#Twitterfiles Part 4: ‘The Removal of Donald Trump’ From Twitter
“As the pressure builds, Twitter executives build the case for a permanent ban”
Elon Musk was reportedly surprised and dismayed that Twitter banned then-president Trump from the platform. He called it a “grave mistake” and said it was “morally wrong and flat-out stupid” to ban a sitting president who had broken no laws or even violated Twitter’s Terms of Service (TOS).
He’s not wrong. So how did this grave mistake happen? The release of the fourth batch of Twitter Files provides a troubling picture of executives hatching schemes to justify the ban. This installment was released to and by journalist Michael Shellenberger.
As with all of these releases, they are first being released on Twitter per an agreement between the various journalists involved and Musk, so the threads are long and somewhat cumbersome to report in full. Therefore, I am going to provide some highlights below, but be sure to read the entire thread here (archive link).
On Jan 7, senior Twitter execs:
– create justifications to ban Trump
– seek a change of policy for Trump alone, distinct from other political leaders
– express no concern for the free speech or democracy implications of a ban
This #TwitterFiles is reported with @lwoodhouse
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 10, 2022
One of the things that Old Twitter was doing behind the scenes was come up with some kind of justification to ban the sitting president of these United States. And on January 7, 2021, they reportedly landed on–and then-owner Jack Dorsey approved–one such “policy.”
Around 11:30 am PT, Roth DMs his colleagues with news that he is excited to share.
“GUESS WHAT,” he writes. “Jack just approved repeat offender for civic integrity.”
The new approach would create a system where five violations ("strikes") would result in permanent suspension. pic.twitter.com/F1KYqd1Xea
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
The colleague wants to know if the decision means Trump can finally be banned. The person asks, "does the incitement to violence aspect change that calculus?”
Roth says it doesn't. "Trump continues to just have his one strike" (remaining). pic.twitter.com/Qyi1sJNa0w
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
Apparently, only one Twitter employee dared to question the integrity of such a decision.
"This might be an unpopular opinion but one off ad hoc decisions like this that don’t appear rooted in policy are imho a slippery slope… This now appears to be a fiat by an online platform CEO with a global presence that can gatekeep speech for the entire world…" pic.twitter.com/4pedmgY8pa
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
Roth's response hints at how Twitter would justify deviating from its longstanding policy. "To put a different spin on it: policy is one part of the system of how Twitter works… we ran into the world changing faster than we were able to either adapt the product or the policy." pic.twitter.com/wGMvuoS7u3
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
Among the red flags for the progressive fascists at Old Twitter were the hashtags #StopTheSteal and #Kraken.
Roth immediately DMs a colleague to ask that they add "stopthesteal" & [QAnon conspiracy term] "kraken" to a blacklist of terms to be deamplified.
Roth's colleague objects that blacklisting "stopthesteal" risks "deamplifying counterspeech" that validates the election. pic.twitter.com/G02gGeicUW
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
But it turns out that even blacklisting "kraken" is less straightforward than they thought. That's because kraken, in addition to being a QAnon conspiracy theory based on the mythical Norwegian sea monster, is also the name of a cryptocurrency exchange, and was thus "allowlisted" pic.twitter.com/KGnPJUGHY5
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
From there, things get really messy for Old Twitter as the files reveal that they were essentially just making things up and ditching their own policies in order to justify permanently banning Trump from Twitter.
What happens next is essential to understanding how Twitter justified banning Trump.
Sales exec: "are we dropping the public interest [policy] now…"
Roth, six hours later: "In this specific case, we're changing our public interest approach for his account…" pic.twitter.com/XRUFil2npI
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
Roth pushes for a permanent suspension of Rep. Matt Gaetz even though it “doesn’t quite fit anywhere (duh)”
It's a kind of test case for the rationale for banning Trump.
“I’m trying to talk [Twitter’s] safety [team] into… removal as a conspiracy that incites violence.” pic.twitter.com/ZQP6u1zevy
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
Shellenberger concludes with a teaser about what the next batch of Twitter Files will contain (as of this writing, Weiss has not yet released the the fifth Twitter Files):
“Facebook’s suspension of Trump now puts Twitter in an awkward position. If Trump does indeed return to Twitter, the pressure on Twitter will ramp up to find a pretext on which to ban him as well.”
Indeed. And as @bariweiss will show tomorrow, that’s exactly what happened.
/END
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
Here are our previous posts on the #TwitterFiles:
- #Twitterfiles Are About Biden Family Corruption and Media Coverup
- #Twitterfiles Part 2: “Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics”
- #Twitterfiles Part 3: Twitter Regularly Interacted With FBI/DHS To Restrict PRE-ELECTION Tweets
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Comments
Everyone employed at Twitter had (has) the emotional IQ of a 4-year-old.
White collar luxury meets blue collar accountability. Some would say they are green. Now, they care about Green (e.g. labor and environmental arbitrage) deals.
First want to thank the blog for posting on these Tweets, not having Twitter account its difficult to get around there much.
Second what a bunch of manipulating people, no wonder they have the Left screaming our 1st Amendment rights are in jeopardy, they squashed the entire Amendment.
So, this is what it takes to audit a model of democracy.
I’ve a twitter account I never use (6 tweets in 12 years) and rarely look at the feed. Log in and look around. Tim Poole complaining about the slow rollout. Like real life is a movie lacking pacing and verve. The show runners suck. The script seems derivative. He rates it 2/5 stars and doubts it will be picked up for a second season.
Reading the tweets and following the chronology reveals the FBI engaged in unlawful practices. Twitter executives are immoral monsters. Some of the small fry show spine and object to what the exec’s are doing. All of it done in a banal, jargon laced, manner.
Beg to differ w/ Mr Poole. The pacing is brilliant.
Keeps it in the news. His e-mediated short-cycle time isn’t the pace of the larger population.
It lets the objection-crew beclown themselves. They come out with “but, but, but…” then the next tranche demolishes the counter-argument they were making.
Nothing will come of it
Musk works for the government
All his money depends on government subsidies or government contracts
And he doesn’t care if it’s the USA government or Chinas
My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2022
————————
When will we get the twitter files on covid? The info on the suspension of the many doctors and scientists? Who was involved? Suppression of what has turned out to be factual information.
— Aaron Murray (@murraymints82) December 11, 2022
Oh it is coming big time …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2022
Meh, I got perma banned a couple weeks ago replying to the Occupy Democrats parody account about some guy being done for public disturbance on Jan 6. Mocking Democrats is once again a crime 😱🤷🏻😂
Of course it doesn’t matter if you follow their process because there is no human on the other side managing that process.
Remember too, Facebook, YouTube, Google, etc al do exactly the same thing as we are seeing at Twitter.
That’s material for a whole course in motivated reasoning, right there.