{"id":88097,"date":"2016-02-20T19:57:51","date_gmt":"2016-02-21T03:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=88097"},"modified":"2023-09-06T03:12:14","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T11:12:14","slug":"twitter-purges-another-conservative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=88097","title":{"rendered":"Twitter Purges Another Conservative"},"content":{"rendered":"

REPORT<\/a>: Yiannopoulos reported<\/a> this week:<\/p>\n

\n

Rumours that Twitter has begun \u2018shadowbanning\u2019 politically inconvenient users have been confirmed by a source inside the company, who spoke exclusively to Breitbart Tech. <\/em>His claim was corroborated by a senior editor at a major publisher.<\/p>\n

According to the source, Twitter maintains a \u2018whitelist\u2019 of favoured Twitter accounts and a \u2018blacklist\u2019 of unfavoured accounts. Accounts on the whitelist are prioritised in search results, even if they\u2019re not the most popular among users. Meanwhile, accounts on the blacklist have their posts hidden from both search results and other users\u2019 timelines.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s power, noting that his tweets could disappear from users\u2019 timelines if he got on the wrong side of the company.<\/p>\n

Shadowbanning, sometimes known as \u201cStealth Banning\u201d or \u201cHell Banning,\u201d 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. . .
\nHowever, Twitter isn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Earlier this month, Twitter instituted<\/a> a “Trust and Safety Council.” According to Ricochet<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

This troubling news [about shadow banning] comes shortly after Twitter leadership announced an Orwellian \u201cTrust and Safety Council,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Just last night, Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) had his account suspended.<\/p>\n

\n

Twitter’s suspension of conservative R.S. McCain had #FreeStacy<\/a> trending overnight https:\/\/t.co\/EoqhPj2SBu<\/a> \u2014 TwitchyTeam (@TwitchyTeam) February 20, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n