According to data obtained by journalist Bari Weiss, Twitter kept a “secret blacklist” of accounts and topics to stop them from trending. Conservative commentators were purposefully downplayed in what one called “Soviet-style bulls***” and another claimed he was treated “with more censorship than Hamas.”
Teams of experts were put to work, handling 200 cases every day.
Conservative pundits like Dan Bongino and Charlie Kirk were purposefully placed on a “search blacklist” (in Bongino’s case) or a “do not amplify” (in Kirk’s case) tab.
Kirk remarked, “They’re treating my Twitter account with more scrutiny and censorship than the Iranian prime minister, than Hamas, than people who actually commit acts of terrorism.”
“Now we have proof that’s exactly why interaction on my Twitter account has dropped by 95% over the previous couple of years,”
It was “Soviet-style bulls***,” according to Bongino.
A “search blacklist” was also created for people who disagreed with the COVID orthodoxy of lockdowns and mask requirements, such as Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who claimed that lockdowns hurt children.
Journalist Dave Rubin questioned then-CEO Jack Dorsey in October 2020: “Do you shadowban based on political beliefs? I only need a simple yes or no.
“No,” Dorsey retorted.
Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s head of legal, policy, and trust, also denied that Twitter operated such blacklists.
‘We do not shadow ban,’ she said in 2018, according to Weiss – speaking alongside Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter’s head of product.
They added: ‘And we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.’
Weiss made the revelations on Thursday in the second tranche of what has been termed The Twitter Files.
She reported that Twitter used what was termed ‘visibility filtering’ to downplay accounts they objected to, and had teams of people working to reduce the traction gained by individuals or their tweets.
One senior Twitter insider called it ‘a very powerful tool’.
