Trump Pledges To ‘Look Into’ Twitter ‘SHADOW BANNING’ Conservatives

There’s no doubt that today’s most popular social media outlets are squashing conservative voices. Facebook is a big one. I can’t tell you how many people tell us, “Chicks! I don’t see your posts in my newsfeed anymore! Where did you go?!?”

We hear variations of that every single day. We didn’t go anywhere. It’s Facebook. The good news? There’s a workaround. Go directly to our site ANNNNNND sign up for our notifications! That way, you’ll never miss a thing.

Oh. And you should join our Facebook Group. That too. But don’t rely on Facebook to find us. Checking the site once or twice a day is the best way to ensure that you don’t miss a thing!

It’s not just Facebook, though. It appears Twitter has been “shadow banning” conservatives, including Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel.

The Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel, several conservative Republican congressmen, and Donald Trump Jr.’s spokesman no longer appear in the auto-populated drop-down search box on Twitter, VICE News has learned. It’s a shift that diminishes their reach on the platform — and it’s the same one being deployed against prominent racists to limit their visibility. The profiles continue to appear when conducting a full search, but not in the more convenient and visible drop-down bar. (The accounts appear to also populate if you already follow the person.)

Not cool. Not cool at all.

Vice also points out that Democrats are NOT being treated the same way. DNC Chair Tom Perez, Maxine Waters, Keith Ellison, etc.– not a problem. They’re all showing up correctly. As Vice noted, “Not a single member of the 78-person Progressive Caucus faces the same situation in Twitter’s search.”

There’s no way that’s NOT deliberate.

Hey @Twitter, are you shadow-banning my twitter account?? It would appear so. https://t.co/OWjChcuruw #Shadowbanned

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) July 24, 2018

So now @twitter is censoring @GOPChairwoman?

Enough is enough with this crap. @Jack it’s time for you to #StopTheBias against conservatives and Trump supporters and fix this once and for all. https://t.co/JC6i6y01Ek

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 25, 2018

The notion that social media companies would suppress certain political points of view should concern every American. Twitter owes the public answers to what’s really going on. https://t.co/i9UtbxJrt0

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) July 25, 2018

Twitter told Fox News that this is all due to an “algorithm glitch.”

Hm. That sounds a lot like Facebook’s previous excuses too. Although I think they went with “algorithm shifts.”

A short thread addressing some issues folks are encountering as a result of our conversational health work, specifically the perception of “shadowbanning” based on content or ideology. It suffices to say we have a lot more work to do to earn people’s trust on how we work. https://t.co/MN97l7w7RF

— jack (@jack) July 25, 2018

Here’s the thread Jack wants us to read:

We’ve heard questions from some of you relating to our work to drive healthy conversation on Twitter. People are asking us 1) about the breadth and precision of our work & 2) the impact of our work on the Search experience. We wanted to address these questions transparently here.

— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) July 25, 2018

In May, we started using behavioral signals and machine learning to reduce people’s ability to detract from healthy public conversation on Twitter. This approach looks at account behavior & interactions with other accounts that violate our rules. https://t.co/FsLO6NwyNw

— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) July 25, 2018

On 1) We’re always working to improve our behavior-based ranking models – their breadth and accuracy will improve over time. It’s important to note that these behavior signals are not binary, and they are one of many other signals that factor into ranking.

— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) July 25, 2018

To be clear, our behavioral ranking doesn’t make judgements based on political views or the substance of tweets. We recently publicly testified to Congress on this topic https://t.co/Zk4DL7Q3hq

— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) July 25, 2018

On 2) Some accounts weren’t being auto-suggested even when people were searching for their specific name. Our usage of the behavior signals within search was causing this to happen & making search results seem inaccurate. We’re making a change today that will improve this.

— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) July 25, 2018

We believe this work is really important to creating a healthier Twitter and we want to continue improving. Your feedback helps us do that so please keep it coming.

— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) July 25, 2018

Well guys, the king of morning tweets is jumping into the fray.

Twitter “SHADOW BANNING” prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2018

It’s a problem for sure, and I have no problem with Trump SAYING it’s a problem. However, this makes me a little nervous, because…well…is it really his place? And I’m pretty sure it’s NOT illegal sooooo there’s that too.

Yes, these liberal social media operations are totally unfair and operating under the guise of objectivity, and we all know that’s anything but the case. But at the same time, should the POTUS really get involved in “looking into” this? It’s not a government issue.

Surely, you see why I’m conflicted.

Your thoughts?