Evidence Grows of Left-Wing Twitter Purge Directed by Elon Musk
"Elon Musk appears to have outsourced decisions about who to ban from Twitter to the platform's right-wing extremists," said The Intercept's Micah Lee.
While claiming to have bought the social media giant in order to make it "an inclusive arena for free speech," multibillionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk is apparently overseeing what critics claim is a purge of anti-fascist voices, The Intercept reported Tuesday (2022-11-29). "No one should've honestly believed Elon Musk would use his ownership of Twitter to champion free speech."
"Several prominent anti-fascist organizers and journalists have had their accounts suspended in the past week (2022-11), after right-wing operatives appealed directly to Elon Musk to ban them and far-right internet trolls flooded Twitter's complaints system with false reports about terms of service violations," The Intercept's Robert Mackey and Micah Lee wrote. Among the suspended Twitter accounts are those of journalist Vishal Pratap Singh, who covers far-right protests in California; the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, which provides security for LGBTQ+ events in Texas; the anarchist collective CrimethInc.; and anti-fascist researcher Chad Loder. "What I believe happened is that I and other accounts have been mass reported for the last few weeks (2022-11) by a dedicated group of far-right extremists who want to erase archived evidence of their past misdeeds and to neutralize our ability to expose them in the future," Chad Loder told The Intercept. "What I suspect happened is that Twitter's automatic systems flagged my account for some reason and no human being is reviewing these," Chad Loder added.
A common thread connects the aforementioned suspensions: All were flagged by far-right conspiracy theorist and social media influencer Andy Ngo - who, in a Twitter exchange was invited by Elon Musk to identify Twitter accounts for possible suspension. "Andy Ngo's bizarre vision of "Antifa" seems to be the metric used to delete the accounts of journalists and publications - most of which engaged in verifiably good journalism and have done so completely above board and terms of service observant ways," tweeted Shane Burley, editor of the anthology ¡No Pasarán!: Anti-fascist Dispatches From a World in Crisis. "Paranoid delusions about Antifa are driving it."
In recent days, a list of thousands of purported "Antifa" Twitter accounts - including those of CNN, actor Danny DeVito, the World Health Organization, and a "professional dog rater" - has been circulating online. While calling the list "absurd," listee Nick Martin, publisher of the extremism monitoring site The Informant, warned: "Don't dismiss it. A mass flagging campaign has begun based on the list and is already claiming victory for a number of bans. It's a sign far-right extremists see Elon Musk as a ally who will empower them and destroy their enemies."
The suspensions of left-wing accounts came as Elon Musk restores the accounts of far-right figures, some of whom - like former U.S. President Donald Trump - have called for or incited violence on Twitter [2021-01-06: January 6 United States Capitol attack]. "The irony isn't lost on us that our suspension coincides with a coordinated effort to reinstate the most vile antisemitic, transphobic hate accounts," the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club told The Intercept. "Whether this is an indication of the future of leadership of Elon Musk's running of Twitter, we cannot say but we can say that the timing and reasoning is deliberate and targeted."
CrimethInc., which before the current suspension had never run afoul of Twitter's terms of service in its 14-year existence, said that "Musk's goal in acquiring Twitter had nothing to do with free speech. It was a partisan move to silence opposition, paving the way for fascist violence."
Jacobin's Branko Marcetic wrote Tuesday (2022-11-29) that "no one should've honestly believed Elon Musk would use his ownership of Twitter to champion free speech." "Besides the fact that the man (Elon Musk)is a professional bullshitter," Branko Marcetic added, "it was always dubious that a guy who slaps employees with gag orders and bars them from wearing pro-union messages had a genuine commitment to the proverbial marketplace of ideas."
Additional Reading
[NewRepublic.com, 2022-12-01] Elon Musk's Twitter Is Suspending Liberal Accounts for "Spam". Several major Twitter accounts have been suspended or had other issues on the platform.
Several prominent - and predominantly liberal - Twitter accounts have had major issues this week (2022-11), but no one really seems to know why. Dean Baker, the senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, had his account suspended Thursday (2022-12-01). Dean Baker said Twitter claimed in an email that he had violated the platform's spam rules. "I have no idea," Dean Baker said, when asked why he was suspended. Dean Baker appealed the suspension, and his account was reinstated, but his follower count had dropped precipitously, from about 67,000 to 400, although the number has grown. Dean Baker's work is not political - economic research is numbers-driven and neutral - but he noted he makes the occasional joke about Twitter owner Elon Musk and has written about repealing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects platforms from liability over what people post.
Andrew Lawrence - founder of the left-wing blog Media Matters for America - also had his account temporarily suspended Thursday (2022-12-01) for "spam." Although Andrew Lawrence's account was reinstated within an hour, Andrew Lawrence told reporter Ben Collins he had "no idea why I was suspended."
Other major users have also been having issues on Twitter. HuffPost reporter Nathalie Baptiste posted a screenshot of her notifications tab, which said she had none. On Wednesday (2022-11-30), The Nation tweeted at Elon Musk directly, saying the outlet's reporter Joan Walsh's account had been hacked. "She's contacted @TwitterSupport at least a dozen times - no answer," The Nation said.
Since Elon Musk's chaotic takeover of Twitter, Twitter has been rife with controversy and problems. Elon Musk immediately fired most of the top executives and the entire board of directors, followed soon after by nearly half the workforce. The remaining employees are leaving in droves.
Many Twitter accounts that had been suspended for spreading disinformation or inciting violence - such as former President Donald Trump's and the personal account for Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) - have been allowed back online. Twitter also dropped its COVID-19 misinformation regulations on 2022-11-23, without fanfare.
Return to Persagen.com
