{"id":1771102,"date":"2022-12-10T06:30:41","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T11:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1771102"},"modified":"2022-12-10T09:03:32","modified_gmt":"2022-12-10T14:03:32","slug":"jonathan-turley-twitter-and-democrats-lied-lied-and-lied-again-about-censorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jonathan-turley-twitter-and-democrats-lied-lied-and-lied-again-about-censorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Turley: Twitter \u2014 And Democrats \u2014 Lied, Lied and Lied Again About Censorship"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjonathan-turley-twitter-and-democrats-lied-lied-and-lied-again-about-censorship%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1771102&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201c1984\u201d author George Orwell warned that \u201cif thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.\u201d\u00a0That line has never been more relevant than in the aftermath of the second release of Twitter documents this week.<\/p>\n<p>Many liberals had denied the social media giant was engaging in censorship by using the more pleasant term \u201ccontent modification.\u201d Now documents show Twitter executives burying \u201cdisfavored\u201d views as \u201cvisibility filtering\u201d and \u201camplification\u201d limits.<\/p>\n<p>Calling executives the \u201chead of legal, policy, and trust\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/12\/03\/twitter-files-who-is-vijaya-gadde-the-twitter-exec-involved-in-censoring-posts-hunter-biden-laptop-story\/\">Vijaya Gadde<\/a>) and the \u201cglobal head of trust &#038; safety\u201d (Yoel Roth) doesn\u2019t alter their status as some of the greatest censors in history.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the license for this massive system clearly came from Twitter\u2019s very top. Shadow banning and \u201cvisibility filtering\u201d are consistent with the policies of ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, who <a href=\"https:\/\/jonathanturley.org\/2022\/04\/18\/twitter-faces-the-nightmare-of-being-forced-into-free-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pledged<\/a> the company would \u201cfocus less on thinking about free speech\u201d because \u201cspeech is easy on the internet. Most people can speak. Where our role is particularly emphasized is who can be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So we now know that Twitter was not only banning dissenting voices on subjects ranging from COVID to climate change but was throttling or suppressing the traffic for disfavored writers.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/nypost_20200528_BRXP-3_001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/nypost_20200528_BRXP-3_001.jpg?w=915\" alt=\"New York Post cover for May 28, 2020 features Twitter fact checker Yoel Roth.\" class=\"wp-image-24953137\" width=\"618\" height=\"690\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/nypost_20200528_BRXP-3_001.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1234 1236w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/nypost_20200528_BRXP-3_001.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=925 927w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/nypost_20200528_BRXP-3_001.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=618 618w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/nypost_20200528_BRXP-3_001.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=308 309w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/nypost_20200528_BRXP-3_001.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w\"     style=\"display:none\"><\/a><figcaption>New York Post cover for May 28, 2020, features Twitter fact-checker Yoel Roth. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Among those targeted was Stanford professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who wrote about how COVID lockdowns would harm children. He and others have been vindicated in flagging those worries, but Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bariweiss\/status\/1601011428579717121\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">secretly\u00a0placed him<\/a> on a \u201cTrends Blacklist\u201d\u00a0to prevent his tweets from trending. It\u2019s a telling list because it reflects an acknowledgment that such tweets would trend with users if the company didn\u2019t suppress them.<\/p>\n<p>Some of us have been raising concerns over Twitter\u2019s massive censorship system for years, including what I called the emergence of a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/jonathanturley.org\/2021\/07\/19\/the-shadow-state-embracing-corporations-as-surrogates-for-government-action\/\">shadow state<\/a>\u201d where corporations carry out censorship that the Constitution bars the government from doing.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s striking is leading Democrats have been open about precisely this type of corporate manipulation of political speech on social media. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called upon these companies to use\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jonathanturley.org\/2021\/09\/29\/enlightened-algorithms-democrats-call-for-increased-corporate-controls-to-protect-citizens-from-their-own-dangerous-curiosities\/\">enlightened algorithms to protect users<\/a>\u00a0from their own bad reading choices.<\/p>\n<p>Even President Biden called for such regulation of speech and discussions by wise editors. Without such censorship and manipulation, Biden asked, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/jonathanturley.org\/2022\/11\/05\/de-madness-biden-unleashes-tirade-over-musk-restoring-free-speech-protections-on-twitter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How do people know the truth?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/twitter-employees-worried-elon-musk-compensation-02-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"954\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/twitter-employees-worried-elon-musk-compensation-02-1.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Elon Musk speaks to employees at the Twitter headquarters not long after taking over the social media giant.\" class=\"wp-image-24953138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/twitter-employees-worried-elon-musk-compensation-02-1.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/twitter-employees-worried-elon-musk-compensation-02-1.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/twitter-employees-worried-elon-musk-compensation-02-1.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Elon Musk speaks to employees at Twitter headquarters not long after taking over the social media giant.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Twitter<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It is still early to determine possible legal implications of these files, but there are some areas likely to be of immediate concern for counsel.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n\t<\/aside>\n<p>First,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/elon-musk-tells-jack-dorsey-important-twitter-files-hidden-bosses-suggests-deleted\">Elon Musk has suggested<\/a>\u00a0that some material may have been intentionally hidden or destroyed despite inquiries from Congress. Twitter was told to expect a congressional investigation into these areas.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not clear if this was material allegedly deleted as part of a regular process or a specific effort to destroy evidence of censorship or throttling. Such obstruction cases, however, can be difficult to bring without clear evidence. In 2005, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned accounting firm Arthur Andersen\u2019s conviction for its destruction of documents under a standard record management system.<\/p>\n<p>Second, destruction of documents could also prove relevant as part of an investigation into whether false statements were given under oath. Twitter executives denied such secret suppression efforts both in public and before Congress. Indeed, a\u00a0recent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nclalegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Doc.-45-First-Amended-Complaint.pdf\">federal filing<\/a>\u00a0revealed a 2021 email between Twitter executives and Carol Crawford, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s digital media chief. Crawford wanted to censor \u201cunapproved opinions\u201d on social media; Twitter replied that \u201cwith our CEO testifying before Congress this week [it] is tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At that hearing, social media companies were asked about my prior\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/sites\/democrats.energycommerce.house.gov\/files\/documents\/Witness%2520Testimony_Turley_CAT_2021.02.24.pdf\">testimony on private censorship<\/a>\u00a0in circumventing the First Amendment. In response, CEO Jack Dorsey insisted that \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/03\/25\/dorsey-says-blocking-posts-hunter-biden-story-was-total-mistake\/\">we don\u2019t have a censoring department<\/a>.\u201d Dorsey also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/tech\/no-bias-at-twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-denies-anti-conservative-allegations\">expressly denied<\/a>\u00a0under oath that there was \u201cshadow banning\u201d based on political ideology.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, in 2018, Gadde and head of product Kayvon Beykpour expressly declared, \u201cWe do not shadow ban. And we certainly don\u2019t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/Biden-White-House-Holidays.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/Biden-White-House-Holidays.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"President Joe Biden\" class=\"wp-image-24953136\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/Biden-White-House-Holidays.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=2048 2048w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/Biden-White-House-Holidays.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1536 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/Biden-White-House-Holidays.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/Biden-White-House-Holidays.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>The way Twitter handled the release of information surrounding Hunter Biden ahead of the 2020 election has been a hot topic since Musk took over Twitter. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Carolyn Kaster\/AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It turns out you don\u2019t need a \u201cdepartment\u201d if the entire company was acting as a massive censorship and suppression machine. Moreover, one \u201cdepartment\u201d Dorsey did not mention was the Strategic Response Team \u2013 Global Escalation Team, or SRT-GET, that operated above what journalist Bari Weiss described as \u201cofficial ticketing.\u201d That group\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/elon-musks-second-installment-twitter-files-reveals-secret-blacklists-bari-weiss-reports\">reportedly<\/a>\u00a0included Gadde, Roth, Dorsey, Agrawal and others.<\/p>\n<div class=\"single__inline-module inline-module inline-module--newsletter alignleft\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<h3 class=\"inline-module__title headline headline--combo-sm-md\">\n\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t<\/h3>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Third, there\u2019s the growing question of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jonathanturley.org\/2022\/12\/05\/censorship-by-surrogate-why-musks-document-dump-could-be-a-game-changer\/\">censorship by surrogate<\/a>. The new documents suggest the effort to control political speech went far beyond the banning or suspending of particular figures. Those highly publicized controversies like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jonathanturley.org\/2022\/04\/15\/twitter-suspends-libsoftiktok-for-featuring-liberals-talking-about-themselves\/\">banning LibsofTikTok<\/a>\u00a0now appear to be the tip of a censorship iceberg with secret efforts to blacklist, throttle and suppress disfavored viewpoints.<\/p>\n<p>There were even \u201csearch blacklists\u201d to make it difficult for people to link to disfavored views. Those blacklisted may revive lawsuits alleging Twitter was acting as an agent of the government in manipulating public debates and discussions.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, legal ramifications will continue to be blunted by a media and administration that have overwhelmingly supported censorship. Liberal writers and officials have surrendered much in the last few years in supporting censorship and pushing\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jonathanturley.org\/2021\/01\/22\/why-burn-books-when-you-can-ban-them-writers-and-publishers-embrace-blacklisting-in-an-expanding-american-anti-free-speech-movement\/\">blacklists of conservative figures<\/a>, including\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jonathanturley.org\/2022\/11\/03\/censoring-in-the-name-of-free-speech-publishers-and-editors-call-for-banning-barrett-book\/\">Supreme Court justices<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Musk has forced citizens to take sides on the free-speech fight. He has both the public and free speech on his side. Not only are users signing up in record numbers, but a recent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetrafalgargroup.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/COSA-Twitter-Full-Report-1204.pdf\">poll<\/a>\u00a0shows a majority of Americans \u201csupport Elon Musk\u2019s ongoing efforts to change Twitter to a more free and transparent platform.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The public is simply not buying the liberal narrative. What media figures once called \u201ca canard\u201d and a \u201cconspiracy theory\u201d is being exposed to full public view.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/warren.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/warren.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"Sen. Elizabeth Warren\" class=\"wp-image-24953143\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/warren.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/warren.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/12\/warren.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Sen. Elizabeth Warren<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Michael Dwyer\/AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>All the Orwellian euphemisms and cheery titles will no longer disguise Twitter\u2019s raw censorship. Once empowered by Agrawal to determine \u201cwho can be heard,\u201d Twitter executives showed how censorship can become an insatiable appetite for speech controls. Sitting in the San Francisco headquarters, the \u201cTrust\u201d officials found an array of conservative views unworthy to be heard. The \u201cfiltering\u201d of free speech quickly became a choice on what views are worthy of attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After all, if you cannot trust \u201cTrust\u201d professionals, whom can you trust?<\/p>\n<p><em>Jonathan Turley is an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c1984\u201d author George Orwell warned that \u201cif thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.\u201d\u00a0That line has never been more relevant than in the aftermath of the second<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1897373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[5458,6371,3685,7546,5450,3819,3618,7547,4253],"class_list":["post-1771102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-bongino","tag-censorship","tag-democrats","tag-jonathan","tag-lied","tag-report","tag-riot","tag-turley","tag-twitter"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1771102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1771102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1771102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1771102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1771102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}