Twitter files, second episode. A former New York Times journalist, Bari Weiss, has published what for Elon Musk would be further evidence that Twitter has been a partisan social network for years. Where the management team has deliberately obscured the voice of those who had different opinions. Often right-wing commentators and journalists. Or academics with different ideas about the Biden presidency’s anti-covid policies.
In the first episode, another independent journalist, Matt Taibbi, revealed the pressures of the political class (of the right and of the left) on the social network. In the second Weiss published internal documents and screenshots that would demonstrate the existence of ‘blacklists’ of uncomfortable characters. All Americans. Whose voices had to be ‘muffled’ by the algorithms in such a way as to limit their scope.
Profiles blocked by Twitter
The screenshots and documents appear authentic and no one currently questions their existence and scope. But many question whether it is entirely legitimate for independent journalists to work to expose truths that Musk deems obscured. An open debate on Twitter, which however tells how the American public at the moment has received these publications with some coldness.
The interest is there. But it seems concentrated more in the United States. Also because in the Twitter Files, at the moment, there are no names of influential people outside the States. Names like that of the Stanford University professor, Jay Bhattacharya, who would have been crippled by the social network for his criticisms of the lockdowns decided by the American administration to stem the pandemic.
Some accounts would have been excluded from Twitter’s “trend list”. Others made to disappear from the internal search engine of the platform. All actions aimed at reducing its views.
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The interference of American politics on social media
The latest revelations also include internal messages from Yoel Roth, former head of “security and integrity” of Twitter. Here the former executive appears to ask for measures to contain visibility for some accounts, even if they had not officially violated the policy of the platform.
The publication of the second part of the “Twitter Files” came later than initially announced by Musk himself: in recent days, the latter in fact fired the legal manager of Twitter and former legal manager of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), James Baker, accusing him of having censored his own initiative a part of the documents to obscure the role of the FBI in the management of the contents of the social network.
Musk launched the “Twitter Files” as an attempt to prove that his predecessors at Twitter practiced censorship. In agreement with governments and under pressure from political parties. However, not everyone agrees. Most commentators believe that the actions taken by the managers were attempts – sometimes clumsy – to stem a phenomenon that is difficult to stem: the proliferation of disinformation via social media.
The amanuensis work of the moderators on Twitter
Another case highlighted by Weiss is that of the Libsoftiktok account. Hence, those who provided information and medical care to facilitate the transition from one sex to the other in transgenders were attacked rather aggressively. Among the institutions victims of his invectives, the hospital in Boston, then the subject of threats and a bomb threat that caused its structures to be evacuated. Libsoftiktok was temporarily suspended by Twitter and other measures were taken, although the social network did not permanently ban the account, as requested by some civil rights groups.
Legitimate action or obstacle to freedom of expression? The case of Libsofttiktok is quite emblematic because it involves the rights of a minority and that of freedom of expression.
The very thorny issue for social media is guaranteeing the latter, without harming rights. There is no algorithm capable of intervening in a prudent way. All the actions would have been done ‘by hand’ by the employees, with direct interventions, profile by profile, as the published screenshots show. A job that seems more like an amanuensis than a software technician.
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Musk these days repeats that Twitter will increase its measures against hate speech and disinformation. It will block fewer users and fewer posts will be restricted. “Twitter’s new policy is for freedom of speech, but not freedom to reach everyone,” Musk said last month, adding, of the negative and hate tweets, “You won’t find the tweet unless you specifically search for it.” , which is no different than the rest of the Internet.”
Following Weiss’ report on Thursday, Musk tweeted, “Twitter is working on a software update that will show the true status of your account, so you clearly know if you’ve been shadowbanned, why, and how to appeal.”
The race to control content, from Twitter to Youtube
Twitter was the first social network to adopt strong content moderation. It happened after January 6, 2021, after the storming of the Capitol by pro Trump protesters.
Other industry players have also moved in this direction, notably Google-owned YouTube, which has made limiting distribution and recommending borderline content a key part of its efforts to limit the spread of conspiracy theories and disinformation.
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Facebook has done the same, but the phenomenon of fake news and hate speech seems to have had less impact on the social network of the galaxy Mark Zuckerberg, who has opted to show more results of friends and people whose interests are shared.
Meanwhile Weiss and Taibbi announce a new episode. At the moment, however, it is not known when the new publication of the Twitter Files will take place.