Tag: twitter

TWITTER SEES JUMP IN GOVT DEMANDS TO REMOVE CONTENT OF REPORTERS, NEWS OUTLETS

Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) saw a surge in government demands worldwide in 2020 to take down content posted by journalists and news outlets, according to data released by the social media platform.

In its transparency report published on Wednesday, Twitter said verified accounts of 199 journalists and news outlets on its platform faced 361 legal demands from governments to remove content in the second half of 2020, up 26% from the first half of the year.

The biannual report on Twitter’s enforcement of policy rules and the information and removal requests it receives comes as social media companies including Facebook Inc(FB.O) and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube face government scrutiny worldwide over the content allowed on their platforms.

Twitter ultimately removed five tweets from journalists and news publishers, the report said. India submitted most of the removal requests, followed by Turkey, Pakistan and Russia.

The social media platform did not previously track such data on requests pertaining to journalists or publishers.

Keep reading

Twitter Suspends NY Times’ Columnist’s Account After He Denounces Equity as ‘Racism’

Twitter has suspended the account of a Pultizer Prize-winning New York Times op-ed writer one day after he wrote a column denouncing woke ideology as a form of “racism.”

The New York Times posted Bret Stephens’ latest column, titled “The New Racism Won’t Solve the Old Racism,” on its website on June 28 and published it in the print issue dated June 29.

In the piece, Stephens wrote that the drive to bring about intersectional “equity” — often designated by the term “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) — “is insulting to everyone who still believes we should be judged by the content of our character.”

The idea that the government should redistribute wealth along racial lines has taken on new life since Ibram X. Kendi made it the central pillar of his bestseller, “How to be an Antiracist.”

Keep reading

Biden ATF Nominee Deleted Thousands Of Tweets, Prompting Speculation Of Prior Posts

President Joe Biden’s nominee to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)  has purged thousands of tweets from his Twitter profile, while still permitting communications on Facebook, raising flags over his prior hearing response that he made his account private due to “violent threats” that were forwarded to the Department of Justice.

In writing to Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, David Chipman said he “decided to set my Twitter account to private because of violent threats I had received in the past and anticipated receiving once my nomination was made public. I notified officials at the Department of Justice that I intended to make my account private.”

In addition, it appears Chipman has deleted the vast majority of his tweets. Whereas there were 1,815 tweets in October 2016, there are now a mere 115 as of Wednesday. It is unclear why his Facebook posts remain public and why he can be freely messaged if Chipman is legitimately worried about being threatened through social media. Surely, those threatening the ATF nominee would be smart enough to use other platforms. The contradiction was flagged by American Accountability Foundation.

Sen. Cotton told The Federalist Chipman’s behavior is suspicious and that he seems to be trying to conceal past information.

Keep reading

Twitter censors UK hypocrite Health Secretary “Matt Hancock” from Photos and Videos search amid public scandal over affair and social distancing breach

The UK’s Health Secretary is currently embroiled in controversy after being caught on CCTV in a secret affair with an aide. The leaked CCTV footage shows Matt Hancock breaching social distancing guidelines and engaging in kissing and an embrace with his aide Gina Coladangelo. Hancock has been married to his wife Martha for 15 years and the couple have three children together.

Yet, while the video has caused national outrage at the hypocrisy of the Health Secretary, the video itself is suddenly harder to find on Twitter as the platform has censored the term Matt Hancock from its photos and videos search.

Keep reading

Twitter Locks News Site’s Account for Report on Teen Boy Dying After Getting Vaccine

Twitter locked the account of the National File, a conservative-leaning news website, after it reported on a tweet from a woman who claimed her 13-year-old nephew died after receiving a second dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

A spokesperson for Twitter confirmed to news outlets it locked the National File’s account for 12 hours “in error.” The account has since been reinstated, but the outlet has now said the social media giant “has now suspended” reporter Jack Hadfield “for celebrating Twitter’s decision to reverse the suspension” of the publication.

The Epoch Times has contacted Twitter for comment.

According to the National File, the report that triggered the action from Twitter included claims from a woman, Tami Burages, who said her nephew died after getting the vaccine.

“Our family is devastated. I struggled with putting this out on twitter. I am pro-vaccine. We vaccinated my own 14-year-old son as soon as it was available. I know it is *mostly safe*. But Jacob is dead now,” she wrote in a now-deleted tweet.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) website guidance for vaccines stipulates that most COVID-19 vaccines should not be given to children, although an advisory panel in May advised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that Pfizer’s vaccine could be administered to children aged 12 years and older.

“Children should not be vaccinated for the moment,” the WHO’s page on COVID-19 vaccines says in bold.

Keep reading

Civil Rights Lawsuit Filed Against Democrats Over Censoring Americans’ Election Tweets

“California Democrats have access to a rapid response team at Twitter, which takes down tweets at the request of Democrats,” Mike Cernovich pointed out.

How can Democrats square their support for “democracy” with government and corporations rigging the election process to stifle the dissent of their opponents?

This case is vital for a robust defense of free speech rights in the Information Age on digital platforms that have become the equivalent of the public square. If the California government can get away with working with corporations to censor Rogan Handley, then next it can censor you.

Keep reading

Twitter declares access to its platform a ‘human right’ amid censorship of conservatives

Twitter declared a free and open Internet to be “an essential human right in modern society” Saturday morning after the Nigerian government banned access to the social media giant following a dispute with its president – even as critics say it suppresses conservative content and bans its own users.

Twitter deleted a fiery tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari that many perceived as a veiled threat against violent separatists in the nation’s southeast – then his government’s information wing responded by banning the social media platform from the country. 

Keep reading