Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
[elfsight_social_share_buttons id=”1″]
New Twitter owner Elon Musk on Wednesday seemed to confirm what millions of conservatives have alleged for years – Twitter has previously attempted to place its virtual thumb on the scales of public opinion during U.S. elections.
In a bit of irony, Musk made the remarks in response to a user who had responded to a Reuters article in which the former head of Twitter’s trust and safety department alleged the company had become unsafe for users under Musk’s watch.
“Twitter has shown itself to be not safe for the past 10 years and has lost users’ trust,” a user identified as EvaFoxU posted. “The past team of ‘trust and safety’ is a disgrace, so it doesn’t have any right to judge what is being done now. They had a chance, but they sold their souls to a corporation.”
Musk, who has a unique talent for finding conversations about Twitter on his newly acquired platform, responded in the affirmative.
“Exactly. The obvious reality, as long-time users know, is that Twitter has failed in trust & safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections,” Musk tweeted. “Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed.”
Exactly. The obvious reality, as long-time users know, is that Twitter has failed in trust & safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections.
Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 30, 2022
Musk did not specify in which election or elections the interference occurred, or which party benefited.
To date, the only confirmed act of censorship to have occurred was that of Twitter’s decision to forbid the sharing of the New York Post article in which the Hunter Biden laptop story first broke.
Yoel Roth, the former trust and safety head featured in the Reuters article, has previously stated that it was a mistake for the company to have censored the Biden laptop story in the runup to the 2020 presidential election.
Roth’s assessment has proven correct in more ways than one. When it was revealed that the laptop story had merit and was not a falsehood perpetrated by Russia as had been previously alleged by numerous former intelligence officials, conservatives had a foundation upon which to launch more spirited assaults on the integrity of Twitter content moderators.
Monday, following requests from users and members of Congress, Musk stated that he would soon release findings from an internal investigation into the degree to which Twitter had censored speech during the 2020 election cycle.
“The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself,” Musk tweeted. “The public deserves to know what really happened …”
The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
It is important to note that Musk has not confirmed with any specificity that Twitter chilled conservative voices or meddled with algorithms to benefit Democrats. He has only stated that interference occurred.
However, given that it has been widely reported by numerous media outlets and Twitter itself that the company, at minimum, censored the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020, it is not a major leap to assume Musk will eventually state a pro-liberal bias existed at the social media giant.
The issue, then, will be the degree to which Twitter’s internal bias affected public opinion in previous elections. That topic will undoubtedly become a matter of intense and lengthy debate.