Leaked Glimpse Into Twitter’s Anti-Free-Speech Corporate Culture
This week, Libs of TikTok published a Substack post featuring screenshots of internal Slack messages between Twitter employees. In the messages, the employees expressed their frustration with management’s refusal to ban the Libs of TikTok account. One employee cited Twitter having “successfully deplatformed Trump” as an example which could be followed.
The account gained its 1.2 million followers on Twitter by posting video clips originally uploaded to TikTok by liberals commenting on gender identity and other hot-button political and cultural issues. The account has come under fire by those claiming it incites violence towards those in the transgender community and other marginalized groups.
The account’s creator has reportedly received multiple death threats on Twitter. Accompanying the threats are such labels as, “domestic terrorist,” “extremist,” “bigot,” “white supremacist,” and “Nazi.” While the threatening posts have been reported to Twitter support as a violation of the platform’s rules, many of the accounts in question, as of the time of publication of this post, have not been sanctioned.
According to the leaked Slack discussion, the threats and abuse stem from the belief that the account “exists solely to generate targeted violence at marginalized people.”
One Twitter employee wrote, “I despise and despair the activity that is currently flourishing on our platform and empowering white supremacists/fascists to act with impunity in conducting harmful emotional and physical violence on trans folx and the broader LGBTQ+ community.”
Instead of locking the accounts of those issuing slurs and threats, Twitter recently locked the Libs of TikTok account itself for posting a thread regarding young children attending drag shows. Not surprisingly, Twitter’s action against the account seems to have encouraged those threatening its creator, who reportedly has had to relocate for safety purposes.
Tweets explaining the situation came to the attention of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who commented, “A platform cannot be considered inclusive or fair if it is biased against half the country.” Musk, who is in the midst of an attempt to acquire the platform, says he intends to change Twitter’s content moderation policies once the company is privately owned.
Parler CEO George Farmer noted what the message leak reveals about what Musk will face if his acquisition bid succeeds:
“The leaked conversations from Twitter employees further reveal a corporate culture that is utterly at odds with free speech and free expression. At Parler, we recognize and embrace our critical role as a free speech platform and never let our personal biases interfere with our mission.”
You can follow Libs of Tik Tok on Parler — where they can speak freely.