Elon Musk’s latest release of the “Twitter Files” showed the exorbitant lengths left-wing Twitter executives went to, in order to ban former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
But Twitter’s carpet-bombing of Trump’s account almost produced collateral damage among his followers.
Yoel Roth, formerly Twitter’s head of “safety,” advocated a permanent ban for U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, even though the platform’s hall monitors could not find any violation of their standards, according to the Gateway Pundit.
And Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s former general counsel, was on board with purging the Fort Walton Beach Republican from the platform.
The revelation about Gaetz came in a lengthy thread by journalist Michael Shellenberger; the third reporter Musk has leaked the files to.
Shellenberger outlined chapter four of the “Twitter Files” on Saturday.
Shellenberger reported that on Jan. 7, 2021, Twitter’s leaders sought to implement “a change of policy for Trump alone, distinct from other political leaders. In doing so, they “express(ed) no concern for the free speech or democracy implications of a ban.”
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Shellenberger notes that the group of senior execs making such decisions was “overwhelmingly progressive,” as on average roughly 98% of their election contributions went to Democratic candidates.
As the internal debate flies, Shellenberger noted, “Twitter employees recognize the difference between their own politics & Twitter’s Terms of Service (TOS), but they also engage in complex interpretations of content in order to stamp out prohibited tweets.”
They eventually came for Gaetz.
According to Shellenberger, as Twitter’s leaders pondered how to ban Trump, they decided they would make an exception for him to their “public interest” policy. That policy held that elected officials were allowed to violate Twitter’s terms because it furthers public debate to have elected voices opining on subjects.
Once the decision was made to ban Trump, Gaetz was in the crosshairs.
“Roth pushes for a permanent suspension of Rep. Matt Gaetz even though it ‘doesn’t quite fit anywhere (duh),’” Shellenberger reported. “It’s a kind of test case for the rationale for banning Trump.”
Based on a screenshot posted by Shellenberger, it appears Gaetz made some reference to Antifa’s role in the Jan. 6 riot.
The screenshot shows Roth acknowledges that some are calling to “just ban Gaetz.” He added that others are “working on that.”
Roth then suggested that Gaetz’s post “doesn’t quite fit anywhere (duh)” as a violation of the rules. But, he added, “I’m trying to talk [the] safety [team] into treating it as incitement. I think we’ll get over the line for removal as a conspiracy that incites violence.”
Roth closed by adding that Gadde “was directionally okay with it.”
Ultimately, Gaetz’s account was not banned.
The congressman also has not commented directly on the push by Twitter’s previous regime to seek any and the slightest justification to silence pro-Trumpers.
But he did retweet a comment by the journalist Lou Dobbs, who commented, “Twitter was tipped in favor of Marxist Dems and the twisted Deep State, targeting GOP, conservatives and decent Americans.”
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