Freelance journalist Barry Weiss disclosed On Thursday, the latest revelations about the social media giant’s internal operations revealed how it used blacklists to limit the visibility of tweets from conservative users.
According to Weiss, right-wing talk show host Dan Bongino, anti-COVID lockdown advocate Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University and conservative activist Charlie Kirk were among the users targeted by Twitter for suppression.
Weiss’s tweets followed explosive revelations Friday that freelance journalist Matt Taibbi’s tweets were promoted by the company’s new owner, Elon Musk, as “what really happened with the Hunter Biden suppression story by Twitter.”
Taibbi said his report highlighted the “extraordinary steps” Twitter took in response to The Post’s October 2020 blockbuster story about Hunter Biden’s famous laptop, including “removing links and making it ‘secure.'” to place warnings about possible
“They even blocked direct messaging, a tool until now reserved for extreme cases, such as child pornography,” he wrote.
Taibbi said the decision was made behind the backs of Twitter founder and then-CEO Jack Dorsey, former general counsel Vijaya Gadde, who was reportedly fired by Musk when he took over in October — “a key played a role”.
Internal company memos, undated, showed Gadde and others discussing concerns about how the company relied on “disruptive materials,” although there was no evidence to support that claim.
Check out The Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story on Twitter censorship
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A former employee reportedly told Taibbi that “everybody knew it.”
But the company’s “response was basically to make mistakes … to keep making mistakes,” Taibbi said.
In addition to suppressing the story, Twitter also blocked The Post from its main Twitter account after demanding that six tweets be deleted — which The Post refused.
After a two-week standoff sparked outrage on Twitter, the social media giant shut down the account, saying it was reviewing its “Infringing Content Policy” and “updating our practice of not canceling prior orders.” ‘ deleted and unlocked.
Last week, Twitter’s former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth admitted in an interview that the Post’s suppression was a mistake, saying “I haven’t gotten to a point where I’m comfortable removing that content from Twitter.” , he said.
And on Tuesday, Musk announced that he had fired Twitter’s deputy general counsel, Jim Baker, a controversial former FBI lawyer, for his “possible role in suppressing information critical to public communication.”
Musk said he asked Baker about Twitter’s reaction to the laptop story and found his answers “unconvincing.”
Taibbi also tweeted Tuesday that Baker was behind Friday’s delay in releasing his “Twitter Files” tweets because he had “reviewed” the underlying material “without the knowledge of the new administration.”
According to Taibbi, Weiss exposed Baker’s involvement when he learned that “it was a person named Jim who was responsible for releasing the files.”
“When he called to ask for the last name ‘Jim,’ he got back, ‘Jim Baker,'” Taibbi wrote.
“My jaw hit the floor,” Weiss says.
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