Proof emerges that Twitter was inherently an anti-free speech platform before Musk buyout

A recent investigation revealed that Twitter played an incredibly active role in monitoring user accounts based on the content they shared. Twitter employees would place such accounts on blacklists, alter their visibility, and more. 

"A new #TwitterFiles investigation reveals that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavoured tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics - all in secret, without informing users," Tweeted Bari Weiss, the Editor for the Free Press.

How did Twitter control what you think?

Twitter used a powerful tool known as the Visibility Filter (VF) to control the reach of certain tweets. "It used VF to block searches of individual users; to limit the scope of a particular tweet's discoverability; to block select users' posts from ever appearing on the trending page, and from inclusion in hashtag searches." elaborated Weiss, explaining how the tool worked.

What makes this particularly nefarious is the fact that there was a specific group, known as the Strategic Response Team - Global Escalation Team, who was responsible for ensuring that certain tweets never saw the light of day. The group included Twitter’s Global Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth, Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust, Vijaya Gadde, CEOs Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal, and others.

1. A new #TwitterFiles investigation reveals that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics—all in secret, without informing users.

— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 9, 2022

"This is where the biggest, most politically sensitive decisions got made. Think high follower account, controversial, another Twitter employee told us. For these there would be no ticket or anything," she said.

These investigations highlight the importance of Free Speech on Twitter, and perhaps create a strong argument for why Elon Musk’s new policies will actually take the platform in the right direction.

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