Twitter has rebuffed claims by a conservative media outlet that its staff monitor users' private data, including direct messages sent over the social network (via TechCrunch).
Earlier this week, Project Veritas, which hosts sting operation-style videos produced by self-proclaimed "guerrilla journalist" James O'Keefe, posted footage that appears to show Twitter engineers admitting that teams of employees access users' data.
In one brief clip, a senior network security engineer appears to say that the social media company would be able hand over President Donald Trump's data, including deleted tweets and direct messages, to the Department of Justice, subject to a subpoena.
Last week, Twitter criticized Project Veritas in a public statement for its "deceptive" and "selectively edited" report.
We deplore the deceptive and underhanded tactics by which this footage was obtained and selectively edited to fit a pre-determined narrative. Twitter only responds to valid legal requests and does not share any user information with law enforcement without such a request.
Referencing its privacy policies and terms of service which explain how it holds and stores information that users choose to share, Twitter said it is "committed to enforcing our rules without bias and empowering every voice on our platform, in accordance with the Twitter Rules".
Project Veritas has been criticized in the past for using underhand and deceitful methods in its investigations. In November last year, one of its undercover employees was caught trying to bait reporters at The Washington Post by falsely claiming to be a sexual assault victim of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore.
Twitter regularly reveals the number of legal requests it receives and responds to in its biannual transparency report. The company received 2,111 government information requests in the U.S. and produced at least some information for 77 percent of them during the period between January 1 and June 30, 2017.
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Top Rated Comments
What the undercover reporting here shows is Twitter employees describing "shadow banning" or deceptively silencing users who have political views that don't fall in line with leftist Jack Dorsey and Silicon Valley in general. In addition, these twitter folk reveal the clearly uneven application of outright banning, based on political leaning or affiliation and the bots used to seek out "rednecks" (their term.)
But as is the trend, Twitter protests against the method by which they were exposed, and can do nothing to refute the findings.
Okeefe and his people have been doing a thorough and transparent job for years, exposing this dangerous kind of hypocrisy. They publish all the info and evidence; this isn't the typical selective, super-edited, out-of-context style "evidence" you see in a standard media agenda-driven "expose'."
Watch the videos and listen to the audio yourself and then make your own conclusions. I see the interwebs are already in panic mode trying to spin this story.
That aside, this article seems more a hit piece on this Project Veritas than any attempt at investigating whether or not Twitter actually snoops on customers.
I guess Mike Wallace and 60 Minutes, and Chris Hanson used “underhand [sic] and deceitful methods in its investigations” too.
They aggressively censor non liberal views. Shadowbanning is real.
Jack Dorsey is another disgusting tech CEO. Haven’t we learned, repeatedly, male feminists shouldn’t be trusted?
They are the most depraved on average
Give me a break. They've been lying to us nonstop since before the election, claiming HRC has a 99% chance of winning (no, simply no), gaslighting us,
They deserve criticism when on a public forum and opening themselves up to the public, spouting lies to serve their agenda. In my view, its just an agenda that resonates well with you.
hashtag fake news replies isn't harassment
I assert you're being biased by not examining the facts, and what was said, and who said it, simply because you don't like Project Veritas