Past Twitter Files leaks have revealed shocking details. The FBI’s direct involvement in the suppression of free speech is perhaps the most astonishing revelation. But the investigation into corruption is not over. It’s not over.
For me, this is the next big installment that we have been anticipating. It focuses on Twitter’s suppression of speech regarding COVID-19 and contains some unexpected reveals. The Trump administration was not in control of how it coordinated with Twitter to fight “misinformation.”
4. The United States government pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to elevate certain content and suppress other content about Covid-19.
— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022
6. At the onset of the pandemic, according to meeting notes, the Trump admin was especially concerned about panic buying. They came looking for “help from the tech companies to combat misinformation” about “runs on grocery stores.” But . . . there were runs on grocery stores. pic.twitter.com/duzk2I1Y7T
— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022
Although I might be partisan, I am not a hacker. My consistent standard regarding “misinformation,” has been that the government should not have any role in its policing. It’s just too many things that could happen in the area of abuse of power, and violations of the First Amendment, for politicians or bureaucrats to touch that third rail. While the Trump administration had good intentions and their transgressions were not as severe, it is still disappointing that they played that game.
Joe Biden went even further.
8. When the Biden admin took over, one of their first meeting requests with Twitter executives was on Covid. The focus was on “anti-vaxxer accounts.” Especially Alex Berenson: pic.twitter.com/yBNeF2YbD3
— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022
11. A December 2022 summary of meetings with the White House by Lauren Culbertson, Twitter’s Head of U.S. Public Policy, adds new evidence of the White House’s pressure campaign, and cements that it repeatedly attempted to directly influence the platform.
— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022
Zweig explains that Twitter began to conform to official White House views. This meant that medical professionals sharing evidence-based views about natural immunity and mask effectiveness were outlawed or even banned. Much of this was accomplished by bots that were trained through machine learning to recognize certain words and phrases.
Moderation was also outsourced to countries like the Philippines, where low-level workers were expected to hear serious discussions about issues like vaccine side effects. This was a bad move if you are a believer in free speech and truth. Twitter’s top executives set the tone by setting the agenda, giving inputs to the AI, and telling moderation teams what they should look for.
Zweig continues to list examples of medical professionals who were banned or suppressed, with Dr. Martin Kulldorff as “Exhibit A.”
21. Internal emails show an “intent to action” by a moderator, saying Kulldorff’s tweet violated the company’s Covid-19 misinformation policy and claimed he shared “false information.” pic.twitter.com/lq9QOP8h27
— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022
22. But Kulldorff’s statement was an expert’s opinion—one which also happened to be in line with vaccine policies in numerous other countries. Yet it was deemed “false information” by Twitter moderators merely because it differed from CDC guidelines.
— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022
Oddly, I still remember Kulldorff’s tweet and being shocked that it was misinformation. Natural immunity wasn’t a new concept. Therefore, for someone to suggest that people who have it don’t need to hurry to get vaccinated shouldn’t be controversial. It was incompatible with the White House’s vaccination message which was to vaccinate every living being. This was quickly discredited and misinformation was used (falsely).
Another example is this: a bot flagging an article and then a human confirming what should have been reversed.
25. A tweet by @KelleyKga, a self-proclaimed public health fact checker, with 18K followers, was flagged as “Misleading,” and replies and likes disabled, even though it displayed the CDC’s *own data.* pic.twitter.com/8ABQzYGpXf
— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022
If you used the CDC data to prove an objective fact, you would be expelled under Twitter’s old regime. This is how committed they were to a set of talking points. It’s even worse that these talking points were provided by the government, specifically the White House and CDC.
To be clear, the information I have highlighted is only a small part of the entire story. Zweig’s thread goes on from there. We haven’t received the internal documents dealing with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s intrusions yet. They are likely to come, I would guess. Keep watching.
