Twitter is here to save the republic. Lucky us.
The social media giant announced this week it would “begin enforcing” its Civic Integrity Policy, the purpose of which supposedly is to protect the “integrity” of domestic and international elections. Put more simply, the same company that blocked its users from sharing the Hunter Biden laptop story, going so far as to ban them from sharing it even in private messages, is doubling its efforts to referee political chatter.
Twitter’s new policy enforcement is, of course, conveniently timed to start ahead of the November midterm elections, as the social media company admitted.
“This means we’ll take action against misleading claims about the voting process, misleading content intended to intimidate or dissuade people from participating in the election or misleading claims that may undermine public confidence in elections outcomes,” Twitter said in a statement.
In theory, the Civic Integrity Policy is a good idea. It would be nice to have a neutral and competent arbiter to protect unsuspecting social media users from misinformation, disinformation, and online intimidation, especially during election years.
In reality, however, Twitter is neither neutral nor competent. It is not even consistent!
On the matter of neutrality: Although Twitter works hard to police right-wing lies and conspiracy theories, it is remarkably lax when the Left engages in similar falsehoods and fantasies.
Take, for example, the Democrats’ attempt to spin the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive spending bill that would, among other things, increase the scope and size of the IRS significantly.
“The Inflation Reduction Act includes money for the IRS to curb an epidemic of tax cheating amongst the millionaires and billionaires,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) claimed. “Under [the] bill, audit rates won’t increase for anyone making under $400K.”
This is not merely misleading. It is a flat-out lie. There is nothing in the bill limiting who or how many people may be audited. In fact, Murphy even voted against an amendment that would have barred new agents from auditing anyone making less than $400,000. Curiously, Twitter has not suspended the senator’s account for spreading disinformation. There is not even a warning label on his tweet.
Elsewhere, President Joe Biden’s Twitter account boasted on Aug. 10: “July’s 0% inflation and last week’s booming jobs report underscore the kind of economy we’re building – an economy that works for everyone.”
His inflation statistic is so remarkably misleading it is indistinguishable from an outright falsehood. Inflation in July remained unchanged at 8.5%. It was not 0%. Yet, for reasons not entirely clear, the president’s account has not been suspended for spreading an obvious and intentional misrepresentation. It is unclear whether Twitter has even issued him a warning. Naturally, there is no label affixed to the president’s tweet, alerting social media users to the president’s willful distortion of fact.
Then, there is current White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the most brazen liar of all. In 2016, after President Donald Trump defeated then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Jean-Pierre tweeted, “Stolen emails, stolen drone, stolen election … welcome to the world of #unpresidented Trump.”
Years later, in 2020, Jean-Pierre tweeted in reference to Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, “Reminder: Brian Kemp stole the gubernatorial election from Georgians and Stacey Abrams.”
These lies are as great and absurd as anything uttered by members of the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” crowd, many of whom have been suspended or kicked off of Twitter altogether for spreading election conspiracy theories. Yet, Jean-Pierre’s account remains active, her election-trutherism uncontested by the brain trust at Twitter. There are not even Twitter warning labels or fact-checks affixed to her election-truther tweets.
In regards to consistency: there is no rhyme or reason to Twitter’s enforcement of its terms of service.
In 2021, for example, Twitter banned Trump permanently for spreading election conspiracy theories, arguing he is too dangerous and incendiary to be allowed a presence on the platform. Yet, for whatever reason, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei still has an account. His many anti-Israel tweets, which are unambiguously pro-genocide, have not been deleted, nor has his account been suspended for its repeated calls for the total destruction of Israel.
In July 2017, the pro-life group Live Action was barred from advertising on Twitter and told its privileges would be restored only if it agreed to delete allegedly “offensive” and “provocative” content.
“Remove current and past sensitive content from your website and Twitter feed,” the social media group told Live Action, or “create a new Twitter handle for marketing/advertising efforts that drives to a new website that does not include content that violates our policy.”
In contrast, Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of abortions, has faced no similar advertising hurdles, even despite the fact its tweets can easily be described as “offensive” or “provocative,” including tweets regarding sexual assault.
More recently, in 2020, Twitter took the extraordinary step of barring users from sharing the New York Post’s exclusive coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story. Twitter even suspended the New York Post’s account. The social media company argued at the time that it does not allow the sharing of “hacked materials.” The New York Post scoop did indeed include images of Ukrainian businessman Vadym Pozharskyi’s Gmail address as well as Biden’s Rosemont Seneca business email address.
“The policy prohibits the use of our service to distribute content obtained without authorization,” Twitter corporate explained in 2020. “We don’t want to incentivize hacking by allowing Twitter to be used as distribution for possibly illegally obtained materials.”
Weirdly, ProPublica faced no similar Twitter censorship or banishment in 2022, even after it shared a report divulging the illegally obtained personal financial data of the 400 highest earners in the United States. One would think Twitter’s policy against the “distribution of hacked materials” would include the illegally obtained information included in ProPublica’s reporting, earning the newsgroup a ban similar to the one meted out to the New York Post. But alas.
Lastly, as to the issue of competence: Twitter’s censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop was an unmitigated fiasco, an unforced error that raised serious questions regarding the company’s judgment and motives.
Then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey even admitted as much during a congressional hearing.
“We made a total mistake with the New York Post,” he told lawmakers.
Oopsie!
An impartial, capable, and reliable referee of fact would undoubtedly serve a great and necessary purpose, especially during election years.
Sadly, Twitter is neither impartial, capable, nor reliable.
Becket Adams is the program director of the National Journalism Center.
