(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) In his third installment of the Twitter Files, Matt Taibbi exposed the decisions and actions behind banning Donald Trump on the platform, showing that Twitter’s Elections & Crisis Response Patrick Conlon was pushing for the removal of jokes and content by conservatives on the platform, according to the Post Millennial.
Before he started working for Twitter, Conlon worked in intelligence for the US Department of Defense.
Conlon was actively silencing conservative accounts by saying that joking is a violation of Twitter’s terms of service.
On January 6, 2021, Trump tweeted to his supporters to disperse from the Capitol.
“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victor is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & peace,” Trump wrote.
“Remember this day forever!”
Conlon shared his insightful perspective on Trump’s tweet in internal conversations.
“What the actual f*ck? Can this go to Staff too? I’m labeling this now,” he wrote.
“I actually got emotionally angry seeing that. Turns out I’m not a full robot. Who knew?”
The recent files that were released by Taibbi revealed that they were even censoring jokes from conservatives before the 2020 election.
On Oct. 24, 2020, Gov. Mike Huckabee posted a joke on Twitter.
“Stood in rain for hour to early vote today. When I got home I filled in my stack of mail-in ballots and then voted the ballots of my deceased parents and grandparents,” he wrote.
“They vote just like me!”
One of the Twitter executives shared the joke with colleagues.
“… putting this tweet on everyone’s radar. This appears to be a joke but other people might believe it. Can I get your weight on this?”
Roth replied.
“Ugh. Yeah, I saw this one last night. Agree it’s a joke… but he’s also literally admitting in a tweet to a crime.”
Conlon weighed in, too.
“Ooof. I just saw this. Looking at the replies now to get a feel for it much confusion is being generated. A quick glance indicates that people aren’t confused, but I have concerns,” he wrote.
“Under the policy, we don’t make exceptions for jokes or satire. So while I doubt that Huck was really this stupid and is joking, I’m inclined to say that it should come down.”
Shortly after Taibbi released the files, Conlon deleted his LinkedIn account.
