Twitter owner Elon Musk caused a political earthquake earlier this month when he released company documents to journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss showing how the company helped Democrats during the 2020 campaign.
Yet more material emerged over the weekend, and it vindicates former President Donald Trump's claim of being kicked off Twitter for political reasons.
According to Breitbart, journalist Michael Shellenberger detailed the evidence in a series of tweets on Sunday, and they show how Twitter staff manufactured justifications for banning Trump in January of 2021 while showing no concerns over free speech.
Shellenberger noted that the move came following the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill, with pressure being brought to bear by figures like former First Lady Michelle Obama and left-wing groups such as the Anti-Defamation League.
It also came after Twitter executive Yoel Roth considered banning Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz despite having no clear grounds to do so.
Roth pushes for a permanent suspension of Rep. Matt Gaetz even though it “doesn’t quite fit anywhere (duh)”
It's a kind of test case for the rationale for banning Trump.
“I’m trying to talk [Twitter’s] safety [team] into... removal as a conspiracy that incites violence.” pic.twitter.com/ZQP6u1zevy
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 11, 2022
Later, Roth announced on January 8 that a change in policy was being made to Twitter's "public-interest exceptions policy" in order to explicitly target Trump's account.
Shellenberger explained that the policy allows for elected officials to make an otherwise prohibited statement "if it directly contributes to understanding or discussion of a matter of public concern."
Meanwhile, Barri Weiss followed up on Shellenberger's disclosure with more tweets of her own on Monday, and they show that while Twitter was quick to silence Trump, it was willing to tolerate far more egregious conduct from other world leaders.
This included open calls for genocide, such as Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei referring to Israel as "a malignant cancerous tumor" that must be "removed and eradicated"
What's more, an October of 2020 tweet from former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad endorse the mass murder of French people.
Twitter subsequently deleted Mohamad's tweet but took no further action against his account. Meanwhile, Ali Khamenei's tweet was not taken down.
21. In October 2020, the former Malaysian Prime Minister said it was “a right” for Muslims to “kill millions of French people.”
Twitter deleted his tweet for “glorifying violence,” but he remains on the platform. The tweet below was taken from the Wayback Machine: pic.twitter.com/7tgxgCw9I9
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 12, 2022
"But," she added, "Twitter executives did ban Trump, even though key staffers said that Trump had not incited violence—not even in a 'coded' way."
