Twitter CEO Elon Musk revealed late on Thursday new product features that will soon come to Twitter.
Musk made the revelations after journalist Bari Weiss released the second installment of “The Twitter Files,” which showed how Twitter built blacklists, prevented disfavored tweets from trending on the platform, and actively limited the visibility of entire accounts and even trending topics without informing users.
Many users responded to the proof that Twitter had been suppressing conservative accounts to manipulate conversations on the platform by asking if action had been taken against their accounts since Weiss gave only a few examples.
“Twitter is working on a software update that will show your true account status, so you know clearly if you’ve been shadowbanned, the reason why and how to appeal,” Musk tweeted.
Twitter is working on a software update that will show your true account status, so you know clearly if you’ve been shadowbanned, the reason why and how to appeal
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022
Musk later added that the platform would soon “start freeing the name space of 1.5 billion accounts.”
“These are obvious account deletions with no tweets & no log in for years,” he added.
These are obvious account deletions with no tweets & no log in for years
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022
Musk responded to a question about whether “any political candidates — either in the US or elsewhere — [were] subject to shadowbanning while they were running for office or seeking re-election” by answering, “Yes.”
Yes
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022
“Most engineers don’t feel strongly about politics, but do want to work with other great engineers,” Musk added. “Silicon Valley has world’s best engineering talent, but is co-located with San Francisco, which is far left. Thus, far left gained control of an incredibly powerful info weapon.”
Musk also took a shot at President Joe Biden for not bringing home U.S. Marine veteran Paul Whelan during a prisoner swap in which the administration freed convicted Russian terrorist Viktor Bout, who plotted to sell weapons to terrorists for the purpose of killing U.S. federal agents, in exchange for WNBA player Brittney Griner.
“Never leave a marine behind,” Musk tweeted. “Never.”
Bout was convicted on terrorism charges back in 2011 for trying to sell tens of millions of dollars worth of missiles to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to shoot down U.S. military helicopters.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, slammed President Joe Biden for releasing Bout.
“This should be a moment of deep reflection for the United States government to recognize we have a serious problem with hostage-taking of Americans,” Menendez said in a statement. “The Russians and other regimes that take American citizens hostage cannot pretend that there is equivalence between the Brittney Griners of the world and people like Viktor Bout, the so-called ‘Merchant of Death.’ Nothing could be further from the truth, and we cannot ignore that releasing Bout back into the world is a deeply disturbing decision.”
“We must stop inviting dictatorial and rogue regimes to use Americans overseas as bargaining chips, and we must try to do better at encouraging American citizens against traveling to places like Russia where they are primary targets for this type of unlawful detention,” he continued.
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