Twitter Caught Interfering in Sen. Race in Favor of Establishment Candidate
You would have to be living under a rock not to have heard of at least one report of investigations regarding Russia’s use of social media meddling in the 2016 election.
It’s supposedly as scandalous as anything that has ever happened in the entire history of the United States — if you are listening to the liberal take on the issue.
Social media and its apparent power to influence hearts and minds in the voting booth is at the center of the controversy, and CBS News reported in February that 13 Russians allegedly tried to influence the election between candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton using social media platforms.
“The Department of Justice’s indictment of 13 Russians who allegedly attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election depicts an social media campaign,” CBS reported. “Working with the Russian-affiliated Internet Research Agency, the defendants ‘posted derogatory information’ about several candidates, the indictment says, and by mid-2016, their efforts included ‘supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaging Hillary Clinton.'”
Claiming the efforts of 13 Russians and some Facebook posts swung a presidential election that attracted more than 120 million votes cast and, according to the New York Post, involved at least $1.8 billion in spending by the two major parties, might seem like a stretch. But some social media giants might just believe those tactics were successful because it appears they are using some of their own technology muscle to tip the scales in the hotly contested GOP primary for Senate in Arizona.
By all appearances Twitter is tampering with the ability of the outsider candidate Kelli Ward to reach her audience, while not applying the same restrictions to establishment candidate Martha McSally.
An Arizona political observer who goes by the Twitter handle NormalDawn X QFD ran both candidates through a nifty account checking tool called “shadowban.eu” and found out the establishment-favored McSally had a decided advantage in one aspect of the race:
Nothing to see here folks………
Just Twitter election interference in Arizona!
QFD ban for the conservative, not the establishment.@Project_Veritas @JackPosobiec @LauraLoomer pic.twitter.com/A3lmM3MNa6— AZSuburbs 🌵 (@noprezzie2012) August 19, 2018
A QFD ban, or Quality Filter Discrimination shadow ban, limits the ability of a user to attain the same reach on the social media platform as those who are not restricted by the filter.
Quality Filter Discrimination #QFD is a new way of censorship on Twitter. It hides you from searches, because the quality filter is activated on default for all searches.
— Shadowban Tester (@shadowban_eu) June 22, 2018
In July, Zero Hedge reported a complete about-face by Twitter after senior company executive Nick Pickles testified to Congress that Twitter does not use shadow bans against conservatives.
“Two days after Twitter told Congress that they aren’t politically biased when censoring content, several prominent conservatives discovered that the social media giant automatically includes them in a site-wide ‘Quality Filter Discrimination’ shadowban which prevents anyone not already following them from viewing their posts,” Zero Hedge reported.
“While the filters have been around since August 2016 and were supercharged in May, Twitter’s aggressive censorship of conservative accounts was noticed … by the Daily Wire‘s Ryan Saavedra, after he said he saw reduced activity following a viral tweet with 3.85 million views in which Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters (CA) calls for attacks on members of the Trump administration. In short order, a flood of influential conservative Twitter users discovered they were shadowbanned also using an account checking tool at shadowban.eu.”
Twitter shadow ban test says I am shadowbanned.
I noticed my account was getting a lot less activity after I posted a video about Maxine Waters that went viral.
It's disappointing to see @Twitter @TwitterSupport @Jack @LeslieBerland censoring conservative reporters. pic.twitter.com/54fJHaixme
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 19, 2018
Is it a coincidence, if neither Ward nor McSally pay Twitter to sustain their accounts or purchase advertising, that the social media platform would choose the establishment McSally over Ward to filter?
We at the Conservative Tribune don’t have a dog in this fight either. Both women are solid Republicans, after all, and we’d be happy to keep the Arizona Senate seat in GOP hands for the second half of President Donald Trump’s first term.
However, we would rather see an equal playing field in news coverage and social media reach. Otherwise let the best candidate win.
As the election draws near, there will be more much media coverage of social media bias and discrimination. Until there is a solution to this gross miscarriage of free speech, Americans will see this continued discrimination.
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