Donald Trump was blacklisted despite being cleared by the ‘Trust & Safety’ review team
The latest installment of the “Twitter Files,” a series of revelations lifting the curtain on Twitter’s infighting ahead of controversial censorship decisions, reveals more details about the decision to ban Donald Trump from the platform in January 2021.
Revelations, given to the elders New York Times writer Bari Weiss, reveal that members of Twitter’s Trust & Safety department did not believe the former president broke the rules on the day he was banned, only to have that decision reversed following an intervention by the arch -progressive Vijaya Gadde.
The disclosures also reveal that CEO Jack Dorsey was involved in the decision to suspend Trump’s account, ending long-running rumors that Gadde made the decision himself while Dorsey was on vacation and unreachable.
But those employees were drowned out by a louder chorus, which demanded, among other things, that Twitter consider Trump the “leader of a terrorist group.”
On January 8, Donald Trump posted two tweets, which some Twitter employees tried to call “incitement.”
3. 7:44 a.m.: “To everyone who asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.” pic.twitter.com/bRF7O4Ijcf
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 12, 2022
The tweets were as follows:
The 75,000,000 great American patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE in the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way!!!
To all who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20.
Even Twitter’s trust and safety department, known to be run by far-leftists, concluded that none of these tweets violated the platform’s terms of service.
Anika Navaroli, Twitter’s chief policy officer, told employees on Jan. 8 that the Trust and Safety Department had “evaluated the above DJT tweet and determined that there is no violation of our policies at the moment,” referring to Trump’s tweet about “75 million great American patriots.
The second tweet was also considered a “clear” non-violation of the policy. “It’s just to say he’s not attending the inauguration,” a staff member said.
Shortly after this determination by the Trust and Safety Review Team, arch-progressive Vijaya Gadde jumped into the discussion to ask whether, while Trump’s earlier tweet was “not a clear prima facie violation”, could be interpreted as “a coded incitement to more violence”. .”
In his Twitter feed revealing the revelations, Weiss noted that other current and former heads of state have been allowed to remain on the platform despite much clearer violations of Twitter policy.
These included direct incitement to violence, including a former Malaysian prime minister who said Muslims had the “right” to kill “millions of French people for the massacres of the past”, and the 2021 call by the current Ethiopian Prime Minister to Ethiopian citizens to take up arms against the country’s Tigray minority.
23. In October 2021, Twitter enabled Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to call on citizens to take up arms against the Tigray region.
Twitter allowed the tweet to remain active and did not ban the prime minister. pic.twitter.com/DThmGsJM1r
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 12, 2022
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 it remains on the platform. The tweet below is taken from the Wayback Machine: pic.twitter.com/7tgxgCw9I9
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 12, 2022
Following Gadde’s intervention, employees of Twitter’s “wide enforcement team” said the tweet could violate policy if “great American patriots” were interpreted as a reference to the rioters who have committed illegal acts.
Yet a day earlier, then-President Trump condemned the violence on Capitol Hill, calling it a “heinous attack.”
Two hours after the law enforcement team suggested its new interpretation of Trump’s tweets, Twitter executives held a 30-minute meeting in which Dorsey and Gadde asked about why for which Trump was not yet banned.
Following that meeting, and amid continued backlash from employees who were angry that Trump had not yet been suspended, Dorsey appeared to relent, demanding language to publicly explain a suspension of Trump’s account.
An hour after Dorsey requested that language, Twitter announced Trump’s permanent suspension “due to risk of further incitement to violence.”
Inside Twitter, celebrations erupted.
Allum Bokhari is Breitbart News’ Senior Technology Correspondent. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.
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