Twitter’s former safety team was initially concerned that then-President Donald Trump’s last tweets before the January 8, 2021 suspension were not in violation of the company’s rules, internal conversations between Twitter employees show.
In the fifth installment of “The Twitter Files,” independent journalist Bari Weis reported on Monday that there were internal discussions that acknowledged President Trump’s tweets were not in violation of any existing Twitter policy back in the day.
In his first of two tweets, President Trump praised the “great American Patriots who voted for me,” saying that they would “not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way shape or form!!!,” while the second read in its entirety: “To all those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
Internal records released by Weiss reveal that the Twitter safety team at the time agreed that it was not a “clear or coded incitement,” as a policy officer, Anika Navaroli described in a thread with the team.
Weiss further reported that another unnamed staffer agreed with Navaroli’s statement and also concluded that the second of his two tweets was a “clear no vio,” shorthand for violation.
“I think we’d have a hard time saying this is incitement,” wrote another unidentified staffer, according to Weiss. “It’s pretty clear he’s saying the ‘American Patriots’ are the ones who voted for him and not the terrorists (we can call them that, right?) from Wednesday,” the internal message read.
15. “I also am not seeing clear or coded incitement in the DJT tweet,” wrote Anika Navaroli, a Twitter policy official. “I’ll respond in the elections channel and say that our team has assessed and found no vios”—or violations—“for the DJT one.” pic.twitter.com/DnJk2UUuf6
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 12, 2022
Within just 90 minutes of this discussion, the company’s former head of legal, policy, and trust Vijaya Gadde argued that the first tweet was not a “rule violation on its face,” but determined that it could possibly have been interpreted as “as coded incitement to further violence,” Weiss reported.
16. She does just that: “as an fyi, Safety has assessed the DJT Tweet above and determined that there is no violation of our policies at this time.” pic.twitter.com/wMQ68Hu2xA
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 12, 2022
Twitter then decided to finally ban the sitting President of the United States for the two tweets and told the public that the content of the tweet was to potentially “inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021.”
What do you make of these Twitter employees’ decision-making process behind President Trump’s ban? Share your thoughts in our Facebook comments!
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