Twitter ‘blocked stories for US government’

SHORTLY after Elon Musk took over at Twitter, he released internal documents and conversations from the company that took place before his tenure.

These documents have been called the “Twitter files”, and among the revelations that have emerged is alleged evidence of “shadow banning”.

The term refers to the alleged use of algorithms to “de-amplify” tweets so that they only reach a limited audience.

Journalists given exclusive access to the leaked data include former

and reporters. One of the reporters shared screenshots of what was said to be a moderation interface that allowed Twitter employees to tag accounts with labels such as “trends blacklist” or “search blacklist”, which are likely to limit circulation of tweets. The reporters said they found that Twitter’s top content moderators were regularly meeting federal agencies during the 2020 presidential campaign, whom they considered “partners” in flagging election misinformation for removal.

The data leak also gave insight into the decision to prevent sharing of a

story about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, which was published in the critical run up to the 2020 election. The paper alleged the device contained evidence of then presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son’s questiona- ble business dealings, including claims that the now president met one of his son’s Ukrainian associates.

At the time, Twitter blocked users from sharing links to the article, saying it had concerns over misinformation and a report based on possibly hacked materials. The files leak reportedly shows that while Twitter justified this with its policy against hacked materials, there was a lack of consensus among senior executives about whether there was enough reason to censor.

Both Joe Biden and Hunter Biden have always denied any wrongdoing over the Ukraine affair.

Twitter did not respond to questions.