Critics of Twitter are roasting @elonmusk for agreeing to the censorship demands of the Turkish government days before last Sunday’s election.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said Musk should have done what “What Wikipedia did: we stood strong for our principles and fought to the Supreme Court of Turkey and won. This is what it means to treat freedom of expression as a principle rather than a slogan.”
But Twitter did exactly that. “We will continue to object in court,” Twitter explained yesterday, “as we have done with all requests, but no further legal action was possible before the start of voting."
"Five court orders have been issued against Twitter regarding these actions and we have already objected to four of them," it wrote. "While one of our objections has been rejected, three of them are still under review. We are filing our objections to the fifth order tomorrow.”
Critics say that Musk should have called the government’s bluff and let the government shut off Twitter entirely. I am sympathetic to this view since I think it would be a strong show of force at a time when governments worldwide are cracking down on freedom of speech.
At the same time, Twitter under Musk has been more transparent than any other Internet company, including Twitter pre-Musk, in announcing the government’s censorship.
Yesterday, Twitter released the Turkish court orders and the letter from the government regulator, demanding censorship.
Neither Google, Facebook, or any other Internet company has done so, despite having complied with Turkish censorship demands for at least two years and perhaps longer.
As such, while all of the attention over the last few days has been on Twitter, other Internet companies are being let off the hook.
It wasn't always this way. In 2021, ProPublica reported, “Sheryl Sandberg and Top Facebook Execs Silenced an Enemy of Turkey to Prevent a Hit to the Company’s Business.”
And Turkey has cracked down significantly since Wikipedia’s lawsuit in 2019.
In an October 7, 2022, email describing Turkey’s new law, a Twitter executive complained, “Google has been disengaged and intends to comply.”
Meta “has been proactive at the highest levels in its efforts to change/delay/derail the law.... However, if the law is passed and their businesses are materially challenged by sanctions, I would expect both companies [Meta + Tik Tok] to find compliance solutions”
Moreover, even Musk hater @CaseyNewton concluded in early 2021, based on what had happened in India as well as Turkey, that “whether a social network complies with government requests or challenges them, in the end it will eventually be brought to heel.”
And yesterday, @CaseyNewton & @ZoeSchiffer wrote, “On this point [relating to Turkey’s censorship], we can be sympathetic to Musk.... in 2021, before Musk bought the company, Twitter restricted access to various high-profile accounts at the behest of the Indian government."
"The rationale for these moves is fairly straightforward: it’s typically better for the cause of speech to have at least some content available," they wrote. "Pakistan banned YouTube outright from 2012 to 2016; when the government relented and allowed it to return, it was largely… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Indeed, the Twitter Files show that Twitter was in the process of complying with Turkey’s censorship law long before Musk bought the company.
On June 14, 2021, Twitter’s then-deputy legal counsel, Jim Baker, emailed another senior legal executive to say, “we need to: (1) agree to comply (as much as possible) with the 48-hour requirement (which I understand people think is achievable); and (2) agree to cobble together… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
That same month, Twitter's law firm, Shearman and Sterling, sent over a report which described Twitter’s options at length. “The Turkish Government has intermittently blocked access to Twitter, notably during elections and in the wake of arrests of opposition politicians,” noted… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Shearman didn’t recommend that Twitter continue to pursue the matter in Turkish courts, perhaps because Turkey’s National Assembly passed a new law in reaction to Wikipedia’s Supreme Court victory in early 2020.
Instead, Shearman recommended Twitter consider international arbitration proceedings, filing a case with the European Court for Human Rights, going to the World Trade Organization, or going to the United Nations.
In August 2021, a Twitter executive emailed Vijaya Gadde, Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust at Twitter, about the legislation the National Assembly would pass in 2022. “President Erdogan has made several statements indicating strong support for more prohibitive social media… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
The executive said Turkey was inspired by the censorship regime of the German government. “The Turkish government says it has formulated the plans for this legislation by conducting an analysis of laws enacted in other countries, particularly Germany’s NetzDG.”
By October 2022, Twitter executives discussed the company’s limited remaining options. “We've been told that the law will go into effect on April 1. The timing of the law is deliberate, as it's widely regarded as a means for the government to exert more control over the public… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Once again, Facebook caved. "Meta and TikTok both say that they can't see a way to comply with some of the law's requirements, particularly around fully authorised local (Turkish citizen) representation, as they share our concerns around employee safety. However, their views may… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
On November 23, 2022, a Twitter executive wrote an email to senior Twitter executives Senior Legal Counsel for Turkey laying out options. The first two were for complying and the latter proposed taking a legal route.
It appears that Twitter under Musk chose the legal route that his critics, including Wikipedia’s Wales, urged. It didn’t work:
The media said the case against Brazil's former President Bolsonaro for supposedly plotting a coup was a slam dunk. It wasn't. A Supreme Court Justice appointed by the ruling Left-wing Workers Party just annihilated the prosecution as fraudulent. Incredible to watch.
It was a kangaroo court. Bolsonaro wasn't allowed to properly defend himself. Here's Justice Fux (translated)
"And I say, Mr. President, because it is important, and only for this historical reason, that the guarantee of adversarial proceedings and a full defense, incorporated into Western law long ago, was already emphasized in the work of the Stoic philosopher Seneca, who stated that, 'Whoever decides anything... without hearing the other side, even if they decide fairly, is not truly just.'
"This has been reiterated over the years in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948 by the UN General Assembly. Article 11: Everyone charged with a criminal offense has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a public trial at which they have had all the guarantees necessary for their defense."
This is Pravda-style propaganda not journalism:
"How to Try, and Fail, to Carry Out a Coup... Evidence suggests this is how he tried to do it."
For decades, Democrats & @ACLU have opposed mandatory psychiatric care for the violently mentally ill. Charlotte shows it’s cruel *not* to mandate care. President Trump & Congress should require states to mandate care for the dangerously psychotic. Me @NewsNation w/ @EVargasTV
ACLU is to blame for preventing mandatory care of the violently insane.
The European Parliament has blocked access to Public.News, apparently in response to TWITTER FILES-FRANCE. @vonderleyen @DelphineColard are ignoring Members of Parliament. This is the censorship that @EmmanuelMacron & @vonderleyen seek to impose on the world. x.com/v_joron/status…
.@DelphineColard and @vonderleyen are obligated by the European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure to provide prompt and reasoned replies to requests for information from Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Here is the right-of-reply email I sent.
@DelphineColard @vonderleyen Please read and share TWITTER FILES - FRANCE and see for yourself the censorship scheme pursued by @EmmanuelMacron:
L'administration Trump et l'UE conduisent d’âpres négociations commerciales. Leur principal point d’achoppement? La censure européenne des plateformes numériques. L'année dernière, Thierry Breton, alors commissaire européen au marché intérieur, avait menacé Elon Musk de sanctions après l'annonce d'une interview avec Donald Trump sur X. Nombreux sont ceux qui tablent sur “l’effet Bruxelles”, la taille importante du marché de l'UE qui lui permet d’imposer sa réglementation au monde entier, y compris aux entreprises américaines, afin de procéder à la censure du contenu publié sur les plateformes, y compris par des citoyens américains résidant aux USA et protégés par le premier amendement de leur Constitution.
Des nouvelles informations extraites des TWITTER FILES laissent penser à une alliance objective du pouvoir politique français, de gouvernements successifs, de parlementaires, d’ONG affiliées à l'État, de médias mainstream subventionnés par l’Etat et d'institutions universitaires, travaillant à inciter le plus influent des réseaux sociaux à censurer des discours pourtant licites et à influencer sa « modération de contenu » bien au delà des frontières françaises et européennes.
Les TWITTER FILES et le rapport “La France a inventé le complexe industriel de censure” révèlent les origines de cette stratégie de censure holistique, pour ne pas dire totale, dont les pièces maîtresses sont les ONG :
— Le président Macron a tenté avec insistance de contacter le PDG de Twitter de l’époque, Jack Dorsey ;
— Le timing de l’action de Macron suggère fortement une coordination avec des ONG afin d’obtenir davantage de censure et exiger la communication de données personnelles et sensibles des utilisateurs de Twitter ;
— L’enchaînement des événements indique des tentatives de contournement de la loi de la part de divers acteurs non étatiques.
L' enquête TWITTER FILES - FRANCE a été réalisée par @McmahonPascal et @battleforeurope, et éditée par @galexybrane et @shellenberger.
2. « Le président Macron veut envoyer un SMS à Jack »
Le 14 octobre 2020, la directrice des affaires publiques de Twitter pour la France et la Russie a écrit : « L'équipe du président Macron m'a demandé (encore !) le numéro de Jack parce que le président veut lui envoyer par SMS quelques mots de soutien concernant nos nouvelles politiques et fonctionnalités sur l'intégrité des élections. »
Problème : Dorsey ne communique pas ses coordonnées, même aux chefs d'État. « Je lui ai déjà indiqué qu'il pouvait lui envoyer un message privé. Je vais encore le réitérer, mais je voulais d'abord vérifier auprès de vous que Jack ne communique jamais son numéro », a poursuivi la cadre de Twitter.
Public News a demandé une réaction au président Macron. Cette demande est restée lettre morte.
3. « Macron n’envoie de SMS qu’à ses proches et à ses collègues… »
La première réponse au courriel de la directrice des affaires publiques France et Russie est venue de vice-présidente monde des affaires publiques, qui a mis en copie Vijaya Gadde,à l’époque directrice juridique de Twitter et l’un des principaux censeurs de la plateforme.
Cette cadre écrit : « Je sais que Macron n'envoie des SMS qu'à ses proches et qu'il collabore fréquemment avec ses collègues et ses homologues (comme Angela Merkel) par SMS. Pourriez-vous demander à Jack s'il accepterait un SMS de Macron ? Nous demanderons à son équipe de ne communiquer le numéro de Jack qu'à Macron. Merci. »
Le bureau de Dorsey a répondu : « Je vais contacter Jack. Y a-t-il une alternative ? Pour info : Jack n'a pas de numéro de téléphone (je le jure) et seule son équipe rapprochée sait où le joindre. »
« J'ai insisté pour un message privé, mais apparemment, Macron n'utilise pas Twitter lui-même et souhaite écrire un message personnel. Peut-être sur Telegram ou Signal? »
Suit un examen de divers canaux de communication possibles: courrier électronique, Signal, Telegram et iMessage.
Pourquoi donc Macron était-il si empressé d’entrer en contact avec Dorsey ?
At this moment, the Trump administration is negotiating with the EU over final obstacles to a trade deal, one of which is European censorship of US social media platforms.
Many analysts believe the massive size of the EU will lead US social media firms to impose European censorship, including on Americans. Last year, the EU’s then-top digital censor, Thierry Breton, threatened action against Elon Musk after he announced a conversation on X with Donald Trump.
Now, new TWITTER FILES show a coordinated effort by France’s President Emmanuel Macron, legislators, and state-affiliated NGOs working together to force the world’s most influential social media platform to censor users for legal speech and influence Twitter’s worldwide “content moderation” for narrative control.
What’s more, TWITTER FILES - FRANCE reveals the birth of the censorship-by-NGO proxy strategy at the heart of the Censorship Industrial Complex:
— President Macron personally reached out to then-CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey;
— The timing of Macron’s action strongly suggests coordination with NGOs on a pressure campaign to win more censorship and demand sensitive user data from Twitter;
— The pattern of events indicates potentially illegal activity by various actors.
The TWITTER FILES FRANCE investigation was led by @McmahonPascal and @battleforeurope, and edited by @galexybrane and @shellenberger.
We are releasing the Files here on X and simultaneously publishing a comprehensive report by Clerótte and Fazi on France’s invention of the Censorship Industrial Complex.
2. “President Macron wants to text Jack”
On October 14, 2020, Twitter’s Public Policy Director for France and Russia wrote, “President Macron's team has been asking me (again!) Jack's number because the President wants to text him some supporting words re our new policies and functionalities on Election integrity.”
There was one issue, though – Dorsey did not give out his contact information, even to heads of state. “I have already advised that he could send him a DM. I'll push back again, but wanted to double check with you first that indeed Jack never shares his number,” the policy director wrote.
Public requested a response from President Macron and did not hear back.
3. “Macron only sends texts to people he is close to and works frequently with…”
The first reply came from Twitter's Global Vice President of Public Affairs, who copied Vijaya Gadde, one of the platform's chief censors.
This Global Vice President of Public Affairs noted, “I know that Macron only sends texts to people he is close to and works frequently with colleagues and senior govt. leaders (like Angela Merkel) over text. [redacted] - could you pls. ask Jack if he would be willing to accept a text from Macron, and we will ask Macron's team only to share Jack's number with Macron? Thanks.”
Dorsey’s office replied, “Will circle w Jack. Is there an alternative? FYI: Jack doesn’t have a phone number (I swear) and only immediate team has his contact info to get a hold of him.”
“I am really pushing for DM but apparently Macron doesn’t use Twitter by himself and wants to do a personal note. Maybe a telegram or signal.”
This was followed by a review of various potential communication channels, including email, Signal, Telegram, and iMessage.
But why was Macron so desperate to get in contact with Dorsey?
Conservative populists lead the polls in Europe and so governments are censoring, banning, and prosecuting them. Chancellor @_FriedrichMerz & President @EmmanuelMacron are violating NATO’s charter. Americans should ask why we’re spending billions to defend such totalitarianism.