Former first lady Michelle Obama was involved in Twitter’s ban of former President Donald Trump. Michelle Obama and others demanded the company “permanently” remove him, according to the newest “Twitter Files” installment.
CEO Elon Musk, along with journalist Michael Shellenberger released the fourth batch of the “Twitter filed” documents. Shellenberger reported of the files, “internal and external pressure,” including from the former first lady, fell onto the company calling for Trump to be banned from using Twitter.
“Now is the time for Silicon Valley companies to stop enabling this monstrous behavior—and go even further than they have already by permanently banning this man from their platforms and putting in place policies to prevent their technologies from being used by the nation’s leaders to fuel insurrection,” Obama wrote in a lengthy statement posted to Twitter on Jan. 7.
She added: “And if we have any hope of improving this nation, now is the time for swift and serious consequences for the failure of leadership that led to yesterday’s shame.”
The Anti-Defamation League also pressured CEO Jack Dorsey to ban Trump’s account.
Shellenberger also reported that on the morning of Jan. 7, then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wrote an email to employees instructing them, as: “to remain consistent in its policies, including the right of users to return to Twitter after a temporary suspension.”
Dorsey was alluding to Trump’s already suspended account. Fox News reports:
The files also showed Twitter maintained a policy — called “Public-interest exceptions” — where elected officials were not banned as there was a great public interest in their comments, even if they seemed to violate other policies.
“Dorsey was on vacation in French Polynesia the week of January 4-8, 2021,” Shellenberger reported. The chief executive delegated much of the responsibility to senior executives, including former Twitter Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth and former Head of Legal, Policy, & Trust Vijaya Gadde, who Shellenberger points out were “overwhelmingly progressive.”
“In 2018, 2020, and 2022, 96%, 98%, & 99% of Twitter staff’s political donations went to Democrats,” Shellenberger reported.
“Twitter employees recognize the difference between their own politics & Twitter’s Terms of Service (TOS), but they also engage in complex interpretations of content in order to stamp out prohibited tweets,” Shellenberger continued.
Just one day following Dorsey’s email, Trump was permanently suspended, citing how his posts were being “received and interpreted.”