Michelle Obama, former first lady, was involved in Twitter’s ban on Donald Trump. According to the latest installment of “Twitter Files”, Michelle Obama and others wanted the company to “permanently” eliminate him.
Elon Musk CEO, and Michael Shellenberger, released the fourth batch “Twitter Filed” documents. Shellenberger said that the files were the result of “internal pressure” and “external pressure” from Trump’s ex-first lady.
Obama posted a lengthy statement to Twitter on January 7.
She said: “If we are to improve this nation, now is a time to swiftly and seriously punish the leaders who failed yesterday.”
Jack Dorsey, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, was also forced to close Trump’s account.
Shellenberger reported, too, that the then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sent an email to employees on Jan. 7 asking them to “remain consistent in its policies, including users’ right to return to Twitter following a temporary suspension.”
Dorsey was referring to Trump’s suspended account. Fox News reports:
The files also revealed that Twitter had a policy called “Public-interest exceptions”, where elected officials weren’t banned because there was a great interest in their comments even though they appeared to be violating other policies.
Shellenberger reported that Dorsey was in French Polynesia for vacation during the week of January 4-8 2021. Shellenberger notes that the chief executive delegated a lot of responsibility to other senior executives, including Vijaya Gadde, former Head of Legal, Policy & Trust at Twitter, and Safety Yoel Roth, former Twitter Head for Trust and Safety. Shellenberger also points out that these executives were “overwhelmingly progressive.”
Shellenberger reported that “In 2018, 2020, & 2022, 96% & 98% & 99% of Twitter employees’ political donations went to Democrats.”
“Twitter employees understand the difference between their politics and Twitter’s Terms of Service(TOS), but also engage in complex interpretations of contents in order to stampout prohibited tweets,” Shellenberger said.
Trump was suspended for life just one day after Dorsey sent him an email. He claimed that his posts had been “received” and “interpreted”.
