‘Twitter Files’ Part 2: Twitter Did Have Secret Blacklists

Last evening, Twitter owner Elon Musk released more internal communications from the company. Like the previous batch, these expose corruption. Musk released the files with help from former New York Times writer Bari Weiss.

Some accounts were put on a “Trends Blacklist,” which stopped tweets from trending. Weiss highlights the example of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, an anti-covid-lockdown advocate. Conservative commentator Dan Bongino meanwhile was put on a “Search Blacklist.”

Conservative radio host Charlie Kirk’s account was put under a “Do Not Amplify” setting.

All of this was done without the user being informed.

Hypocrisy: Twitter has previously claimed it doesn’t engage in this kind of behavior. In 2018, two representatives stated, “We do not shadow ban … and we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.” Yet the “Twitter Files” show that such statements were outright lies. According to Weiss, “shadow banning” among Twitter workers is referred to euphemistically as “visibility filtering.”

The truth comes out: When Musk purchased Twitter, many accused him of attacking free speech. Yet these exposés reveal that groups like Twitter have surreptitiously been attacking free speech all along. Musk is probably not finished with his “Twitter Files.” It remains to be seen how deep Twitter’s secret censorship goes; the revelations so far have been eye-opening.

To learn more about the big picture of Musk’s Twitter takeover, read Trumpet executive editor Stephen Flurry’s article “Disinformation Warfare.”