Donald Trump, it seems, was only the beginning.
The conservative provocateurs at Project Veritas obtained a video in which Twitter boss Jack Dorsey signaled that banning Trump was only the start of the effort to scrub conservatives from his platform.
The video was recorded on Jan. 8, the day Twitter banned Trump. In it, Dorsey said, “We are focused on one account (Trump’s) right now, but this is going to be much bigger than just one account, and it’s going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week, and the next few weeks, and go on beyond the inauguration.”
“We have to expect that,” Dorsey added, “we have to be ready for that. So, the focus is certainly on this account, and how it ties to real-world violence. But also, we need to think much longer-term around how these dynamics play out over time.”
Dorsey also predicted that this was not ”going away any time soon.”
“The moves that we’re making today around QAnon for instance, is one such example of a much broader approach that we should be looking at, and going deeper on.”
That seemed to refer to Twitter closing account of 70,000 suspected followers of QAnon, the far-right online conspiracy coven.
After that happened, many prominent conservatives reported that they had hemorrhaged followers.
Among them was Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who as his follower-count dwindled noted, “This is how you create an echo chamber.”
Twitter, however, lied about what it was doing. The social media company originally said it was merely closing some accounts until they could be verified.
Dorsey went on in his comments, saying that Twitter had to focus on the “much bigger picture.”
“The U.S. is extremely divided,” he said. “Our platform is showing that every single day, and our role is to protect the integrity of that conversation, and do what we can to make sure that no one is being harmed based off that. And that’s the focus. And that is the color we want to provide.”
Twitter, to its credit, has kept the Dorsey up, although at one point it was tagged as “potentially sensitive content” in the feed of Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe.
Dorsey’s defenders fired back at O’Keefe on Twitter, asserting that his comments were milquetoast and not directed at conservatives specifically.
They argued that he wanted to root out all provocative, violent speech.
“He’s very clearly talking about preventing violent rhetoric on HIS platform,” one wrote. “He said we’re very divided and we want to focus on maintaining the integrity of that conversation. He’s not talking about banning conservatives, he’s talking about moderating hateful and violent speech.”
That’s certainly one way of looking at it.
Yet the Daily Wire and the New York Post pointed out that Twitter has not blocked or shuttered several high-profile accounts of those who spread hate or openly call for violence.
That includes the Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of Iran; Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam; Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban; the Chinese embassy in America; Antifa in New York City; Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro; and suspected comedian – and comedienne – Kathy Griffin, infamous for posting a picture of herself hoisting a mock-up of Trump’s bloody, severed head.
Also on Twitter, you can still find the hashtags #KillTrump, #AssassinateTrump, and #AssassinatePence.