Twitter Files: Ban Trump and Free Speech
Elon Musk has unmasked how the Left rigged the election and deceived the American people. It’s time to fight the rotten and corrupt cabal that is trying to control our lives and how we think.
Elon Musk has exposed former Twitter executives’ efforts to suppress free speech and promote a woke progressive political bias on its social media platform. On Jan 7, senior Twitter execs: - create justifications to ban Trump and 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.
Internal correspondence shows that Twitter executives partnered with the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to coordinate efforts to censor and moderate election discussions and content. Twitter executives removed Trump in part over what one executive called the “context surrounding” actions by Trump and supporters “throughout the election and frankly last 4+ years.”
The government may not direct social media platforms to censor expression of certain viewpoints about politics, Covid-19, or anything else. The law is clear that the First Amendment prohibits government from using private companies to accomplish what it cannot do directly. The challenge for individuals to bring a case alleging censorship will almost always be impossible—without discovery—to prove the government targeted a specific person.
In my view, Twitter executives censored and silenced voices to manage and shape public narratives. The objective was to prevent Trump from winning a second term as President. Government agencies ‘suggested’ and Twitter complied enthusiastically, regardless of company rules and a clear violation of the first amendment. As a private company, Twitter has the right to restrict what is said on its platform, but if it does so on behalf of the government, it violates constitutional guarantees of free speech.
In the months before January 6, there was an erosion of standards within Twitter: decisions by high-ranking executives violated company policies during an ongoing and documented interaction with federal agencies. Twitter removed President Donald Trump on January 8 after the January 6 Capitol riots. As soon as they banned Trump, Twitter execs started processing new [censorship] powers.
The internal correspondence following January 6 shows Twitter executives enjoying their intensified relationship with federal agencies. Here’s Trust and Safety head Yoel Roth lamenting a lack of “generic enough” calendar descriptions to conceal his “very interesting” meeting partners—the FBI, DNI, and DHS.
Roth’s past tweets reveal hatred and contempt for Trump and his supporters. In 2017 Roth tweeted that there was an “ACTUAL NAZIS IN THE WHITE HOUSE” and that “this is the reason we fly over those states that voted for a racist tangerine.”
The initial reports are based on searches for docs linked to prominent executives, whose names are already public. They include Roth, former trust and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, and recently plank-walked and disgraced Deputy General Counsel (and former top FBI lawyer) Jim Baker.
There was tension between Safety Operations – a larger department whose staffers used a more rules-based process for addressing issues like porn, scams, and threats – and a smaller, more powerful cadre of senior policy execs like Roth and Gadde. The latter group was a high-speed Supreme Court of moderation, issuing content rulings on the fly, often in minutes and based on guesses, gut calls, and even Google searches, including cases involving the President.
During this time, executives were liaising with federal enforcement and intelligence agencies about the moderation of election-related content. They were also liaising with the Democratic National Committee and White House officials.
Twitter executives denied such secret suppression efforts both in public and before Congress. CEO Jack Dorsey insisted that “we don’t have a censoring department.” Dorsey also expressly denied under oath that there was “shadow banning” based on political ideology. Likewise, in 2018, Gadde expressly declared, “We do not shadow ban. And we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.”
Internal communications about the Hunter Biden laptop show that Roth met weekly with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).
Some of Roth’s later correspondence indicates that his weekly confabs with federal law enforcement involved separate meetings. In one post he ghosts the FBI and DHS to go first to an “Aspen Institute thing,” then take a call with Apple. Could these discussions be about keeping Trump out of office? In my view, it passes the Duck Test, a form of inferential logic usually expressed as “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”
Before J6, Twitter was a unique mix of automated, rules-based enforcement, and more subjective moderation by senior executives. The firm had a vast array of tools for manipulating visibility, most of which were thrown at Trump, and others, pre-J6. As the election approached, senior executives, perhaps under pressure from federal agencies, with whom they met more often as time progressed, increasingly struggled with rules and began to speak of “vios” (violations) as pretexts to do what they’d likely have done anyway.
Elon Musk has unmasked how the Left rigged the election and deceived the American people. It’s time to fight the rotten and corrupt cabal that is trying to control our lives and how we think. If we fail, we lose our country and the American way of life. The window of opportunity to turn our country around will close at some point, and it may already be too late. If so, this will not end well. Elon Musk may be the only person on the planet who can save our republic. Without free speech, there is no survival.
Trump was right about the big issues, and they crucified him for telling the truth. As he tried to drain the swamp, they pulled him in with one lie at a time. Elon Musk has unmasked how the Left rigged the election and deceived the American people. It’s time now to say Enough!
There has to start being some accountability!
Some heads need to start rolling!!
Philip Nunez, The Solo Dark Lantern