REPORT: Yiannopoulos reported this week:
Rumours that Twitter has begun ‘shadowbanning’ politically inconvenient users have been confirmed by a source inside the company, who spoke exclusively to Breitbart Tech. His claim was corroborated by a senior editor at a major publisher.
According to the source, Twitter maintains a ‘whitelist’ of favoured Twitter accounts and a ‘blacklist’ of unfavoured accounts. Accounts on the whitelist are prioritised in search results, even if they’re not the most popular among users. Meanwhile, accounts on the blacklist have their posts hidden from both search results and other users’ timelines.
Our source was backed up by a senior editor at a major digital publisher, who told Breitbart that Twitter told him it deliberately whitelists and blacklists users. He added that he was afraid of the site’s power, noting that his tweets could disappear from users’ timelines if he got on the wrong side of the company.
Shadowbanning, sometimes known as “Stealth Banning” or “Hell Banning,” is commonly used by online community managers to block content posted by spammers. Instead of banning a user directly (which would alert the spammer to their status, prompting them to create a new account), their content is merely hidden from public view. . .
However, Twitter isn’t merely targeting spammers. For weeks, users have been reporting that tweets from populist conservatives, members of the alternative right, cultural libertarians, and other anti-PC dissidents have disappeared from their timelines.
Earlier this month, Twitter instituted a “Trust and Safety Council.” According to Ricochet:
This troubling news [about shadow banning] comes shortly after Twitter leadership announced an Orwellian “Trust and Safety Council,” which is stacked with leftist anti-speech activists. Instead of groups like the Electronic Freedom Foundation or the Cato Institute, the council invited Feminist Frequency and the Dangerous Speech Project. The latter organizations lead the growing movement to silence politically incorrect thought on campuses and online.
Just last night, Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) had his account suspended.
Twitter’s suspension of conservative R.S. McCain had #FreeStacy trending overnight https://t.co/EoqhPj2SBu — TwitchyTeam (@TwitchyTeam) February 20, 2016
Anybody else had enough of tweeting-while-conservative resulting in account suspensions? #FreeStacy — Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) February 20, 2016
McCain is a conservative blogger who has keyed on the decline of campus culture generally and in particular due process for defendants in campus sexual assault allegations. He is also a vocal critic of Twitter’s de-verification of @Nero’s account.
Taken together this paints a concerning picture. The Trust and Safety Council is a dressed up censorship board and will provide cover if and when Twitter shutting down or diminishing disfavored accounts.
UPDATE: Robert Stacy McCain responds to the suspension of his Twitter account, The #FreeStacy Story: Why Was My @rsmccain Account Suspended?
UPDATE 2: Commentary Editor John Podhoretz (@JPodhoretz) reports that he has also lost his little blue verification mark.
My Verified blue check is gone! IT'S GONE!!!!!!
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) February 20, 2016
Follow Jonathan Levin on Twitter @JNLevin
