Elon Musk really wants you to believe that Twitter is relevant beyond the
narrow confines of social media. Since the billionaire completed his takeover
of the company as an owner and CEO, it has been a rough couple of weeks for
Twitter. Advertising revenue has plummeted (but may be stabilizing) as Musk
outlines his bold “free speech maximalist” vision for the company. Prominent
users have been migrating to other social media platforms.
اضافة اعلان
In a possibly
desperate attempt to remind the public of Twitter’s utility, Musk is opening up
the company’s internal archives to select journalists. The materials, released
as The Twitter Files, show what Musk claims to be targeted censorship of
high-profile conservative accounts and the suppression of major political
stories such as the Hunter Biden laptop saga. While the information is
undoubtedly a peek behind the curtain at Twitter, how the files are released
(and by whom) raises more serious questions than the wrongdoing they show.
Twitter is not
even close to the world’s most popular social media platform, but it is
incredibly influential, given the number of journalists who use it to break
important news. For years, conservative voices in the US have claimed that
Twitter was shadow banning their content and deliberately suppressing their
perspectives. They claim this was because the company was run by liberals close
to the Democratic Party.
The Twitter
Files show that deliberate actions were taken to muffle the reach of some
conservative accounts. The files also show that there were high-level
discussions to limit the reach of the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the
2020 US presidential election.
Twitter was a
publicly traded company when these actions were taken and so free speech
protections such as the first amendment did not necessarily apply. If the
company determines that specific content is in violation of its terms of
service, it is free to remove it and/or ban accounts responsible for the
content. It is not a first amendment issue. The company is also free to shadow
ban or deliberately suppress any account it wishes. The fact that our society
gave so much importance to the platform says more about our relationship with
private technology companies than the health of free speech in America.
That being said,
it is good that we have a deeper look into how Twitter used to handle essential
content decisions. Similar conversations are happening at other major
technology companies such as Facebook, Apple, and Google all the time. Where
The Twitter Files falls down is in how Musk has chosen to release this story.
Two journalists,
Matt Tabbi and Bari Weiss, were given unprecedented access to Twitter’s
internal systems. Both journalists were reportedly given company laptops,
access to Twitter’s internal slack, and even access to Twitter’s backend
systems. The fact that Musk selected Weiss as one of the journalists to break a
story about censorship is exceptionally ironic, given Weiss’ history.
The fact that our society gave so much importance to the platform says more about our relationship with private technology companies than the health of free speech in America.
Before becoming
an editor and opinion writer at publications such as the Wall Street Journal,
Tablet and The New York Times, Weiss was a pro-Israel student organizer at
Columbia University who worked tirelessly to suppress academic freedom for Palestinian
and Arab scholars. When she was appointed as an opinion writer at The New York
Times, journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote that “her relatively short career as a
writer and activist has been overwhelmingly devoted to one issue: a defense of
the Israeli government and a corresponding smear campaign against its critics.
Her targets have
tended overwhelmingly to be Muslim and/or Arab, often in the context of campus
politics”. Her central claim to fame as an activist was a relentless but
unsuccessful campaign to get Professor Joseph Massad denied tenure at Columbia
University for his views on Israel.
Weiss eventually
left the Times, denouncing what she labeled as growing left-wing intolerance
for dissent. She recently started her own media outlet and focused on anti-woke
political rhetoric that often touches on favorite topics of the alt-right. No
wonder she was chosen to roll out The Twitter Files, given Musk’s embrace of
similar views. It is, however, absurd for someone with a well-documented track
record of suppressing Palestinian voices to be a champion of free speech.
Her long record
of intolerance for Palestinian dissent raises unavoidable questions about her
ability to champion free speech. We should not take seriously journalists that
selectively champion free speech. You are either for it or against it. Weiss’s
actions over the past two decades place her firmly in the latter camp, no
matter how much she detests woke liberals.
Journalists are
now asking questions of Musk and Weiss about her access to direct messages of
Twitter users. She shared several screenshots of Twitter’s internal systems
that suggested she had access to direct messages. If that is the case,
Palestinian activists that have used this function have cause for concern.
Weiss and Musk have not answered questions about her access status at the time
of this writing.
An unavoidable
blindspot of The Twitter Files is how it ignores Palestinian activists and
anti-war leftists being shadow banned on the platform for far longer than
conservative voices.
Musk wants the
public to think that Twitter’s hyper-woke leadership picked on conservatives,
and that is the whole story. It is not. Palestinians have documented censorship
on social media platforms since these platforms rose to prominence nearly two
decades ago. While Musk loves the ability to use the Twitter leaks to
demonstrate the limits of wokeness in America, he has reportedly demanded
employees sign new nondisclosure agreements saying they will not leak anything
the company is doing now.
Once again,
Palestinians represent the ultimate blindspot in the global debate about
censorship. By selecting Weiss as one of the emissaries of Twitter’s new
maximalist free speech branding, Musk is showing that he is not really serious
about free speech. It is all about power and shaping the political debate how
he sees fit.
Joseph Dana is the
former senior editor of Exponential View, a weekly newsletter about technology
and its impact on society. He was also the editor-in-chief of emerge85, a lab
exploring change in emerging markets and its global impact. Twitter: @ibnezra.
Syndication Bureau.
Read more Opinion and Analysis
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
