In the third batch of โTwitter Files,โ posted by independent journalist Matt Taibbi, the journalist suggests that Twitter executives went above and beyond to suppress tweets by high-profile conservatives but found justifications not to censor pro-Biden tweets.
In one case, staff did not find a โfirm policy basisโ to censor a pro-Trump tweet by pro-Trump conservative actor James Woods. So they vowed to โhit him hard on future [violations].โ
In the October 2020 tweet, Woods wrote: โTwitter is suppressing this tweet by the President. Hereโs a screen grab.โ The tweet had a screenshot of Trumpโs tweet that had been labeled โdisputedโ and โmisleading.โ
โIโd suggest we action him for something worth the fiasco rather than this screenshot, since we donโt have a firm policy basis for action on his account,โ an unnamed Twitter employee wrote in the internal message.
The internal messages also revealed that Twitterโs head of trust and safety acknowledged that an October 2020 tweet by Trump about mail-in voting was โfactually accurate,โ yet it was almost flagged.
โBreaking News: 50,000 OHIO VOTERS getting WRONG ABSENTEE BALLOTS. Out of Control. A Rigged Election,โ Trump wrote at the time, responding to a tweet by a news outlet in Ohio about incorrect mail-in ballots and asked users if they โfeel safeโ using mail-in ballots.
An unnamed employee wrote, โโa rigged electionโ would be enough to be in violation, right?โ
According to the documents, Twitter considered adding a โmail-in voting is safeโ label to the tweet.
Twitter also considered flagging a joke tweet by former Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, which read: โStood in rain for hour to early vote today. When I got home I filled in my stack of mail-in ballots and then voted the ballots of my deceased parents and grandparents. They vote just like me! #Trump2020.โ
Twitter staff considered flagging it because, in their words, the joke was a former governor admitting to a crime.
โThe group declares Huckโs an โedge case,โ and though one notes, โwe donโt make exceptions for jokes or satire,โ they ultimately decide to leave him be, because โweโve poked enough bears,โโ Taibbi explained.
Taibbi noted that pro-Biden tweets were not subjected to such level of scrutiny. One example is a tweet where a user complained about the appointment of conservative Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett and warned that โtheyโre going to steal the electionโ by telling people not to mail in ballots.
Twitter executives concluded that the tweet โexpresses concern that mailed ballots might not make it on timeโ and let it be.
Taibbi also discovered that former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth removed a warning label on a tweet by former Attorney General Eric Holder that claimed โitโs too late to use the mail,โ and that Trump โdeliberately cripplesโ the Postal Service. Roth said that the tweet was โfactually accurate.โ