The latest dump of “The Twitter Files” has revealed that the social media platform suppressed and blacklisted political conservatives.

The files, which were acquired when Elon Musk purchased Twitter and became the new CEO, are being released in parts to certain journalists.  Bari Weiss, a former writer at the New York Times, reported the details of Twitter’s censorship practices before Musk took over.

“A new #TwitterFiles investigation reveals that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics—all in secret, without informing users,” Bari Weiss wrote.

 
 

“Twitter once had a mission ‘to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.’ Along the way, barriers nevertheless were erected.”

Weis highlighted the suppression and blacklisting of several Twitter accounts of political conservatives such as Dan Bongino and Charlie Kirk as well as those that expressed opposition to COVID lockdowns like Stanford University’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.

Bongino reacted the revelations, tweeting,

“We ALWAYS knew we were a target of the Twitter suppression machine. ALWAYS. Yet liberals insisted it was another ‘conspiracy theory.’ Tonight is vindication, yet I expect no apologies from liberals. They live to abuse power and they’ll make no apologies for doing so.”

The suppression of certain conversations as well as the controlled amplification of content, such as what “trends” on the platform, allowed Twitter employees to steer political and cultural narratives.  Elon Musk has claimed that this type of censorship has influenced U.S. elections.

“Twitter denied that it does such things,” Weiss wrote.

 
 

“In 2018, Twitter’s Vijaya Gadde (then Head of Legal Policy and Trust) and Kayvon Beykpour (Head of Product) said: ‘We do not shadow ban.’ They added: ‘And we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.’”

The first installment of “The Twiter Files” was shared by journalist Matt Taibbi and showed a Twitter staff scrambling for justification to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 presidential election. The files also revealed several government officials asking Twitter to censor or ban certain accounts.