Twitter Admits To Shadow Banning Tweet Exposing Lisa Page's Actual Testimony to Congress
Twitter “shadow banning” was a big issue throughout 2018, as reports kept popping up that the company was silencing conservative voices by secretly making tweets invisible or not allowing certain conservative figures show up in web searches.
Apparently, things are no different in 2019.
According to a report from Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist, a tweet he wrote regarding former FBI lawyer Lisa Page’s testimony to Congress was shadow banned by the social media platform — something Twitter allegedly admitted to, but called a case of “mistakenly remov(ing) content that doesn’t break our rules.”
The original tweet is here, and certainly seemed innocuous enough:
This particular passage from Lisa Page’s testimony about the FBI’s Trump investigation is interesting, given that we know for a fact that a foreign national working on behalf of Hillary’s campaign was working with Russians to obtain damaging information about Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/P0sEuIyhOC
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 12, 2019
In the snippet, Page talks about trying to determine whether the Trump campaign had anyone from the Russia side working with them to find damaging information about Hillary.
“This particular passage from Lisa Page’s testimony about the FBI’s Trump investigation is interesting, given that we know for a fact that a foreign national working on behalf of Hillary’s campaign was working with Russians to obtain damaging information about Donald Trump,” Davis tweeted.
He quickly found, however, that while he could see the tweet, others couldn’t.
Is @Twitter experimenting with shadow bans by deleting tweets so others can’t see them, but keeping them visible to you while you’re logged in? I had to re-publish my original Lisa Page transcript tweet because it was disappeared to everyone but me. pic.twitter.com/RugtpK2MYn
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 12, 2019
The first photo, if you click on it, shows Davis’ feed with the tweet visible. The second shows his feed while he was not logged into his account — which clearly doesn’t show the tweet.
Screenshot of the disappeared tweet while logged in on left, logged out on right. Original tweet URL functions while logged in, but is a dead link while logged out. Timeline shows disappeared tweet while logged in, but it’s missing from the version everyone else sees. Strange… pic.twitter.com/UjGWPASzat
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 12, 2019
According to Davis, nearly a week later, Twitter confirmed to him that he was being shadow banned.
Twitter confirmed to me today via e-mail that it did shadowban one of my tweets about Lisa Page’s congressional testimony in order to “keep people safe[.]” Twitter deliberately deleted the tweet/URL, yet kept it visible for me when I was logged in so I’d think it was still up. pic.twitter.com/Hs1z7H0xJn
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 18, 2019
Davis posted what he said was Twitter’s email.
“Our priority is to keep people safe on Twitter,” the letter read. “As part of that work, we err on the side of protecting people and sometimes mistakenly remove content that doesn’t break our rules. When those mistakes happen, we work quickly to fix them. We have corrected the issue.”
Huh?
Lisa Page is, unfortunately for her, a very public figure. Nothing in this testimony could theoretically be seen as threatening. How is this keeping anyone “safe”?
Twitter gave me no notice or explanation when it shadowbanned one of my Tweets about Russian interference in our elections. But what’s worse is how Twitter apparently gives its users the fraudulent impression that their tweets, which Twitter secretly bans, are still public.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 18, 2019
Just so we’re clear on the sequence of events: Sean Davis had one of his tweets essentially deleted from Twitter. Davis, a public figure himself (not quite on the Lisa Page level, although I’m sure he’s pretty happy about that) wasn’t informed about this.
When he finally got Twitter to admit to a shadow banning — a major feat in and of itself — the company claimed it was for Page’s safety.
Sorry, but the idea that this was an accident doesn’t sound particularly convincing when you consider the subject and the lack of anything in the tweet that would set off a red flag. Given Twitter’s history of shadow banning conservatives, it’s impossible to see this as anything else. And social media companies wonder why conservatives don’t trust them.
Unfortunately for Twitter, it’s coming home to roost. Rep. Devin Nunes, a California Republican and an outspoken critic of Twitter, is now suing the platform for $250 million, saying that they had been “shadow-banning conservatives” and “ignoring” complaints about abusive behavior, according to Fox News.
“Twitter is a machine,” Steven S. Biss, Nunes’ personal attorney, told Fox. “It is a modern-day Tammany Hall. Congressman Nunes intends to hold Twitter fully accountable for its abusive behavior and misconduct.”
Given that suit, Twitter’s “mistake” with the Davis post is some pretty terrible timing.
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