Twitter Files: Platform Suppressed Valid Information from Medical Experts about Covid-19

During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Twitter’s leaders bowed to government pressure to censor information that was true but inconvenient, suspended medical professionals who disagreed with establishment views, and relied on bots and foreign contractors to moderate complex scientific topics, according to the newest edition of the Twitter Files.

Independent journalist David Zweig released the 40-tweet Twitter Files report — “How Twitter Rigged the Covid Debate” — on Monday. The report is based on internal Twitter files that Zweig reviewed for the Free Press. The Twitter Files is a series of reports based on internal Twitter documents released to select journalists by the company’s new CEO, Elon Musk.

Zweig reported Monday that both the Biden and Trump administrations pressured Twitter and other social-media platforms to elevate content that fit their narratives and to suppress information that didn’t. At the outset of the pandemic, the Trump administration urged tech companies to “combat misinformation” about “runs on grocery stores,” Zweig reported.

“But,” Zweig noted, “there were runs on grocery stores.” It wasn’t misinformation but was instead a true phenomenon the Trump administration did not want to be highlighted.

When Joe Biden took over as president, his administration was concerned about “anti-vaxxer accounts,” and particularly the account of journalist Alex Berenson, Zweig reported.