The alleged ‘Twitter Files 2’ revealed that some accounts were restricted in their reach. However, this information was public and aligned with Elon Musk’s policy that focuses on freedom of speech rather than freedom of reach.

Billionaire Elon and commentator Bari WeissGetty Images/ MSNBC
Bari Weiss, a conservative commentator, just dropped episode 2 of the “Twitter Files.” Matt Taibbi, a journalist, dropped the first installation of the new information dump.

Part two of the “Twitter Files”, Thursday’s second part, claimed to “reveal” a “secret operation in which Twitter limited the reach to certain accounts. But Twitter’s practice to hide some tweets has not been secret. Her description sounds very similar to the December 2 policy that Elon Musk announced.

Bari Weiss, a conservative commentator and journalist, published the latest thread. It was hyped up by Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner. She wrote that Twitter employees create blacklists, stop disfavored tweets being trending and actively limit visibility of whole accounts and even trending topics–all without telling users.

According to Will Oremus, The Washington Post’s Will Oremus, Twitter announced that it would hide certain tweets from search results and conversations. Twitter stated at that time it would examine the reactions of other people to accounts in order to prevent them from showing tweets that “detract” from conversations.

Twitter’s practice to limit certain tweets visibility was called “shadowbanning” by critics, which were numerous, especially since prominent Republicans were affected. Twitter disagreed with the description and stated that it did not like the term “shadowban” and that the tweets were not being deleted from Twitter but rather removed from search, making them more difficult to find.

Weiss stated in her thread that Twitter’s Strategic Response Team – Global Escalation Team (known as SRT-GET) was responsible for deciding who users were eligible for “visibility filtering.”

“Think of visibility filtering as a way to suppress the information people see at different levels. According to Weiss, it’s a powerful tool.” A senior Twitter employee stated that it was.

She said that Twitter’s Site Integrity Policy and Policy Escalation Support team, known as “SIPPES”, was responsible for making the most “politically sensitive decisions.”

She named several conservative accounts she claimed were affected. Weiss didn’t add any context to her thread about why these accounts were affected or if Twitter rules were broken or not. They were asked to be added to the search or trending blacklists.

Weiss’s description of Twitter’s internal moderation policies seems to be in line with Musk’s recently announced approach to content moderation. “Freedom to speak doesn’t necessarily mean freedom to reach,” he tweeted. He tweeted December 2: “Negativity should and will get less reach that positivity.”

Kali Hayes of Insider reported this week that Weiss was one of the new cohorts that CEO Elon Musk was adding to Twitter. Two people confirmed to Insider that she was granted access to Twitter’s employee system, as well as Slack and was issued a company laptop. However, Weiss isn’t believed to be an employee at Twitter.

She said that several reporters from Weiss’s outlet The Free Press were involved in the reporting of the story and had “broader and expanding” access via Twitter.

She wrote that “the only condition we agreed upon was that the material would be published first on Twitter.”

Musk followed up by announcing that Twitter was working on a software upgrade that would show you your true account status. This will allow you to see clearly if you have been shadowbanned and the reasons why.

Thursday’s thread was the second of these installations.

Nearly a week had passed since the first tweet thread. In that tweet, independent journalist Matt Taibbi stated that Twitter had received and granted content moderation requests from Joe Biden and the Trump White House. Taibbi stated on his Substack that he had to accept certain conditions in order to cover the story, but did not give specifics.

According to internet archives, at most some of the Biden campaign posts that were requested to be deleted included nude photos. This would have violated Twitter’s terms of service as per its non-consensual Nudity Policy. Taibbi didn’t include any examples of White House requests.

Taibbi claimed that the content moderation favors Democrats. He cited campaign donations made Twitter staff. However, Taibbi did not provide any evidence that tweets were deleted, even if they didn’t violate the terms.

Musk retweeted Taibbi’s original thread, adding “Here we are!” Along with two popcorn emoticons. He teased the second episode of the series by writing Friday that the next installment would be out the day after. Then he followed that announcement up the day later with “Looks like it will take another day or two.”

Musk’s claims aside, Twitter’s actions did not violate the First Amendment. “Twitter does not constitute a state actor, and the First Amendment applies only for state actors,” Doronkalir, a professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law previously told Insider.

He explained that the First Amendment says “Congress shall not make any law… abridging freedom of speech or of press.” Twitter, which isn’t considered to be the government but an independent company, does not fall within the First Amendment.

Kalir stated that federal courts in the United States have ruled repeatedly, as recently as 2020 in fact, that these digital platforms aren’t state actors and therefore the government can’t restrict them in any manner.” Kalir was referring to the 2020 case Prager University v. Google LLC in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled YouTube wasn’t a state actor.

Business Insider has the original article.
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By: rcohen@insider.com (Rebecca Cohen,Erin Snodgrass,Kelsey Vlamis)
Title: The ‘Twitter Files’ part 2 claimed to ‘reveal’ that the platform limited some accounts’ reach, but that was already public knowledge — and in line with Elon Musk’s new ‘freedom of speech, not freedom of reach’ policy
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-bari-weiss-the-twitter-files-blacklisted-accounts-2022-12
Published Date: Fri, 09 Dec 2022 03:54:44 +0000