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☆ Elon Musk’s X app ran ads on #whitepower and other hateful hashtags
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-06 | by ( David Ingram | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

X bans the promotion or glorification of violence and has previously applied the policy to racist and antisemitic content. Before Wednesday, X appeared to have blocked at least three antisemitic hashtags, according to searches of the platform. After NBC News contacted X about the hashtags, 12 of 50 hashtags appeared to be blocked. Of the 50 reviewed hashtags, searches on X for 45 of them returned recent racist or antisemitic posts. On TikTok, 10 of the 50 hashtags returned racist or antisemitic posts, with the rest either blocked or producing other content.

Persons: Elon Musk, Tesla, Elon, Musk, X, hashtags, Adolf Hitler, Anika Collier Navaroli, TikTok, Instagram, Meta, Darren Linvill, Linvill, Megan Squire, it's Organizations: SpaceX, X Holdings Corp, Milken Institute's Global, Beverly Hilton Hotel, NBC News, Twitter, NBC, Tow Center, Digital Journalism, Columbia University, Musk, Disney, Hyundai, Social, Tech, Meta, Clemson University's, Hitler, Nazi, Southern Poverty Law Center Locations: Beverly Hills , California, Europe

☆ Twitter executives were hesitant to ban Trump after Jan. 6, challenging the right-wing narrative that the company was quick to de-platform conservatives, WaPo reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Republicans have argued that Twitter had a liberal bias and was quick to censor conservatives. Records obtained by WaPo show how Twitter's management hesitated to ban Trump after Jan. 6, 2021. Twitter ultimately decided to ban Trump on January 8, 2021, following in the footsteps of other social media platforms. However, the safety policy team reassessed their conclusion after internal lawyers, who advised the safety policy team, argued the tweet could have violated Twitter's rules around "glorification of violence," the document said, according to the Post. The lawyers argued that the phrase "American Patriots" could be referring to the rioters who stormed the Capitol, which could then violate Twitter's policy.

Persons: WaPo, Jan, Trump, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Joe Biden's, Anika Collier Navaroli, Musk, Navaroli Organizations: Twitter, Trump, Elon, Morning, The Washington Post, Capitol, Post, Republican, American Patriots, Patriots

☆ Former Twitter execs tell Republicans they erred on Hunter Biden laptop story
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Former Twitter executives told a Republican-led U.S. House committee on Wednesday that they made a mistake by blocking tweets about a laptop said to belong to President Joe Biden's son Hunter but said government officials were not involved. The committee's witnesses, three former Twitter executives, said in subpoenaed testimony that they mistakenly believed the Post article contained hacked material and reversed their decision to limit its circulation on the social media platform within 24 hours. "America witnessed a coordinated campaign by social media companies, mainstream news and the intelligence community to suppress and de-legitimize the existence of Hunter Biden's laptop and its contents," committee Chairman James Comer said at the outset of the proceedings. Hunter Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell has denied in a statement any connection between his client and what he called the "so-called laptop," including contents that Republicans "allege to be Mr. Biden's personal data." The Twitter executives also said company policy sought to mitigate content that could lead to political violence, such as what later occurred in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump's supporters.

☆ Trump's White House asked Twitter to remove Chrissy Teigen's expletive-filled tweet insulting the former president, ex-employee testifies
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

An ex-Twitter employee said Trump's White House asked the company to take down a tweet. Navaroli confirmed on Wednesday that Teigen's expletive-filled tweet was what the White House asked to be removed, though Twitter declined the request. Conservatives have long claimed that social media platforms like Twitter are biased against them, censor their speech and favor liberals. Yet the GOP's push to discuss alleged social media bias against conservatives seemingly backfired during Navaroli's testimony about the Trump White House seeking to remove Teigen's tweet. Three of the four former Twitter officials also testified they had no evidence that Biden's White House had ever asked the company to remove content.

☆ Ex-Twitter employee tells AOC the platform changed its content moderation policy to accommodate Trump's racist 'go back' tweets
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A former top Twitter official said the social network bent its rules for Trump's 2019 racist tweet. "So much for bias against right-wing on Twitter," Ocasio-Cortez said, concluding the line of questioning. The recommendation had been for Trump's tweets to be labeled but allowed to remain on the platform since he was a public figure. Twitter was repeatedly criticized for allowing Trump's tweets to stand. Following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, the social network banned the president "due to the risk of further incitement of violence."

☆ Republican-led U.S. House panel probes Twitter block of Hunter Biden story
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Even before the proceedings began, the White House denounced the hearing as "a bizarre political stunt" motivated by denial of Biden's 2020 election victory over Republican former President Donald Trump. "America witnessed a coordinated campaign by social media companies, mainstream news, and the intelligence community to suppress and de-legitimize the existence of Hunter Biden's laptop and its contents," Comer said. The former Twitter executives acknowledged that blocking the New York Post tweets was an error and said they reversed the decision within 24 hours. We applied this policy to the New York Post's tweets and blocked links to articles," Gadde said. The social platform has since been purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, who many Republicans view as a champion of free speech.

☆ Republicans held a hearing to prove Twitter’s bias against them. It backfired in spectacular fashion
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Despite no real evidence to support this weighty and consequential claim, Republicans were unrelenting in peddling it to the American public. Republicans showed, once again, that they are married to pushing claims that Silicon Valley is intentionally and unjustly censoring conservative views, even when the facts do not contort with their narrative. Ironically, the hearing appeared to reveal that Twitter had acquiesced to Trump and changed its policies after it concluded that he had violated its rules. And the hearing hinted that the Trump White House attempted to censor the speech of at least one American: Chrissy Teigen. Strangely enough, Republicans showed no interest in drilling down on this allegation of censorship.

☆ Watch: Former Twitter executives testify before the House Oversight Committee
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Three former Twitter executives are set to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday beginning at 10 a.m. Still, Twitter's new owner Elon Musk, who clashed with the former executives testifying, has promised to restore free speech to the platform. Wednesday's hearing features Twitter's former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, former deputy general counsel James Baker, former Twitter policy official Annika Collier Navaroli and former global head of trust and safety Yoel Roth. Twitter took the extreme step of blocking links to the story, citing its hacked materials policy. Twitter's then-CEO said the company's approach was wrong and changed the policy, but many lawmakers' trust was already broken.

☆ Jan. 6 Committee failed to hold social media companies to account for their role in the Capitol attack, staffers and witnesses say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Donie O'Sullivan Audrey Ash Zachary Cohen | Donie O'Sullivan | Audrey Ash | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

But now these witnesses, along with some committee staff, are frustrated, saying the committee failed to adequately hold major social media companies to account for the role they played in the worst attack on the Capitol in 200 years. They also said the final report outlines structural issues across social media and society that need to be studied further. Jeremy Moorhead/CNNDisagreement about social media companies’ role in the Jan. 6 attack comes as 2023 looks to be a pivotal year for Silicon Valley firms in Washington, DC. “Indeed, the lack of an official Committee report chapter or appendix dedicated exclusively to these matters does not mean our investigation exonerated social media companies for their failure to confront violent rhetoric,” they wrote. “History has taught us what happens when political speech on social media companies is allowed to fester unchecked.”

☆ Elon Musk plans Twitter content moderation council as questions about Trump return loom
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

After closing a $44 billion transaction to take Twitter private, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — now the de facto CEO of Twitter — announced that he plans to form a "content moderation council" at the social networking company. He says he will not make any "major content decisions" or reinstate any accounts that were previously banned before the council convenes. Twitter rival Facebook has been roundly criticized for using a council approach to making content moderation decisions. Early in the Trump presidency, Musk served on a White House economic advisory board and a manufacturing jobs initiative council. The former president previously said he would not return to the platform, but that could change now that the company is run by Musk.

Share this -Link copiedCommittee votes to subpoena Trump The committee voted on Thursday unanimously to subpoena Trump. Trump would not be the first president to be subpoenaed, nor would he be the first former president subpoenaed by Congress. "Even before the networks called the race for President Biden on Nov. 7th, his chances of pulling out a victory were virtually nonexistent, and President Trump knew it," Kinzinger said. “At times, President Trump acknowledged the reality of his loss. “What did President Trump know?

☆ Twitter whistleblower who foresaw the violence of Jan. 6 reveals her identity with an omen for the future of US democracy: WaPo
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In July, the Jan. 6 panel played a recording of an interview with an anonymous Twitter employee. Sign up for our newsletter to receive our top stories based on your reading preferences — delivered daily to your inbox. In July, the House select committee investigating the riot played an interview with Navaroli while hiding her identity. Navaroli also foresaw the violence of the insurrection, which killed five people and injured many more, months before January 6, 2021. Navaroli told the newspaper that she sat with multiple interviews for the January 6 panel.

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