Rumors swirled recently in the Twitterverse that the Libs of TikTok account was shadowbanned, as users complained they could not find it through a search. This was a common issue before billionaire free speech absolutist Elon Musk bought the platform, but that was thought to be history.
This latest expulsion of the popular account had an innocent explanation, and Musk himself provided it.
An automated Twitter system found nudity in media Libs of TikTok had posted.
Account owner, author and activist Chaya Raichik reached out to Musk Sunday with concerns over the account’s status. She shared messages received from supporters and asked “why accounts are still getting throttled like this in Twitter 2.0.”
Musk, who is admittedly a fan of Libs of TikTok, quickly acknowledged the problem and fixed it. And the reason Raichik’s popular account was shadowbanned was entertaining, to put it mildly.
Libs of TikTok’s tweets are now being marked as “sensitive content.” You won’t be able to view her tweets unless you have your settings changed and the option to do that on the phone app is disabled. It’s a form of shadow banning. https://t.co/aRAnTr85DI pic.twitter.com/Oz0LhPBk4J
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 17, 2022
The account, which uses liberals’ own words and actions to spotlight their silliness, posted images from various “Pride” events in June. Some of these, being what they are, included nudity.
Thanks to Musk’s revelation, it is now common knowledge that Twitter has a bot that searches the millions of images posted every day for inappropriate content. In other words, nudity. And Libs of TikTok “exposed” the prevalent male nudity that is a feature of “Pride” gatherings.
Many or most of these events, of course, are labeled “family friendly.”
As hilarious as the reason for this latest shadowban of Libs of TikTok turned out to be, it was far from the first the account endured. In fact, these actions to block user traffic were ongoing and controversial before Musk took over the platform.
Twitter officials for years flatly denied the practice. Former CEO Jack Dorsey in 2018 acknowledged that critics asked if the company moved against content based on politics or point of view. His response would soon be proven false.
He claimed, “We do not look at content with regards to political viewpoint or ideology. We look at behavior.”
It took Musk to rip off that scab and show what was underneath. The Twitter Files conclusively proved that not only did the platform censor based on politics and viewpoint, it did so at the behest of the federal government.
