Twitter has admitted to shadowbanning tweets and individuals. The practice of hiding content “from the community” the creator can still see in their own feed. Congressman Devin Nunes (R- CA) thinks he has a case. He has filed a lawsuit against Twitter for 250 million dollars.
Did they do it to impact elections?
I don’t think anyone will be surprised if (through discovery) Twitter manipulated political content or banned its creators based on their conservative views. The question is whether a judge and jury can agree that such discrimination in the context of the suit warrants remuneration under the law.
Yes, there’s more!
It’s not just about manipulating private speech on a private platform.
California GOP Rep. Devin Nunes filed a major lawsuit seeking $250 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages against Twitter and a handful of its users on Monday, accusing the social media site of “shadow-banning conservatives” including himself to influence the 2018 elections, systematically censoring opposing viewpoints and totally “ignoring” lawful complaints of repeated abusive behavior.
In a complaint filed in Virginia state court on Monday, obtained by Fox News, Nunes said Twitter was guilty of “knowingly hosting and monetizing content that is clearly abusive, hateful and defamatory – providing both a voice and financial incentive to the defamers – thereby facilitating defamation on its platform.”
We’re getting into some anti-bullying virtue-signaling territory. Twitter frequently bans content to “keep people safe.”
They’ve got a special force division on staff for that very purpose.
A Quick Note about Safety
Sean Davis from the Federalist had a tweet banned. It included a section of Lisa Pages released testimony before Congress. Why did Twitter deem it unsafe?
“This particular passage from Lisa Page’s testimony about the FBI’s Trump investigation is interesting, given that we now know for a fact that a foreign national working on behalf of Hillary’s campaign was working with Russians to obtain damaging information about Trump.”
Page’s testimony confirms that the Clinton campaign paid for opposition research gathered by a foreigner working with Russia to influence US elections. It’s the thing Clinton, Twitter, the political class, and the rest of the lefty-leaning universe has been trying to pin on Trump. The purpose of the Mueller investigation. The lead story on cable news for over two years.
Twitter blocked this as unsafe.
Safety is a Partisan Issue at Twitter
The lawsuit alleges defamation, conspiracy, and negligence, and seeks not only damages, but also an injunction compelling Twitter to turn over the identities behind numerous accounts he says have harassed and defamed him.
So, while Twitter was censoring conservative viewpoint as innocuous as what Sean Davis reports it was giving free reign to abusive, defamatory attacks on those it was shadowbanning.
This could be interesting and very much worth following.
