musk took over. Who knows what it was like before—but they currently get preferential treatment, the “SIP-PES” consult before action is taken. https://twitter.com/... Kim Dotcom / @kimdotcom : 🧵 Twitter files Part 2 🧵 Here are my views about the recent revelations. First of all I'm glad this information is now available to the public and I'm angry because of what was done to censor and control public discourse about important issues like corruption and Govt crimes. @mrandyngo : Exclusive: Bari doesn't name too many names but the head of Twitter's Strategic Response Team when secret actions were taken to stifle conservative accounts happened under Jeff Carlton, who worked for both CIA & FBI. He just deleted his LinkedIn. But I have an archive. @elonmusk https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 / @rep … : Oversight is coming. https://twitter.com/... Matthew Yglesias / @mattyglesias : I discovered this secret document (the publicly available terms of service) that says Twitter sometimes limits the distribution or visibility of content. https://twitter.com/... Radley Balko / @radleybalko : The Twitter Files is a good lesson in how you can report out the goings on of any decent sized organization, and if you use the right tone, cite “documents,” and make it seem like you're breaking news, you can make even the most mundane shit seem scandalous to the right audience. Shibetoshi Nakamoto / @billym2k : it'll be interesting when some people learn they aren't actually shadowbanned, it's just that they don't say anything worth reading Nick Martin / @nickmartin : The biggest takeaway from that Bari Weiss thread is that Twitter spent years finding new and creative ways to keep large conservative and right-wing accounts on the site despite some pretty egregious behavior. But that was always obvious to anyone paying attention. @libsoftiktok : This screenshot is current. Notice date on the right side. I'm still on a “trends blacklist.” When will this be fixed @elonmusk? https://twitter.com/... James Melville / @jamesmelville : What the latest #TwitterFiles prove is that many influential accounts who questioned lockdowns were suppressed and many pro-lockdown influencers were amplified - often to vilify and orchestrate pile ons against those who were suppressed. Musk has unearthed this rather grim truth. @karengeier : What am I supposed to be outraged at by that twitter files thing? Is it that they have a moderation policy? Is it that the examples were cherry picked and did not include anyone who was moderated for their leftist views? Is it that Bari Weiss doesn't know how to take screenshots? Tim Pool / @timcast : this style of reporting is bad, the slow rolling of documents is bad they are drowning the potential for a big story by slow rolling it. This desensitizes people who gradually stop caring. https://twitter.com/... Matt Binder / @mattbinder : wait what? November 21, 2022? you mean this happened when Elon Musk was running the platform? https://twitter.com/... Ed Burmila / @edburmila : The replies to every tweet about Elon Musk offer valuable insight into how Jonestown happened https://twitter.com/... Mike Masnick / @mmasnick : Randomly: kudos to (former?) security folks at Twitter who apparently put in place (built?) a system so that people with access to high level, extremely powerful tools (e.g. to look at other people's DMs) have watermarks on their screens in case someone, you know, takes a photo. @ericfrohnhoefer : “New Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.” - @elonmusk 😱 OMG Twitter was already doing that shame on them. A whole lot of nothing once again. https://twitter.com/... Matt Binder / @mattbinder : we actually did learn something from Twitter Files 2: 1) Libs of TikTok received special treatment from Twitter, regular mods weren't allowed to take action on her account 2) Libs of TikTok was doxed under owner Elon Musk, the tweet was allowed to stay up https://twitter.com/... Brandon / @bborrman : @ashleyfeinberg Why it's even the current guy's policy. https://twitter.com/... Matt Binder / @mattbinder : these guys don't seem to understand that Elon Musk owns Twitter now. those former Twitter employees aren't legally responsible for this stuff. if you want to sue someone over the Twitter Files...your lawsuit would be against Twitter and Elon Musk lol https://twitter.com/... Jason Goldman / @goldman : Literally the only thing Elon has managed to launch is a gamergate retread Ashley Feinberg / @ashleyfeinberg : lmao “secret group”—you're telling me the company's highest-ranking people would talk to each other before making decisions that could have particularly sensitive consequences?? and they didn't inform ME about it?? https://twitter.com/... Jason Goldman / @goldman : She's uncovered the scandal of {reduce remove inform} as the triad of content moderation that's existed since these features launched. Even Elon says there is no freedom of reach. This is just winding up a thirsty audience who will swallow sand to feel heated by conspiracy. https://twitter.com/... David Roth / @david_j_roth : Savvy move by Musk here. Giving Bari Slack access has been proven to be one of the best ways to motivate employees to think about quitting. https://twitter.com/... Mike Masnick / @mmasnick : Elon: I have a great new idea: we will diminish visibility of bad stuff. “No freedom of reach.” Bari Weiss: Look at how EVIL Twitter was: they limited the reach of some nonsense purveyors. Elon fans: OMG, thank you Elon for saving us! Matt Binder / @mattbinder : just need to point out that apparently Bari Weiss does not know how to take screenshots? she's taking photos of her computer screen lol https://twitter.com/... @kt_so_it_goes : it's me. I'm the twitter files lady. I used to do other real weird shit until I saw taibbi & greenwald & said hey I gotta get in on that action. I'm the twitter files lady now. soon I'll be posting their sewer bill saying HMMM MAKES YOU THINK. anyway. I'm the twitter files lady. https://twitter.com/... Tom Scocca / @tomscocca : I don't understand what L*bs of T*ktok was doing wrong, also I had to quit the New York Times because my coworkers used mean emoji, or at least it felt to me like they were using mean emoji Norm Charlatan / @normcharlatan : Bari Weiss and Matt Taibbi are the white Diamond and Silk. Jeremy Littau / @jeremylittau : I guess it's Galaxy Brain Variety Hour again on the bird app. The. New. Owner. Said. In. November. He. Would. Do. The. Same. Thing. You. Think. Is. A. Scandal. https://twitter.com/... Kara Swisher / @karaswisher : Btw, yes, it is dripping with irony that this dude who sits atop a fortune built on OPD (other people's data) used by Facebook — KGB to Twitter's Stasi in his labored and historically ignorant metaphor — is typing this kind of dark nonsense. Kara Swisher / @karaswisher : Was it not Alexander Hamilton who said all tweets MUST be amplified under the little known 56th amendment that this Meta/Facebook board member is apparently and darkly referring to? https://twitter.com/... Bari Weiss / @bariweiss : 12. The group that decided whether to limit the reach of certain users was the Strategic Response Team - Global Escalation Team, or SRT-GET. It often handled up to 200 “cases” a day.
1. A new #TwitterFiles investigation reveals that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics—all in secret, without informing users.
28. The authors have broad and expanding access to Twitter's files. The only condition we agreed to was that the material would first be published on Twitter.
Bari Weiss is literally in the middle of a breathless “Twitter Files” thread describing Twitter implementing the exact policy that Elon Musk said he was going to institute three weeks ago. https://twitter.com/...
Dear @RepMTG: Have you read the First Amendment? It states “Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech.” The First Amendment prevents MAGA Republicans like you from making laws to regulate speech on @facebook @YouTube and @Twitter. Get it? https://twitter.com/..…
The same communist censorship that has been exposed by Twitter files is happening on @facebook and @YouTube. It's been going on for years and there is nothing stopping it. Republicans have to end it.
I was shadowbanned in September 2020 under the very Twitter policy @ElonMusk is here falsely claiming was only applied to people on the right. It was a major topic of conversation on Twitter at the time, because I made a big stink about it. Elon is *flat-out lying* here, period. …
Well, I finally got a response to my proposal that Musk address his concern for political interference by publishing a database of moderation actions and communications with government actors. I just literally don't know what it means. Proposal: https://twitter.com/... https://tw…
So we've now had two long threads, presented as if they were revealing some big conspiracy, that basically, just... confirmed a bunch of things the company had already said publicly, and showed pretty standard (boring) trust & safety work. What a world.
Our team was given extensive, unfiltered access to Twitter's internal communication and systems. One of the things we wanted to know was whether Twitter systemically suppressed political speech. Here's what we found: https://twitter.com/...
This is all so tiresome. It's an entire industry that gins up outrage, and it thrives because it's really easy to take just about anything and make it sound sinister. https://twitter.com/...
like all reactionary “scandals” it's obvious this whole charade was designed for engagement farming - no sensible journalist will see any of this as “news,” but that's not the target audience. it's classic agitprop cherry-picked for musk's fanbase & network of right wing grifters…
This disingenuously ignores Twitter censored credible scientific voices such as @DrJBhattacharya or the fact that people got censored for questioning official COVID narratives that were factually incorrect. https://twitter.com/...
Yet how many times did I hear @jack say, including to Congress, that Twitter never targeted conservatives. And how many “reporters” repeated this lie over and over and over and over https://twitter.com/...
We ALWAYS knew we were a target of the Twitter suppression machine. ALWAYS. Yet liberals insisted it was another “conspiracy theory.” Tonight is vindication, yet I expect no apologies from liberals. They live to abuse power and they'll make no apologies for doing so.
This entire thread from Weiss, and supposed exposé on Twitter's ‘secret blacklists,’ is exactly what @elonmusk says his current content moderation policy for Twitter is! https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
On top of all this twitter leadership claimed it wasn't happening, which is just peak gaslighting Social networks need to be transparent and fair in policing their services, letting Americans make their own decisions on who to follow or block.
The problem with these enforcements is threefold: 1. There was no transparency, 2 they were not evenly enforced, & 3. Shadow-banning/search banning feels underhanded (just block folks & say why). Citizens should block & mute who they want in my opinion — not the Stasi. https://tw…
This post by @elonmusk assumes the right and the left are somehow the same. We are not. Folks on the right said COVID was a hoax. Folks on the left said it was not. Twitter absolutely had the right to enforce rules against COVID deniers, who were disproportionally on the right. h…
this new twitter files thread is so funny when you realize elons musk current policy is exactly what this one is complaining about https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
As expected “Twitter Files 2” is drivel. This supposedly damning evidence is from yesterday. Literally “2022-12-07,” over a month after Musk took over. Who knows what it was like before—but they currently get preferential treatment, the “SIP-PES” consult before action is taken. h…
🧵 Twitter files Part 2 🧵 Here are my views about the recent revelations. First of all I'm glad this information is now available to the public and I'm angry because of what was done to censor and control public discourse about important issues like corruption and Govt crimes.
Exclusive: Bari doesn't name too many names but the head of Twitter's Strategic Response Team when secret actions were taken to stifle conservative accounts happened under Jeff Carlton, who worked for both CIA & FBI. He just deleted his LinkedIn. But I have an archive. @elonmusk …
I discovered this secret document (the publicly available terms of service) that says Twitter sometimes limits the distribution or visibility of content. https://twitter.com/...
The Twitter Files is a good lesson in how you can report out the goings on of any decent sized organization, and if you use the right tone, cite “documents,” and make it seem like you're breaking news, you can make even the most mundane shit seem scandalous to the right audience.
The biggest takeaway from that Bari Weiss thread is that Twitter spent years finding new and creative ways to keep large conservative and right-wing accounts on the site despite some pretty egregious behavior. But that was always obvious to anyone paying attention.
What the latest #TwitterFiles prove is that many influential accounts who questioned lockdowns were suppressed and many pro-lockdown influencers were amplified - often to vilify and orchestrate pile ons against those who were suppressed. Musk has unearthed this rather grim truth.
What am I supposed to be outraged at by that twitter files thing? Is it that they have a moderation policy? Is it that the examples were cherry picked and did not include anyone who was moderated for their leftist views? Is it that Bari Weiss doesn't know how to take screenshots?
This screenshot is current. Notice date on the right side. I'm still on a “trends blacklist.” When will this be fixed @elonmusk? https://twitter.com/...
this style of reporting is bad, the slow rolling of documents is bad they are drowning the potential for a big story by slow rolling it. This desensitizes people who gradually stop caring. https://twitter.com/...
Randomly: kudos to (former?) security folks at Twitter who apparently put in place (built?) a system so that people with access to high level, extremely powerful tools (e.g. to look at other people's DMs) have watermarks on their screens in case someone, you know, takes a photo.
“New Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.” - @elonmusk 😱 OMG Twitter was already doing that shame on them. A whole lot of nothing once again. https://twitter.com/...
we actually did learn something from Twitter Files 2: 1) Libs of TikTok received special treatment from Twitter, regular mods weren't allowed to take action on her account 2) Libs of TikTok was doxed under owner Elon Musk, the tweet was allowed to stay up https://twitter.com/...
these guys don't seem to understand that Elon Musk owns Twitter now. those former Twitter employees aren't legally responsible for this stuff. if you want to sue someone over the Twitter Files...your lawsuit would be against Twitter and Elon Musk lol https://twitter.com/...
lmao “secret group”—you're telling me the company's highest-ranking people would talk to each other before making decisions that could have particularly sensitive consequences?? and they didn't inform ME about it?? https://twitter.com/...
She's uncovered the scandal of {reduce remove inform} as the triad of content moderation that's existed since these features launched. Even Elon says there is no freedom of reach. This is just winding up a thirsty audience who will swallow sand to feel heated by conspiracy. https…
Savvy move by Musk here. Giving Bari Slack access has been proven to be one of the best ways to motivate employees to think about quitting. https://twitter.com/...
Elon: I have a great new idea: we will diminish visibility of bad stuff. “No freedom of reach.” Bari Weiss: Look at how EVIL Twitter was: they limited the reach of some nonsense purveyors. Elon fans: OMG, thank you Elon for saving us!
just need to point out that apparently Bari Weiss does not know how to take screenshots? she's taking photos of her computer screen lol https://twitter.com/...
it's me. I'm the twitter files lady. I used to do other real weird shit until I saw taibbi & greenwald & said hey I gotta get in on that action. I'm the twitter files lady now. soon I'll be posting their sewer bill saying HMMM MAKES YOU THINK. anyway. I'm the twitter files lady. …
I don't understand what L*bs of T*ktok was doing wrong, also I had to quit the New York Times because my coworkers used mean emoji, or at least it felt to me like they were using mean emoji
I guess it's Galaxy Brain Variety Hour again on the bird app. The. New. Owner. Said. In. November. He. Would. Do. The. Same. Thing. You. Think. Is. A. Scandal. https://twitter.com/...
Btw, yes, it is dripping with irony that this dude who sits atop a fortune built on OPD (other people's data) used by Facebook — KGB to Twitter's Stasi in his labored and historically ignorant metaphor — is typing this kind of dark nonsense.
Was it not Alexander Hamilton who said all tweets MUST be amplified under the little known 56th amendment that this Meta/Facebook board member is apparently and darkly referring to? https://twitter.com/...
12. The group that decided whether to limit the reach of certain users was the Strategic Response Team - Global Escalation Team, or SRT-GET. It often handled up to 200 “cases” a day.
What? Bari Weiss misrepresenting stuff to fanboys to make a big conspiracy out of something that is clearly not a big conspiracy? How... not surprising. https://twitter.com/...