The third part of “Twitter Files” has been released to the public. This part delves into what led to Donald Trump’s Twitter account suspension.
Due to the potential for additional instigation of violence, Twitter permanently deleted former US President Donald Trump’s account earlier last year.
The first part of “Twitter Files,” author Matt Taibbi has provided information regarding the circumstances that led to the suspension.
1. THREAD: The Twitter Files
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
THE REMOVAL OF DONALD TRUMP
Part One: October 2020-January 6th
Taibbi revealed screenshots of Twitter executives’ internal interactions from Slack. The latest tweets from Elon Musk are captioned “Deplatforming the President.” According to a recent discussion, Twitter officials were ready to ban future presidents, even Joe Biden. According to Taibbi, Twitter broke its own rules in the process.
The Twitter Files, Part 3
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2022
Deplatforming the President https://t.co/nvdlRNYXxA
Regardless of the users’ opinions on Trump’s actions, according to Taibbi, what transpired on Twitter during the entire process is of historical importance.
He claims that Twitter officials were actively filtering content at the request of the representatives of federal agencies and had strong contacts with them.
For instance, he says that on October 8, 2020, company officials set up a channel named “us2020_xfn_enforcement” where they could discuss the removal of election-related information and high-profile users.
14. On October 8th, 2020, executives opened a channel called “us2020_xfn_enforcement.” Through J6, this would be home for discussions about election-related removals, especially ones that involved “high-profile” accounts (often called “VITs” or “Very Important Tweeters”). pic.twitter.com/xH29h4cYt9
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
According to Taibbi, a “high-speed Supreme Court of moderation” is made up of Twitter executives and is based on “guesses, gut instinct, even Google searches, even in situations involving the President.”
He adds that neither the Trump campaign nor the Trump administration nor Republicans submitted any demands for moderation.
According to the records, Yoel Roth, the former director of Trust and Safety, met monthly with federal agencies, including the FBI. Screenshots obtained by Taibbi reveal discussions in which Roth is evidently ghosting some of these FBI sessions.
20. This post about the Hunter Biden laptop situation shows that Roth not only met weekly with the FBI and DHS, but with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI): pic.twitter.com/s5IiUjQqIY
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
23. Some of Roth’s later Slacks indicate his weekly confabs with federal law enforcement involved separate meetings. Here, he ghosts the FBI and DHS, respectively, to go first to an “Aspen Institute thing,” then take a call with Apple. pic.twitter.com/i771hD8aCD
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
Twitter Files Part 4
This weekend, on Saturday, Michael Shellenberger released the fourth part of “Twitter Files” on a Twitter thread.
1. TWITTER FILES, PART 4
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 10, 2022
The Removal of Donald Trump: January 7
As the pressure builds, Twitter executives build the case for a permanent ban
The latest part of these files uncovered information on Twitter’s content moderation prior to Musk centered on staff members’ responses to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. This came before President Trump’s ban on January 8, 2021.
Yoel Roth, the former head of Trust and Safety at Twitter, ordered an anonymous employee to ban the phrases “stopthesteal” and “kraken” on January 7, according to screenshots that Shellenberger posted. These terms supported the myth that Trump won the 2020 election.
Following multiple violations of the community standards, former CEO Jack Dorsey decided to impose permanent bans. A later chart from January 7 revealed that pressure from Twitter employees played a role in this decision.
On January 7, @Jack emails employees saying Twitter needs to remain consistent in its policies, including the right of users to return to Twitter after a temporary suspension
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 10, 2022
After, Roth reassures an employee that "people who care about this… aren't happy with where we are" pic.twitter.com/IfDpEVnOtR
On that day, Dorsey delivered an internal email to the whole firm in which he promised that the social media platform would continue to adhere to its rules.
Hours later, Roth sent a message to coworkers announcing that Dorsey had authorized a new “repeat offender” strategy to Twitter’s “strikes” system, where a user would be permanently banned after accumulating five strikes.
Around 11:30 am PT, Roth DMs his colleagues with news that he is excited to share.
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 11, 2022
“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
The next day, Trump’s personal account received the five-strike permanent suspension.
Roth's colleague's query about "incitement to violence" heavily foreshadows what will happen the following day.
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) 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
Shellenberger’s threat also revealed examples when workers took action against tweets or users without a particular Twitter policy to support the decision.
Twitter employees use the term "one off" frequently in their Slack discussions. Its frequent use reveals significant employee discretion over when and whether to apply warning labels on tweets and "strikes" on users. Here are typical examples. pic.twitter.com/nnhEgmwXLg
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) December 11, 2022
Just over a month after Musk bought the social media company, the first part of the “Twitter File on free speech suppression” was released. By releasing the vast collection of internal papers with former New York Times writer Bari Weiss and independent journalist Matt Taibbi, Musk is demonstrating that he is keeping his commitment to transform Twitter into a “free speech” platform by the inclusion of the threads.
Shellenberger has apparently joined their effort since then by publishing the fourth part.