Elon Musk Says Twitter Will Soon Display Account Shadowban Status, Allow Users to Appeal Decision

Twitter follows Instagram, which recently announced that it would inform users of posts that would not be recommended to other users.

Elon Musk Says Twitter Will Soon Display Account Shadowban Status, Allow Users to Appeal Decision

Twitter employees reportedly built blacklists and actively limited the visibility of entire accounts

Highlights
  • Twitter employees reportedly used a "Visibility Filtering" tool
  • Twitter was purchased by billionaire Elon Musk recently
  • Weiss said that "VF" refers to Twitter's control over user visibility
Advertisement

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has come up with a new update to the microblogging platform after the second instalment of the so-called "Twitter Files" revealed how the company built blacklists and actively limited the visibility of certain accounts. Musk tweeted on Friday, "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."

Twitter employees reportedly built blacklists and actively limited the visibility of entire accounts, according to the second instalment of Elon Musk's "Twitter Files" that claims to shed light on the company's hidden practices under the previous management.

"A new #TwitterFiles investigation reveals that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavoured tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics--all in secret, without informing users," said the editor of The Free Press Bari Weiss, in a series of tweets.

"Twitter once had a mission to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers. Along the way, barriers nevertheless were erected," she added.

Even though previous management denied reports of a shadow ban, Weiss said Twitter executives and employees used a powerful tool like "Visibility Filtering or VF" to block searches of individual users and to limit the scope of a particular tweet's discoverability.

Weiss said that "VF" refers to Twitter's control over user visibility. "It used VF to block searches of individual users; to limit the scope of a particular tweet's discoverability; to block select users' posts from ever appearing on the trending page; and from inclusion in hashtag searches."

She said that a select group, which handled up to 200 "cases" a day, decided whether to limit the reach of certain users was the Strategic Response Team - Global Escalation Team.

"But there existed a level beyond official ticketing, beyond the rank-and-file moderators following the company's policy on paper. That is the Site Integrity Policy, Policy Escalation Support, known as SIP-PES," she added.

Weiss said that this secret group included Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust Vijaya Gadde, the Global Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth, subsequent CEOs Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal, and others.

"This is where the biggest, most politically sensitive decisions got made. Think high follower account, controversial, another Twitter employee told us. For these there would be no ticket or anything," she said.

Last week, journalist Matt Taibbi in collaboration with Musk published "Twitter Files", documenting Twitter's internal communications to disclose links with political actors and with a focus on how the social network blocked stories related to Hunter Biden's laptop in the lead-up to the 2020 US Presidential election.


What are the best smartphones you can buy in India in 2022? These are the phones we think stood out the most this year Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.
Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Elon Musk, Twitter, Twitter Files
Redmi K60 Series Launch Tipped for January, All Three Models Said to Get Snapdragon SoC
Foxconn Invests $500 Million in India Unit After Disruptions at China iPhone Factory
Share on Facebook Gadgets360 Twitter Share Tweet Snapchat Share Reddit Comment google-newsGoogle News
 
 

Advertisement

Follow Us

Advertisement

© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Trending Products »
Latest Tech News »