Elton John has thrown a tantrum in response to Elon Musk’s publication of “Twitter Suppression Files Part Two” and the social media platform’s “secret blacklist files” last night.
John announced his departure from Twitter in a message on Friday (on Twitter).
He claimed that he was quitting the platform because of Twitter’s “recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked.”
However, John is departing immediately after Musk implemented adjustments to boost the platform’s transparency and openness and restore free expression.
John, whose true name is Reginald Dwight, has spent his whole life attempting to unite people via music.
“Yet it saddens me to see how misinformation is now being used to divide our world.
“I’ve decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked.”
All my life I’ve tried to use music to bring people together. Yet it saddens me to see how misinformation is now being used to divide our world.
I’ve decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked.— Elton John (@eltonofficial) December 9, 2022
Musk responded to John’s assertions by stating:
“What is this ‘misinformation’ that he refers to?”
Truth is now "misinformation." pic.twitter.com/NFqPR2r3Bl
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 9, 2022
John may have been alluding to Twitter’s former functionality, as documented by independent journalist Bari Weiss.
Weiss was given the duty of describing “Part Two” of the “Twitter Files.”
Musk granted her access to Twitter’s internal data, and on Thursday she disclosed her findings in a lengthy thread.
THREAD: THE TWITTER FILES PART TWO.
TWITTER’S SECRET BLACKLISTS.
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 9, 2022
Weiss reported: “A new #TwitterFiles investigation reveals that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics—all in secret, without informing users.
“Take, for example, Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) who argued that Covid lockdowns would harm children.
“Twitter secretly placed him on a ‘Trends Blacklist,’ which prevented his tweets from trending.
“Or consider the popular right-wing talk show host, Dan Bongino (@dbongino), who at one point was slapped with a ‘Search Blacklist.’
“Twitter set the account of conservative activist Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) to ‘Do Not Amplify.’
“Twitter denied that it does such things. In 2018, Twitter’s Vijaya Gadde (then Head of Legal Policy and Trust) and Kayvon Beykpour (Head of Product) said: ‘We do not shadow ban.’
“They added: ‘And we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.’ CONTINUE READING…