Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, announced on Thursday that he intends to provide a feature that will allow users to check whether the firm has restricted how many other users may access their posts. Musk is effectively capitalizing on a problem that has become a rallying cry for certain conservatives who assert that the social network has censored or “shadowbanned” their content by doing this.
Musk tweeted on Thursday that Twitter was working on a software update that would explicitly display your genuine account status so you would know if you had been shadowbanned, the reason why, and how to appeal. He didn’t give any more information or a schedule.
Twitter is working on a software update that will show your true account status, so you know clearly if you’ve been shadowbanned, the reason why and how to appeal
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022
His announcement came in the wake of a fresh round of internal Twitter documents that were made public on Thursday. Musk approved of and applauded the move, which once more brought attention to the industry standard of limiting access to some potentially hazardous content.
Last month, Musk echoed an approach that has become somewhat of an industry standard when he claimed that Twitter’s “new” policy is “freedom of speech, not freedom of reach.” Negative or hateful tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, thus Twitter won’t get any ads or other income.
Musk, who has stated that he now votes Republican, sparked a backlash from some conservatives with that announcement, accusing him of upholding a practice they despised. The conflict mirrors a broader contradiction at Twitter under Musk, who has simultaneously vowed a more maximalist approach to “free speech,” a move applauded by some on the right, while also reassuring advertisers and users that content moderation guardrails will still be in place.
But with his tweet on Thursday and the publication of the most recent Twitter Files, he seemed to be trying to court conservatives once more.
The second set of the so-called Twitter Files, which journalist Bari Weiss posted on Twitter, concentrated on how the company has limited the visibility of specific users, tweets, or topics that it considers to be potentially harmful, including by preventing them from showing up in the platform’s search or trending sections.
According to Weiss, these acts were carried out “entirely without consumers’ knowledge.” However, Twitter has always been open about the fact that it may restrict some content that transgresses its guidelines and, in some situations, may impose “strikes” that are equivalent to account bans for violating its regulations. Users are informed when there are strikes that their accounts have been temporarily stopped.
Weiss’ tweets come after the initial release of the “Twitter Files” by journalist Matt Taibbi earlier this month, who shared internal Twitter emails about the company’s choice to temporarily suppress a 2020 New York Post article about Hunter Biden and his laptop, which largely confirmed what was already known about the incident.
1. Thread: THE TWITTER FILES
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022
The internal papers in both instances seem to have been given to the media directly by Musk’s staff. Musk included two popcorn emojis and the phrase “The Twitter Files, Part Deux!!” in a tweet on Friday that included Weiss’ thread.
On Capitol Hill and among some prominent social media users, particularly conservatives, the question of how and why Twitter — like other big platforms — limits the reach of particular content has long been a contentious one. Twitter has emphasized time and time again that it does not filter content based on its political inclinations but rather equally implements its rules to protect users. In an interview in 2018, the company’s founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey stated that it “does not look at content with regards to political opinion or philosophy. We examine conduct.
Weiss provided numerous instances of right-leaning figures who had their accounts moderated, but it’s unclear if the same was true of left-leaning or other accounts.
While Musk tries to rebuild the platform in his image, internal documents from Twitter’s previous leadership have been made public. Twitter has recently started restoring the accounts of thousands of users, including some controversial characters, despite the billionaire’s past statements that he wishes to do away with permanent user bans. However, Musk has also stated that he does not want Twitter to “become a free-for-all hellscape” and that he intends to monitor content in a manner that seems to be fairly consistent with Twitter’s previous standards.
According to the company’s prior declarations and Weiss’ tweets on Friday, Twitter stated in a blog post last week that it had not altered its regulations but that its strategy for enforcing them will heavily rely on the de-amplification of infringing messages. The blog post said, “Freedom of speech, not freedom of reach.”
