Elon Musk stated that Twitter had “blacklisted” political candidates and politicians under its previous ownership.
Musk’s warning comes after the release of the second section of the “Twitter Files,” which contains details and documents from within the company that were made public by Musk and his associates as evidence of blacklisting and shadowbanning of conservatives.
Musk answered yes when asked if political candidates were subject to shadowbanning as they ran for office or sought re-election. Musk did not provide further details.
In a Saturday Twitter Spaces, the billionaire admitted that he had not read the documents and was not aware of their contents.
Bari Weiss, a journalist, released the latest batch on Thursday. She shared screenshots of Twitter’s internal interface, showing the limiting tags attached by conservative accounts. These tags included “Search Blacklist,” the “Trends Blacklist” and “Do Not Amplify.” Weiss revealed that several executives, including the former Twitter Head for Trust and Safety Yoel Rot and Parag Agrawal (Twitter CEO), made content moderation decisions regarding major accounts.
Bloomberg reports that Weiss’s screenshots were taken in Ella Irwin’s trust and safety office at Twitter.
Musk was the subject of news when Matt Taibbi, a journalist, released the first version Twitter Files. This revealed details about internal discussions regarding the decision to censor information about Hunter Biden’s laptop right before the 2020 election.
