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Twitter's shadow ban is real, Elon Musk exposes corporate liberal bias
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Twitter's shadow ban is real, Elon Musk exposes corporate liberal bias

The 'Twitter Files' show powerful censorship of conservatives

Emily Miller
Dec 10, 2022
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Twitter's shadow ban is real, Elon Musk exposes corporate liberal bias
www.emilypostnews.com

I’ve been frustrated for years by being shadow banned on Twitter. I notice it when there is a big drop off in retweets and comments or a significant decrease in followers after I write about certain topics the left hates (guns, ivermectin, Donald Trump.)

Now Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk has revealed that silencing conservatives was an active part of the corporate plan. Toldayso.

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I see shadows

Shadow ban means a platform’s algorithm forces lesser engagement with an account. I repeatedly spoke out about my perception of this censorship. I wrote in 2019:

Twitter avatar for @emilymiller
Emily Miller @emilymiller
@USAFirst55 @seanmdav I need a smart tech person to give me a guide to check my Facebook page and twitter to know if I’ve been shadow banned. I’ve thought it odd that follower numbers on both have a ceiling.
1:05 AM ∙ Mar 19, 2019

In 2020:

Twitter avatar for @emilymiller
Emily Miller @emilymiller
@DcTab Hmm well thanks for letting me know. I think shadow banning conservatives on this platform is a real thing. I’ll be watching the hearing @tedcruz is having next week closely !
1:46 AM ∙ Oct 20, 2020

May 2022:

Twitter avatar for @emilymiller
Emily Miller @emilymiller
I’m risking shadow ban and deplatformed (again) on other social media sites… but my series is a factual report on a hospitalized COVID patient who sued for Ivermectin and lost, took it in secret and is now home. 🧵6/6 #EmilyPosts #DeputyJones emilypostnews.com/p/texas-sherif…
emilypostnews.comTexas sheriff deputy who sued for Ivermectin secretly got the medication and came home (Exclusive)Jason Jones hospitalized with COVID and wife fought for right to try
8:51 PM ∙ May 20, 2022
75Likes28Retweets

Call us crazy

Over the years of tweeting about the shadow ban, people responded that I was paranoid or just didn’t have an active following. Some just mocked me. Look at the responses to this tweet last April:

Twitter avatar for @emilymiller
Emily Miller @emilymiller
All these people saying they are leaving Twitter if Elon Musk owns it are weak and deserve to lose. Those of us who have been censored and shadow banned BUT PERSISTED for the sake of free speech of our ideas and information demonstrated strength and deserve a win.
3:03 PM ∙ Apr 25, 2022
225Likes25Retweets

One response to me:

Twitter avatar for @ahhhhMahgeetah
C Wilson @ahhhhMahgeetah
@emilymiller @BHOOLZ “Journalist”. Lol
5:47 PM ∙ Apr 26, 2022

Ashley Brook, who is supposedly an impartial news anchor at local TV affiliate CBS-19 News in Charlottesville, VA, tweeted in reply:

Twitter avatar for @AshleyAReports
Ashley Brooks @AshleyAReports
@emilymiller Embarrassing 🙄
3:08 PM ∙ Apr 25, 2022

Now seven months later, Brooks should be embarrassed to learn that shadow banning is both real and an effective method by Twitter to silence free speech.

Musk’s revelations

We now know this because Musk released a second round of “Twitter Files”, which give evidence of shadow banning by the company. At the same time, Musk offered a fix. He said the company will release software that will enable accounts to know if they are being shadow banned, why and a way to appeal.

The blacklist

Substack writer

Bari Weiss
did a long thread on Thursday night about how Twitter deliberately and systematically decreased the public’s ability to get information from conservative accounts. You can read her thread unrolled here. 

Weiss, who used to report for The New York Times, called the thread “Twitter’s secret blacklist.” She showed screenshots of accounts that were prevented from getting on the trending topics list, being found in searches or amplified solely because liberal Twitter executives hate the right. Here are two examples: 

Twitter avatar for @bariweiss
Bari Weiss @bariweiss
3. Take, for example, Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) who argued that Covid lockdowns would harm children. Twitter secretly placed him on a “Trends Blacklist,” which prevented his tweets from trending.
Image
12:30 AM ∙ Dec 9, 2022
107,248Likes27,877Retweets

Dan Bongino, the super popular conservative commentator, was blocked from showing up in searches on Twitter:

Twitter avatar for @bariweiss
Bari Weiss @bariweiss
4. Or consider the popular right-wing talk show host, Dan Bongino (@dbongino), who at one point was slapped with a “Search Blacklist.”
Image
12:33 AM ∙ Dec 9, 2022
80,441Likes17,168Retweets

@Jack approved

Weiss also reported that Twitter’s former CEO Jack Dorsey approved the system in the interest of “civic integrity.” 

Twitter avatar for @emilymiller
Emily Miller @emilymiller
@bariweiss So @jack was in on it too. #TwitterFiles
1:29 AM ∙ Dec 9, 2022
341Likes71Retweets

Dorsey had testified before Congress (UNDER OATH!) that Twitter does not shadow ban. See this video: 

Twitter avatar for @RealKyleMorris
Kyle Morris @RealKyleMorris
During his testimony before Congress in September 2018, then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was asked whether Twitter was "shadowbanning prominent Republicans." "No," Dorsey responded. #TwitterFiles2
1:36 AM ∙ Dec 9, 2022
12,620Likes4,634Retweets

Well, Dorsey lied and so did the company’s top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, who declared in this 2018 post:

we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.

Share

Dorsey’s lie is bold because two days earlier, he appealed to Musk to release all the internal files to “build trust”:

Twitter avatar for @jack
jack @jack
@elonmusk If the goal is transparency to build trust, why not just release everything without filter and let people judge for themselves? Including all discussions around current and future actions? Make everything public now. #TwitterFiles
12:36 PM ∙ Dec 7, 2022
52,826Likes6,844Retweets

Free the Twitter files

I have no idea why Dorsey would want to be known as part of the liberal censorship operation at Twitter, but I agree with him on this point of disclosure.

Like I wrote about the first Twitter Files release about Hunter Biden’s laptop from another Substack writer,

Matt Taibbi
, I appreciate that independent journalists are getting access to these internal corporate documents before major media outlets.

However, I think Musk would better build public trust if he dumped the files online and let the public read them firsthand. It also would allow other reporters like me to write about them without explaining that the information is being filtered. 

Out of the shadows

Anyway, back to the truth on shadow banning. The reason this is such a big deal (though you won’t read about it in most mainstream publications) is that conservative outlet and their reach are tiny compared to liberal ones.

The only way conservative news and analysis can reach an audience even partly the size of the mainstream one is by using social media to amplify the reporting.

Thus, Twitter’s years of keeping our content hidden from users led to a less informed, more liberal public. It is an astounding effort to limit free speech to help one political party. I’m glad to see there are a few rays of sun shining through in Silicon Valley.

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Twitter's shadow ban is real, Elon Musk exposes corporate liberal bias
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20 Comments
Bob Wire
Dec 12, 2022Liked by Emily Miller

The rumor on @jack was that he lived kind of a”hippie” life -like Steve martin in BAby Daddy - and only appeared to repeat platitudes. The real power was Vijay and Yoel, and later Parag - they ran an ad-hoc block and tackle with their friends from the deep state. Very sad and really sad to read that no one seemed to even consider that acting at the direction of the government had serious 1st amendment implications. I do have some respect for Ro Khana, though - he’s the only D that had some sense. No R even tried, but I’msure they thought it was useless.

As to the hearing procedure, you could have true oversight and less sound bite-isms. Would t it be nice to have a hearing where they said “director Wray, how many fbi agents were undercover on J6?” Or “scy mayorkas, how many people are illegally crossing the border in the last month?” And getting an actual answer and not “I don’t have that information here, Senator, but I can assure you that the border is secure”.

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Benjamin McLeod
Dec 12, 2022Liked by Emily Miller

*Toldyaso

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