The Twitter Files: Part 2
The Beginning of the Social Credit Score System
As I’m writing this, we’re already on the Twitter Files: Part 5.
To Recap:
Twitter Files Part 2: The Secret Blacklists (@bariweiss)
Twitter Files Part 3: The Removal of Donald Trump 1 (@mtaibbi)
Twitter Files Part 4: The Removal of Donald Trump 2 (@ShellenbergerMD)
Twitter Files Part 5: The Removal of Donald Trump 3 (@bariweiss)
But what I want to focus on is part two because I think it’s the most important thread, and if you bear with me a second I’ll explain why.
Here’s the thread:
Basically, it was revealed that Twitter has a system of throttling accounts that they do not agree with, but which have not broken any terms of service. So all those years of Twitter officials pretending that Twitter does not shadow-ban (or blacklist) conservatives was a big lie.
But what really struck me was when I saw these screenshots of people’s accounts.
Most people were shocked and/or outraged that shadow-banning was occurring or that it was directed at some groups of people, but for me the take-away was how this resembled the stuff of the cold war secret police under the Iron Curtain.
For some context, I was born in communist Eastern Europe. My parents were blacklisted as college professors for refusing to inform on their colleagues which eventually led them to defect and we ended up in America.
This is the short version, but the full story spans many years and traverses multiple hardships. What happened seems obvious now, but when you’re living through it you don’t really know what’s going on.
That’s because the system isn’t straightforward…it’s non-transparent, and obscure. It’s meant to keep you walking on eggshells because it doesn’t make the rules obvious. But what you do know is that somewhere out there are these unknown people who maintain a dossier with your name on it. And that file defines your status in society.
Twitter functions much in the same way. You’re not sure if your tweets didn’t get any engagement because they sucked or because somebody at the levers of power throttled your account. Other people looking on may think that your ideas or arguments are inferior to others.
It’s not clear why you get suspended at times. You’re not sure how many more strikes you have: some people get 5 or 6 suspensions and are still not banned while others get banned on their first offense. You’re always fearful that the next tweet might be your last one.
Twitter has really created a basic version of a social credit score system.
The only difference between the old-school paper dossier system used under the iron curtain and the new social credit score system that is being implemented in China is technology.
Take a moment to read this thread, because the similarities to what Twitter’s moderation system represents and the communist system to control society is not that dissimilar.
This was on full display during the Covid-19 pandemic. Let’s put aside the anonymous and non-credentialed accounts, although I obviously think many of us made important contributions to public discourse on the topic.
Instead, let’s just consider the “credible” academics who’s credentials could not be challenged. What emerged was a tiered system of “academic virtue” which was really just a scientific social credit score system. If you espoused the government’s version of the science, your voice was heard far and loud. If you strayed from “the science” you were blacklisted by Twitter.
Case study: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Professor of Public Health at Stanford University, was blacklisted by Twitter. Here’s the screenshot:
Dr. Bhattacharya’s transgression was that, along with Dr. Martin Kulldorff and Dr. Sunetra Gupta, he was a co-author in 2020 of the Great Barrington Declaration which advocated for more targeted Covid-19 measures as well as the use of risk-benefit analysis in the crafting of public health policy. And there’s actually nothing controversial about these recommendations because these were the recommendations of the CDC and WHO’s own pandemic response before Covid-19 emerged:
We already know know from internal correspondence between Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins, that the two “public-health officials schemed to quash dissenting views from top scientists”:
And this was reflected in how that Twitter and other media institutions/tech platforms adopted policies to deal with scientific dissent. In essence we actually got to see a scientific social credit score system play out in real time, and with real-world consequences.
Dr. Bhattacharya agrees that what we’re seeing play out is a “social credit system” which rewarded bad ideas.
As we await further Twitter File releases, we’re still waiting for the hammer to drop proof that government health officials colluded with Twitter to police free speech on Covid-19 science and pandemic response. But again, whether the government pressured Twitter to do this or not is superfluous to my point.
If you’re still not seeing that this is the basic frame work for a social credit score system or think it’s not a big deal, consider that this is the tip of the iceberg and what’s under the water .
Obviously we’re not fully there yet, but this is not an accident…there are people out there who already think this way:
They have no qualms over quashing political (or other) free speech
They believe they can deciding what information is correct
Or they hide behind partisan “fact checkers” who really just espouse the point of view of their political side
They conflate hate with opinions they disagree with
And our tech industry is full of these people!
In reality, the only obstacle to having a social credit score system is the vigilance of society. Because given enough time, these tech companies will create and implement such systems. Beyond that, all you need is one good crisis for government to move in and adopt these types of systems for “public safety”.
It’s not a conspiracy theory. It is the natural inclination of progressives combined with technology that is growing beyond our ability to comprehend its consequences. It’s coming…it’s definitely coming. After all, they’ve already implemented an ESG system for corporations.
The Twitter Files represent an important moment of public debate about social media, tech censorship and the 1st amendment. But I feel like people are so caught up in the political partisanship that they don’t understand the bigger implications…we’re heading towards a society where social credit score systems will be normalized.
These systems, once created, won’t care that they were created by one political ideology or the other. They will just be used to wield power over everybody.
Still not getting it?
Just check your phone…
I was born in Communist Eastern Europe too. The reason what is happening now is scarier is because technology finally caught up with the technocratic agenda. Makes the old commie days look like a walk in the park.
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