The Twitter Files Part IV Unrolled
Roth is clearly the villain in this story.
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
1. TWITTER FILES, PART 4
The Removal of Donald Trump: January 7
As the pressure builds, Twitter executives build the case for a permanent ban
11:28 PM · Dec 10, 2022
346 Reposts · 735 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
On Jan 7, senior Twitter execs:
- 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
11:29 PM · Dec 10, 2022
82 Reposts · 249 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
For those catching up, please see:
Part 1, where @mtaibbi documents how senior Twitter executives violated their own policies to prevent the spread of accurate information about Hunter Biden’s laptop;
Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi
1. Thread: THE TWITTER FILES
11:30 PM · Dec 10, 2022
47 Reposts · 159 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Part 2, where @bariweiss shows how senior Twitter execs created secret blacklists to “de-amplify” disfavored Twitter users, not just specific tweets;
Bari Weiss @bariweiss
THREAD: THE TWITTER FILES PART TWO.
TWITTER’S SECRET BLACKLISTS.
11:32 PM · Dec 10, 2022
17 Reposts · 51 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
And Part 3, where @mtaibbi documents how senior Twitter execs censored tweets by Trump in the run-up to the Nov 2020 election while regularly engaging with representatives of U.S. government law enforcement agencies.
Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi
1. THREAD: The Twitter Files
THE REMOVAL OF DONALD TRUMP
Part One: October 2020-January 6th
11:32 PM · Dec 10, 2022
25 Reposts · 93 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
For years, Twitter had resisted calls to ban Trump.
“Blocking a world leader from Twitter,” it wrote in 2018, “would hide important info... [and] hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.”
Twitter Public Policy @Policy
Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate. It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.
11:35 PM · Dec 10, 2022
46 Reposts · 124 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
But after the events of Jan 6, the internal and external pressure on Twitter CEO @jack grows.
Former First Lady @MichelleObama , tech journalist @karaswisher , @ADL , high-tech VC @ChrisSacca , and many others, publicly call on Twitter to permanently ban Trump.
11:44 PM · Dec 10, 2022
20 Reposts · 46 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Dorsey was on vacation in French Polynesia the week of January 4-8, 2021. He phoned into meetings but also delegated much of the handling of the situation to senior execs @yoyoel , Twitter’s Global Head of Trust and Safety, and @vijaya Head of Legal, Policy, & Trust.
11:48 PM · Dec 10, 2022
14 Reposts · 32 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
As context, it's important to understand that Twitter’s staff & senior execs were overwhelmingly progressive.
In 2018, 2020, and 2022, 96%, 98%, & 99% of Twitter staff's political donations went to Democrats.
Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi
11. This system wasn't balanced. It was based on contacts. Because Twitter was and is overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation, there were more channels, more ways to complain, open to the left (well, Democrats) than the right. https://t.co/sa1uVRNhuH https://t.co/K1xmqQ0TrD
11:52 PM · Dec 10, 2022
295 Reposts · 795 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
In 2017, Roth tweeted that there were “ACTUAL NAZIS IN THE WHITE HOUSE.”
In April 2022, Roth told a colleague that his goal “is to drive change in the world,” which is why he decided not to become an academic.
11:54 PM · Dec 10, 2022
171 Reposts · 412 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
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
After, Roth reassures an employee that "people who care about this... aren't happy with where we are"
11:59 PM · Dec 10, 2022
41 Reposts · 82 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Around 11:30 am PT, Roth DMs his colleagues with news that he is excited to share.
“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.
12:09 AM · Dec 11, 2022
260 Reposts · 743 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
“Progress!” exclaims a member of Roth’s Trust and Safety Team.
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.
12:12 AM · Dec 11, 2022
210 Reposts · 686 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
The colleague wants to know if the decision means Trump can finally be banned. The person asks, "does the incitement to violence aspect change that calculus?”
Roth says it doesn't. "Trump continues to just have his one strike" (remaining).
12:17 AM · Dec 11, 2022
77 Reposts · 147 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Roth's colleague's query about "incitement to violence" heavily foreshadows what will happen the following day.
On January 8, Twitter announces a permanent ban on Trump due to the "risk of further incitement of violence."
12:24 AM · Dec 11, 2022
38 Reposts · 72 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
On J8, 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.”
https://t.co/2jW1s5pH4W
12:31 AM · Dec 11, 2022
76 Reposts · 186 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
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."
12:38 AM · Dec 11, 2022
260 Reposts · 743 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
"This might be an unpopular opinion but one off ad hoc decisions like this that don’t appear rooted in policy are imho 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..."
12:40 AM · Dec 11, 2022
327 Reposts · 1.17K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
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.
12:45 AM · Dec 11, 2022
128 Reposts · 376 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Recall from #TwitterFiles2 by @bariweiss that, according to Twitter staff, "We control visibility quite a bit. And we control the amplification of your content quite a bit. And normal people do not know how much we do."
Bari Weiss @bariweiss
11. “We control visibility quite a bit. And we control the amplification of your content quite a bit. And normal people do not know how much we do,” one Twitter engineer told us. Two additional Twitter employees confirmed.
1:08 AM · Dec 11, 2022
77 Reposts · 214 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Twitter employees recognize the difference between their own politics & Twitter's Terms of Service (TOS), but they also engage in complex interpretations of content in order to stamp out prohibited tweets, as a series of exchanges over the "#stopthesteal" hashtag reveal.
1:10 AM · Dec 11, 2022
118 Reposts · 269 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Roth immediately DMs a colleague to ask that they add "stopthesteal" & [QAnon conspiracy term] "kraken" to a blacklist of terms to be deamplified.
Roth's colleague objects that blacklisting "stopthesteal" risks "deamplifying counterspeech" that validates the election.
1:23 AM · Dec 11, 2022
137 Reposts · 380 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Indeed, notes Roth's colleague, "a quick search of top stop the steal tweets and they’re counterspeech"
But they quickly come up with a solution: "deamplify accounts with stopthesteal in the name/profile" since "those are not affiliated with counterspeech"
1:35 AM · Dec 11, 2022
28 Reposts · 71 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
But it turns out that even blacklisting "kraken" is less straightforward than they thought. That's because kraken, in addition to being a QAnon conspiracy theory based on the mythical Norwegian sea monster, is also the name of a cryptocurrency exchange, and was thus "allowlisted"
1:44 AM · Dec 11, 2022
104 Reposts · 327 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Employees struggle with whether to punish users who share screenshots of Trump's deleted J6 tweets
"we should bounce these tweets with a strike given the screen shot violates the policy"
"they are criticising Trump, so I am bit hesitant with applying strike to this user"
2:04 AM · Dec 11, 2022
101 Reposts · 323 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
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.
"if there are instances where the intent is unclear please feel free to raise"
2:16 AM · Dec 11, 2022
418 Reposts · 1.47K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Around noon, a confused senior executive in advertising sales sends a DM to Roth.
Sales exec: "jack says: 'we will permanently suspend [Trump] if our policies are violated after a 12 hour account lock'… what policies is jack talking about?"
Roth: "*ANY* policy violation"
2:26 AM · Dec 11, 2022
141 Reposts · 368 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
What happens next is essential to understanding how Twitter justified banning Trump.
Sales exec: "are we dropping the public interest [policy] now..."
Roth, six hours later: "In this specific case, we're changing our public interest approach for his account..."
2:32 AM · Dec 11, 2022
345 Reposts · 1.04K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
The ad exec is referring to Twitter’s policy of “Public-interest exceptions," which allows the content of elected officials, even if it violates Twitter rules, “if it directly contributes to understanding or discussion of a matter of public concern”
https://t.co/xTs14fD8V9
2:40 AM · Dec 11, 2022
47 Reposts · 112 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Roth pushes for a permanent suspension of Rep. Matt Gaetz even though it “doesn’t quite fit anywhere (duh)”
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.”
2:52 AM · Dec 11, 2022
366 Reposts · 1.09K Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Around 2:30, comms execs DM Roth to say they don't want to make a big deal of the QAnon ban to the media because they fear "if we push this it looks we’re trying to offer up something in place of the thing everyone wants," meaning a Trump ban.
2:58 AM · Dec 11, 2022
56 Reposts · 159 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
That evening, a Twitter engineer DMs to Roth to say, "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_.."
3:00 AM · Dec 11, 2022
138 Reposts · 371 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
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."
3:04 AM · Dec 11, 2022
145 Reposts · 430 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
The evening of January 7, the same junior employee who expressed an "unpopular opinion" about "ad hoc decisions... that don’t appear rooted in policy," speaks up one last time before the end of the day.
Michael Shellenberger @ShellenbergerMD
"This might be an unpopular opinion but one off ad hoc decisions like this that don’t appear rooted in policy are imho 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..." https://t.co/4pedmgY8pa
3:07 AM · Dec 11, 2022
73 Reposts · 234 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
Earlier that day, the employee wrote, "My concern is specifically surrounding the unarticulated logic of the decision by FB. That space fills with the idea (conspiracy theory?) that all... internet moguls... sit around like kings casually deciding what people can and cannot see."
3:12 AM · Dec 11, 2022
133 Reposts · 433 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
The employee notes, later in the day, "And Will Oremus noticed the inconsistency too...," linking to an article for OneZero at Medium called, "Facebook Chucked Its Own Rulebook to Ban Trump."
onezero.medium.com
Facebook Chucked Its Own Rulebook to Ban Trump
3:14 AM · Dec 11, 2022
81 Reposts · 190 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
"The underlying problem," writes @WillOremus , is that “the dominant platforms have always been loath to own up to their subjectivity, because it highlights the extraordinary, unfettered power they wield over the global public square...
3:15 AM · Dec 11, 2022
202 Reposts · 725 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
"... and places the responsibility for that power on their own shoulders… So they hide behind an ever-changing rulebook, alternately pointing to it when it’s convenient and shoving it under the nearest rug when it isn’t.”
onezero.medium.com
Facebook Chucked Its Own Rulebook to Ban Trump
3:16 AM · Dec 11, 2022
203 Reposts · 667 Likes
Michael Shellenberger@ShellenbergerMD
“Facebook’s suspension of Trump now puts Twitter in an awkward position. If Trump does indeed return to Twitter, the pressure on Twitter will ramp up to find a pretext on which to ban him as well.”
Indeed. And as @bariweiss will show tomorrow, that’s exactly what happened.
/END
3:17 AM · Dec 11, 2022
202 Reposts · 737 Likes
Thank you Brad for this #4 entry of “Evil Personified”. I’m gobsmacked....
Again, thanks. Here's to all the Kings of the World that believe they should (Must) control what the great unwashed read and hear. So relieved that they protected me.