Continuing to expose how Twitter under previous management actively censored people based on political ideology, the fourth batch of Twitter Files has been released. On Saturday (December 10, local US time), the fourth tranche of confidential and privileged internal conversations between top Twitter executives was released on the micro-blogging platform by the author Michael Shellenberger.
Shellenberger is the third person to be given the task of releasing Twitter Files. Parts 1 and 3 were released by Matt Taibbi, while part 2 was released by Bari Weiss, both are freelance journalists.
The ‘Twitter Files 4.0’ reveals how the ex-Global Head of Trust & Safety, Yoel Roth, went overboard to censor former US President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the US Capitol riots. The internal communications, covered by author Michael Shellenberger, also exposed how Roth completely disregarded the suggestions of junior Twitter employees and tweaked the rules of the social media platform spontaneously.
On Jan 7, senior Twitter execs:
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 10, 2022
– 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
At the very onset, Michael Shellenberger re-posted a 2018 tweet by the social media platform’s Public Policy handle, wherein it had argued against suspending/ silencing world leaders in the interests of public discourse.
However, over time, top Twitter executives began exploiting the rules to their advantage and censoring politically inconvenient opinions, conservative voices and Republicans.
Shellenberger informed that Democrat leaders and supporters, including Mitchelle Obama, began pressuring then Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, into de-platforming Donald Trump from the social media platform.
For years, Twitter had resisted calls to ban Trump.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 10, 2022
“Blocking a world leader from Twitter,” it wrote in 2018, “would hide important info… [and] hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.”https://t.co/qaqklHOHjc
He said that Dorsey was vacationing in French Polynesia at that time and left the decision-making process to Vijaya Gadde, the Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust, and Yoel Roth.
While the internal communications on January 7, 2021, revealed that Jack Dorsey asked top executives to remain consistent in enforcing Twitter rules, Yoel Roth seemed to disregard the advice. He instead claimed that people were looking up to Twitter to take firm action against Donald Trump.
Following deliberations with Jack Dorsey, Roth was able to get his way with the handling of the US President’s case. “Jack just approved repeat offender for civic integrity,” he announced and paved the way for the permanent suspension of Donald Trump.
“Progress!” exclaims a member of Roth’s Trust and Safety Team.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
The exchange between Roth and his colleagues makes clear that they had been pushing @jack for greater restrictions on the speech Twitter allows around elections.
“The exchange between Roth and his colleagues makes clear that they had been pushing @jack for greater restrictions on the speech Twitter allows around elections,” noted Michael Shellenberger.
The possibility of a ban on Donald Trump excited several Twitter employees. One of them inquired, “Does the incitement to violence aspect change that calculus?” Yoel Roth suggested that the team wait for one more violation by the former US President before they go ahead with their pre-conceived plans.
However, on the following day (January 8, 2021), the top Twitter executives suspended Trump citing the “risk of further incitement of violence.”
Roth’s colleague’s query about “incitement to violence” heavily foreshadows what will happen the following day.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
On January 8, Twitter announces a permanent ban on Trump due to the “risk of further incitement of violence.” pic.twitter.com/psLb5HDGQP
“On January 8, Twitter says its ban is based on “specifically how [Trump’s tweets] are being received & interpreted.” But in 2019, Twitter said it did “not attempt to determine all potential interpretations of the content or its intent,” noted Michael Shellenberger.
The American author noted that some voices within Twitter had raised concerns about the manner in which Donald Trump was de-platformed.
It is interesting to note that on January 7, Roth had said that an account will be permanently banned if it gets 5 strikes, and had told a staff member that Trump has not reached that level as he had only one strike. But on the next day, they anyway permanently banned Donald Trump.
“The *only* serious concern we found expressed within Twitter over the implications for free speech and democracy of banning Trump came from a junior person in the organization,” he emphasised.
The *only* serious concern we found expressed within Twitter over the implications for free speech and democracy of banning Trump came from a junior person in the organization. It was tucked away in a lower-level Slack channel known as “site-integrity-auto.” pic.twitter.com/6CWiz5MXfu
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
“This might be an unpopular opinion but one-off ad hoc decisions like this that don’t appear rooted in policy are IMHO (in my humble opinion) 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…,” the junior Twitter employee had warned.
Michael Shellenberger said that some Twitter employees began to realise the differences between their own political beliefs and Twitter’s policies. It came to the fore during the internal communication over censoring the #stopthesteal hashtag.
Yoel Roth called for blacklisting and de-amplification of the hashtag but was soon warned that it could lead to those using the same hashtag to counter allegations of a rigged election.
Roth immediately DMs a colleague to ask that they add “stopthesteal” & [QAnon conspiracy term] “kraken” to a blacklist of terms to be deamplified.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
Roth’s colleague objects that blacklisting “stopthesteal” risks “deamplifying counterspeech” that validates the election. pic.twitter.com/G02gGeicUW
Having realised that Democrats were using the same hashtag too to call out Donald Trump and claim that the 2020 US Presidential election was fair, Yoel Roth suggested to “de-amplify accounts with #stopthesteal in the name/profile since those are not affiliated with counterspeech.”
Given that several Republican and conservative Twitter accounts were posting screenshots of tweets from Donald Trump’s suspended account, Twitter employees suggested putting those handles under a 12-hour long review (bounce).
But they were soon faced with the challenge to distinguish Democrats from Republicans, who were also re-posting tweets of Donald Trump to mock him.
What if a user dislikes Trump *and* objects to Twitter’s censorship? The tweet still gets deleted. But since the *intention* is not to deny the election result, no punishing strike is applied.
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
“if there are instances where the intent is unclear please feel free to raise” pic.twitter.com/8bdG6b38ej
The top management of Twitter was working overtime to censor pro-Trump tweets and accounts, with being very careful to not touch anti-Trump tweets and accounts, even if they were sharing screenshots of the same tweets of Trump. Essentially, the social media platform was working like a team of Democrats.
The ‘Twitter Files 4.0’ showed how Yoel Roth justified deviation from Twitter policies to justify the ban on Donald Trump’s account. “In this specific case, we’re changing our public interest approach for his account…” he told a senior executive in advertising sales.
He also attempted to de-platform another Republican US House Representative member, Matthew Louis Gaetz II.
Roth pushes for a permanent suspension of Rep. Matt Gaetz even though it “doesn’t quite fit anywhere (duh)”
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
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
“I feel a lot of debates around exceptions stem from the fact that Trump’s account is not technically different from anybody else’ and yet treated differently due to his personal status, without corresponding Twitter rules…” a Twitter engineer altered Safety Head Yoel Roth.
“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,” Roth had justified.
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
The ‘Twitter Files’ has exposed how Yoel Roth has justified the censorship of the infamous New York Post story about Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
In the third tranche of Twitter’s internal communications, it came to light that the former Safety Head at Twitter had regular meetings with federal agencies. He lamented that he could not conceal his meetings with the FBI.
Yoel Roth was also seen patting himself on the back for quickly censoring Donald Trump. The top Twitter executive was also found siding with the Democrats and calling for the removal of warning labels from misleading tweets of party members.
Yoel Roth resigned from Twitter on November 11, following the takeover of the company by Elon Musk. Interestingly, on October 30, Elon Musk said that he supports Roth. He had said that he thinks Yoel Roth has high integrity.
