‘I’m treated worse than Hamas’: Targets Kirk, Bongino rage at Twitter’s ‘secret blacklist’

The “Twitter Files” Part Deux dropped on Thursday, causing the Internet to explode, revealing that the social media platform had kept a “secret blacklist” of topics and accounts to keep them from trending as many suspected while calling it “visibility filtering.”

(Video Credit: Fox News)

Journalist Bari Weiss released a new tranche of data and facts on Twitter Thursday evening. Conservatives immediately seized upon the release with one bluntly calling it “Soviet-style bullsh*t” and another claiming that he was handled with more censorship than Hamas, according to the Daily Mail.

Twitter implemented the Global Escalation Team, known as SRT-GET, that dealt with 200 cases a day, reportedly making censorship a full-time endeavor. A higher-level team, known as SIP-PES, “Site Integrity Policy, Policy Escalation Support,” dealt with more complicated and higher-profile cases.

Conservative commentator Dan Bongino was allegedly placed on a “search blacklist.” Fellow conservative Charlie Kirk was marked “do not amplify.”

Bongino called it “Soviet-style bullsh*t.”

“They’re treating my Twitter account with more scrutiny and censorship than the prime minister of Iran, than Hamas, than people who do actual terroristic type damage,” Kirk asserted. “Now we have evidence to show that’s exactly why my Twitter account the last couple of years has been down 95 percent in engagement.”

Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was also put on a “search blacklist” over questioning the validity of COVID lockdowns and mask mandates and how they harmed children.

Weiss reported that the censorship by Twitter was branded “visibility filtering” to suppress accounts they objected to. Twitter used teams to reduce the traction gained by individuals or their tweets.

“Think about visibility filtering as being a way for us to suppress what people see to different levels. It’s a very powerful tool,” one senior Twitter employee told Weiss.

The “Site Integrity Policy, Policy Escalation Support” team oversaw the whole suppression effort. Top management and legal advisors made the decisions on sensitive cases of censorship. Jack Dorsey and his successor CEO, Parag Agrawal, were both on the team.

The head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, wrote in internal messages that he was seeking more creative ways of censoring and muffling specific accounts and content.

“The hypothesis underlying much of what we’ve implemented is that if exposure to, e.g., misinformation directly causes harm, we should use remediations that reduce exposure, and limiting the spread/virality of content is a good way to do that,” Yoel Roth wrote.

“We got Jack on board with implementing this for civic integrity in the near term, but we’re going to need to make a more robust case to get this into our repertoire of policy remediations – especially for other policy domains,” he added.

Musk defended Dorsey, “Controversial decisions were often made without getting Jack’s approval and he was unaware of systemic bias. The inmates were running the asylum. Jack has a pure heart IMO.”

Musk was thrilled with the release by Weiss.

“As @bariweiss clearly describes, the rules were enforced against the right, but not against the left,” Musk commented. He added that the company was “working on a software update that will show your true account status, so you know clearly if you’ve been shadowbanned, the reason why and how to appeal.”

“Truth brings reconciliation,” Musk wrote.

According to the Daily Mail, “Twitter would block searches of individual users, make a specific tweet less easy to find, block posts from the ‘trending’ page, and remove them from hashtag searches.”

Libs of TikTok, which has caused a political earthquake on Twitter exposing leftists and their grooming tendencies, had its account tabbed internally, “Do Not Take Action on User Without Consulting With SIP-PES.”

The account was suspended seven times by October 2022. Author Chaya Raichik had her account blocked for at least a week each time in an attempt to intimidate and silence her.

Twitter claimed the account was suspended for violating the company’s “hateful conduct” policy but according to Weiss, internally they admitted there was no violation. Weiss obtained an October 2022 memo from SIP-PES that stated the account “has not directly engaged in behavior violative of the Hateful Conduct policy.”

The justification for the suspensions of Libs of TikTok included the assertion that her posts encouraged online harassment of “hospitals and medical providers” by insinuating “that gender-affirming healthcare is equivalent to child abuse or grooming.”

“They suspended me multiple times knowing I never violated any policies. This is what happens when you talk about things that they don’t want you to talk about. So glad those days on Twitter are over. Thank you @elonmusk,” Raichik tweeted.

“You’re welcome. Twitter won’t be perfect in the future, but it will be *much* better,” Musk responded.

Both Dorsey and Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s head of Legal, Policy, and Trust have denied in the past that there was ever any shadow banning at Twitter.

The dropping of the “Twitter Files” Part Deux comes after James Baker, Twitter’s general counsel and a former FBI general counsel, was fired when it was discovered that he vetted the first installment of the files.

Republished with permission from American Wire News Service

Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Latest Articles