Twitter 'kept a secret blacklist of accounts and topics to stop them trending' trends now
Twitter kept a 'secret blacklist' of topics and accounts to prevent them from trending, according to data obtained by journalist Bari Weiss.
Conservative commentators such as Dan Bongino and Charlie Kirk were deliberately put on a 'search blacklist' - in the case of Bongino - or tabbed 'do not amplify', in the case of Kirk.
Those who questioned the prevailing COVID orthodoxy of lockdowns and mask mandates, such as Stanford's Dr Jay Bhattacharya, who argued that lockdowns harmed children, were also placed on a 'search blacklist'.
Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's head of legal, policy, and trust, 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.
The documents detail how Twitter in October 2020 decided to censor The New York Post's reporting on the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop. They feared the contents were obtained through hacking, but had no evidence to prove it, and it quickly emerged that the laptop had simply been left at a repair store.
Jack Dorsey, the then-CEO of Twitter, admitted that censoring the legitimate reporting was a significant error.
Twitter's new owner and 'Chief Twit' Elon Musk on Wednesday claimed the 'most important' Twitter data was 'deleted' and 'hidden' from the Dorsey.
Musk, 51, has vowed that 'everything we find will be released' as his newly acquired company continues to release the Twitter Files.
On Wednesday, Dorsey, 46, replied to Musk's tweet about delaying the second batch of the Twitter Files, calling for the new CEO to 'release everything' at once.
'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 wrote.
'Make everything public now.'
Musk replied that everything would be released, but even the 'most important data was hidden (from [Dorsey] too) and some may have been deleted.'
Elon Musk, 51, has vowed that 'everything we find will be released' as Twitter continues to release the files surrounding Hunter Biden's laptop scandal
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, 46, called for transparency on Wednesday after Musk revealed the second back of the Twitter Files would be delayed
'If the goal is transparency to build trust, why not just release everything without filter and let people judge for themselves?' Dorsey wrote on Twitter
The delay came after the Tesla CEO fired James Baker - Twitter's general counsel and former FBI general counsel - after discovering he vetted the first installment of the Files, which were sent to journalist Matt Taibbi, from Substack, and Common Sense Editor Bari Weiss.
Musk fired Baker 'in light of concerns about Baker's possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue.'
Taibbi revealed that Baker's involvement in the first batch of files was 'without knowledge of new management.'
'The process for producing the 'Twitter Files' involved delivery to two journalists (Bari Weiss and me) via a lawyer close to new management. However, after the initial batch, things became complicated,' Taibbi wrote on Twitter.
'Over the weekend, while we both dealt with obstacles to new searches, it was @BariWeiss who discovered that the person in charge of releasing
