https://www.yahoo.com/news/twitter-files-part-2-claimed-035444265.html
The 'Twitter Files' part 2 claimed to 'reveal' that the platform limited some accounts' reach, but that was already public knowledge — and in line with Elon Musk's new 'freedom of speech, not freedom of reach' policy
Rebecca Cohen,Erin Snodgrass,Kelsey Vlamis
Thu, December 8, 2022 at 10:54 PM·5 min read
Journalist and conservative commentator Bari Weiss published the latest
thread, hyped up by Twitter's new owner Elon Musk, writing that "teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics—all in secret, without informing users."
Twitter first announced in 2018 it would effectively hide some tweets from conversations and search results, according to
The Washington Post's Will Oremus.
Twitter at the time said it would look at the way other individuals reacted to an account in order to avoid showing tweets that "detract" from conversations.
The description outlined by Weiss of Twitter's internal moderation policy appears to fall in line with Musk's own recently-announced approach to content moderation on the site: "Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom of reach. Negativity should & will get less reach than positivity," he
tweeted on December 2.
Insider's Kali Hayes reported earlier this week that Weiss was among a new crop of colleagues that CEO Elon Musk was bringing into the Twitter fold. She was given access to Twitter's employee systems, added to the company Slack, and issued a company laptop, two people told Insider. But Weiss, a former New York Times columnist, is not thought to be a current employee at Twitter.
According to available internet archives, at least some of the posts the Biden campaign requested be removed included
nude photos that would have violated Twitter's terms of service under its non-consensual nudity policy. Taibbi did not include any examples of the White House requests.
Taibbi also said the content moderation favored Democrats,
citing campaign donations made by Twitter staff, but did not provide evidence that tweets were removed even if they did not violate the terms of service.