🕷️ Crawler Inspector

URL Lookup

Direct Parameter Lookup

Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 99 (from laksa157)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa099.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-trump-world-leaders-ban/\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-trump-world-leaders-ban/\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/twitter-trump-world-leaders-ban\/","crawl_time":1775838637,"first_indexed_time":1671209631,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,wired!www,\/story\/twitter-trump-world-leaders-ban\/ s443","src_root_hash":"5736512710119187299","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"Trump’s Twitter Ban Was Unfair, but Not for the Reason You Think | WIRED","meta_descriptions":["If Twitter had implemented its rules uniformly, other world leaders would have been banned too."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"In January 2021,\nafter former US president Donald Trump tweeted in support of an insurrection on the Capitol, his account was frozen and he was locked out. But across the world, leaders have tweeted in support of genocide and threatened violence, yet none of them have been banned from the platform. Less than six months later, in June 2021, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari \nposted a tweet\nthreatening violence against Biafran separatist groups in the country’s southwest. Buhari’s tweet was removed, but his account remained live.\nAlmost two years after Donald Trump \nwas banned from Twitter\n, Elon Musk has released a series of documents—dubbed the Twitter Files—arguing that the site got it wrong. The leaked documents show the way the platform made decisions before Musk took over, focused on the former president and other controversial moderation decisions. \nIn the most recent file dump published through Bari Weiss, the founder and editor of media organization The Free Press, Musk released several documents that revealed how Twitter’s policy and trust and safety teams came to the decision to ban Trump in the wake of the insurrection on January 6, 2021. \nIn an argument outlined over Twitter, Weiss alleges that the decision to ban Trump was unprecedented, deviating from the site’s reactions to other heads of state who also incited or supported violence with their tweets. Weiss cited examples from leaders in Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, and Iran that, she asserted, showed restraint on Twitter’s part when deciding whether or not to keep prominent political figures on the platform, even after violations. Twitter has not released the documents detailing the decision to keep other public figures on the site.\nWhile Weiss interpreted the reluctance to use such measures against other world leaders as evidence that Trump was treated particularly unfairly, the documents may also reveal the opposite: that the company consistently underestimated the danger its platform posed in contexts outside the US, and only acted forcefully against threats to American democracy. If Twitter had implemented its rules uniformly across the world, Trump’s ban would have extended to other leaders, too.\n“Vulnerable communities in far away countries are less important than the relationships with leaders like [India's Narendra] Modi or others,” says an employee at an organization that was a part of Twitter’s trust and safety council, which was disbanded earlier this month. The employee asked for anonymity because they are concerned their organization may be targeted by harassment and threats like those faced by former Twitter staffers.\nMost Popular\nSome of this discrepancy may come down to how different governments react to moderation by social platforms. After Twitter removed Buhari’s threatening tweet against Biafran separatists, the company was \nslapped with a ban\n. But instead of banning Buhari in turn, the company later negotiated with the government to be \nreinstated\nby agreeing, among other things, to open a local office, pay local taxes, and register as a broadcaster. Nigeria is now \nconsidering\nlegislation to regulate platforms.\n“I think there are a lot of calculations that go into the trade-off about whether to take enforcement actions, and of course access to markets is one of them,” says Kian Vesteinsson, senior research analyst for tech and democracy at Freedom House, a nonprofit research and advocacy group focused on democracy and political freedoms. \nThis question of market access has likely also come into play in India, the company’s \nthird largest market\n. Despite filing a \nlawsuit\nto protect tweets and accounts that the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ordered removed, Twitter has, as Weiss noted, refused to ban Modi and other BJP members from the platform. The BJP government has already begun to \nincrease pressure\non social media companies, requiring them to have \nin-country representatives\nthat can be held legally accountable if companies do not comply with government takedown requests.\nWhen making the decision to ban Trump, Twitter staff likely didn’t have to consider whether the company would face a situation where it would be shut out of its home market in the US. \nBut this is not always the case. For instance, Twitter has technically been banned in Iran since \n2009\n, and yet the company let a \ntweet\nby Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling Israel a “tumor” that needs to be “eradicated” remain on the platform. Khamenei’s account was \ntemporarily suspended\nin 2019, and on the same day Trump was banned, tweets from \nKhamenei’s accounts\nwere removed—but his account remained active. At the time, Twitter did not respond to questions about how it had applied its policies to reach this decision.\n“At a very high level, tech companies have not been clear or consistent about how they treat speech by politicians and other influential political figures,” says Vesteinsson. “But it’s been clear for years that technology companies need to step it up when it comes to protecting people in the global south and in markets that might not be deemed as valuable to these companies.”\nBut even in instances where market access may not be a driving force, such as Ethiopia, where the company boasts only\n34,000 users\n, a tweet from \nEthiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed\nsupporting the genocide against ethnic Tigrayans was left up, accompanied by an annotation that it had violated the company’s policies, but that it had been preserved as a public record of a world leader. Ahmed’s Twitter account remains active with more than a million followers. \nThe employee involved in Twitter’s trust and safety council tells WIRED that they believe that instances like Prime Minister Ahmed’s in Ethiopia are given “less regard, overall, by these Western platforms because they are not considered as important.” And for platforms, maintaining good relationships with foreign governments may take precedence over applying their own rules.  \nMost Popular\nThe employee also says that the choice to leave up accounts in the global south that violate the company’s policies may also come down to a lack of investment. “During sensitive political events, they don’t put as many resources into it, they don’t prioritize them,” the employee says. “And even when things are happening, when we call their attention to these issues, it’s dismissed.”\nBut Vesteinsson notes that, while platforms have historically been negligent of non-Western countries, the Files themselves are inherently selective, which can be misleading. “What I see here is internal teams carefully deliberating over content policy and enforcement,” he says. “We don’t have that same lens into how Twitter considered actioning posts from world leaders like Ahmed or Modi. We don’t have that transparency in these recent disclosures. What we really need here is for platforms like Twitter to invest in greater transparency over their operations and decisionmaking.”","attrs_markdown":"[Skip to main content](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/twitter-trump-world-leaders-ban\/#main-content)\n\n[SECURITY](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/security\/)\n\n[POLITICS](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/politics\/)\n\n[THE BIG STORY](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/big-story\/)\n\n[BUSINESS](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/business\/)\n\n[SCIENCE](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/science\/)\n\n[CULTURE](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/culture\/)\n\n[REVIEWS](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/gear\/)\n\n[SUBSCRIBE](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/v2\/offers\/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_NAV_CTA_0_US_ACQ_NLI_QUICK_PAY_GENERIC_ZZ_PANELA)\n\n[Newsletters](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/newsletter?sourceCode=hamburgernav)\n\n[SUBSCRIBE](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/v2\/offers\/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_NAV_CTA_0_US_ACQ_NLI_QUICK_PAY_GENERIC_ZZ_PANELA)\n\n[Security](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/security\/)\n\n[Politics](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/politics\/)\n\n[The Big Story](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/big-story\/)\n\n[Business](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/business\/)\n\n[Science](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/science\/)\n\n[Culture](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/culture\/)\n\n[Reviews](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/gear\/)\n\nMore\n\n[The Big Interview](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/the-big-interview\/)[Magazine](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/magazine\/)[Events](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/wired-events\/)[WIRED Insider](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/collection\/wiredinsider\/)[WIRED Consulting](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/wired-consulting\/)\n\n[Newsletters](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/newsletter?sourceCode=hamburgernav)\n\n[Podcasts](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/podcasts\/)\n\n[Video](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/video\/)\n\n[Livestreams](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/livestreams)\n\n[Merch](https:\/\/shop.wired.com\/)\n\n[Search](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/search\/)\n\n[Sign In](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/auth\/initiate?redirectURL=%2Fstory%2Ftwitter-trump-world-leaders-ban%2F&source=VERSO_NAVIGATION)\n\n[START FREE TRIAL](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/v2\/offers\/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_JNY_WIR_GLOBAL_NAV_DRAWER_0_US_ACQ_NLI_QUICK_PAY_GENERIC_ZZ_PANELA)\n\n[![ZOOM IN \\<br\\> Subscribe today for only \\<del\\>\\$4\\<\/del\\> \\<strong\\>\\$2\/month\\<\/strong\\> and get access to exclusive benefits including \\<strong\\>5 all-new premium newsletters.\\<\/strong\\> CTA:SUBSCRIBE](https:\/\/assets.bonappetit.com\/photos\/686ea38fcb59aaabef7a795d\/original\/pass\/Wired_Zoom_Rollover_300x200_v2a_Shorter.gif?format=original)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/v2\/offers\/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_NAV_ROLLOVER_0_US_ACQ_NLI_QUICK_PAY_GENERIC_ZZ_PANELA)\n\n[Sign In](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/auth\/initiate?redirectURL=%2Fstory%2Ftwitter-trump-world-leaders-ban%2F&source=VERSO_NAVIGATION)\n\nThe intersection of technology, power, and culture. Start your free trial and get access to **5 all-new premium newsletters.** [START FREE TRIAL](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/v2\/offers\/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_PAYWALL_THIN_METER_ARTICLE_1_0_US_ACQ_NLI_QUICK_PAY_GENERIC_ZZ_PANELA)\n\n[Vittoria Elliott](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/author\/vittoria-elliott\/)\n\n[Business](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/business)\n\nDec 16, 2022 11:49 AM\n# Trump’s Twitter Ban Was Unfair, but Not for the Reason You Think\n\nIf Twitter had implemented its rules uniformly, other world leaders would have been banned too.\n\n![Line of red balls with one falling into a hole on a white background](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/639a49ba51401b7ec2ec5f76\/3:2\/w_2560%2Cc_limit\/Trumps-Twitter-Ban-Wasn't-Fair-Business-964905918.jpg)\n\nPhotograph: PM Images\/Getty Images\n\nSave this story\n\nSave this story\n\nIn January 2021, after former US president Donald Trump tweeted in support of an insurrection on the Capitol, his account was frozen and he was locked out. But across the world, leaders have tweeted in support of genocide and threatened violence, yet none of them have been banned from the platform. Less than six months later, in June 2021, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari [posted a tweet](https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-57336571) threatening violence against Biafran separatist groups in the country’s southwest. Buhari’s tweet was removed, but his account remained live.\n\nAlmost two years after Donald Trump [was banned from Twitter](https:\/\/blog.twitter.com\/en_us\/topics\/company\/2020\/suspension), Elon Musk has released a series of documents—dubbed the Twitter Files—arguing that the site got it wrong. The leaked documents show the way the platform made decisions before Musk took over, focused on the former president and other controversial moderation decisions.\n\n#### Content\nTo honor your privacy preferences, this content can only be viewed on the site it [originates](https:\/\/player.spokenlayer.net\/v1-wired-homepage?__v=linear&url=http:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/twitter-trump-world-leaders-ban) from.\n\nIn the most recent file dump published through Bari Weiss, the founder and editor of media organization The Free Press, Musk released several documents that revealed how Twitter’s policy and trust and safety teams came to the decision to ban Trump in the wake of the insurrection on January 6, 2021.\n\nFeatured Video\n\n[Why Billionaires Are Actually Ruining the Economy](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/video\/watch\/wired-news-and-science-why-billionaires-are-ruining-the-economy)\n\nIn an argument outlined over Twitter, Weiss alleges that the decision to ban Trump was unprecedented, deviating from the site’s reactions to other heads of state who also incited or supported violence with their tweets. Weiss cited examples from leaders in Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, and Iran that, she asserted, showed restraint on Twitter’s part when deciding whether or not to keep prominent political figures on the platform, even after violations. Twitter has not released the documents detailing the decision to keep other public figures on the site.\n\n###\nDon't just keep up. Get ahead—with our biggest stories, handpicked for you each day.\n\nBy signing up, you agree to our [user agreement](https:\/\/www.condenast.com\/user-agreement) (including [class action waiver and arbitration provisions](https:\/\/www.condenast.com\/user-agreement#introduction-arbitration-notice)), and acknowledge our [privacy policy](https:\/\/www.condenast.com\/privacy-policy).\n\nWhile Weiss interpreted the reluctance to use such measures against other world leaders as evidence that Trump was treated particularly unfairly, the documents may also reveal the opposite: that the company consistently underestimated the danger its platform posed in contexts outside the US, and only acted forcefully against threats to American democracy. If Twitter had implemented its rules uniformly across the world, Trump’s ban would have extended to other leaders, too.\n\n“Vulnerable communities in far away countries are less important than the relationships with leaders like \\[India's Narendra\\] Modi or others,” says an employee at an organization that was a part of Twitter’s trust and safety council, which was disbanded earlier this month. The employee asked for anonymity because they are concerned their organization may be targeted by harassment and threats like those faced by former Twitter staffers.\n\nMost Popular\n\n- [![As the Strait of Hormuz Reopens, Global Shipping Will Take Months to Recover](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69d6a5839dad1bfe79e89f12\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-strait-of-hormuz-reopens-but-global-shipping-will-take-months-to-recover\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  Gear\n  \n  [As the Strait of Hormuz Reopens, Global Shipping Will Take Months to Recover](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-strait-of-hormuz-reopens-but-global-shipping-will-take-months-to-recover\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  By Jumana Naim\n- [![Anthropic’s New Product Aims to Handle the Hard Part of Building AI Agents](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69d55aad5eeab2b48af87714\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/anthropic-launches-claude-managed-agents\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  Artificial Intelligence\n  \n  [Anthropic’s New Product Aims to Handle the Hard Part of Building AI Agents](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/anthropic-launches-claude-managed-agents\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  By Maxwell Zeff\n- [![Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69d54188e378a93eb5dc3dea\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/artemis-ii-astronauts-witnessed-6-meteorites-collide-with-the-moon\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  Space\n  \n  [Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/artemis-ii-astronauts-witnessed-6-meteorites-collide-with-the-moon\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  By Jorge Garay\n- [![Amazon Pulls Support for Perfectly Fine Older Kindles](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69d679c9383b6979c9a47b1a\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/amazon-pulls-support-for-perfectly-fine-older-kindles\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  Gear\n  \n  [Amazon Pulls Support for Perfectly Fine Older Kindles](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/amazon-pulls-support-for-perfectly-fine-older-kindles\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  By Boone Ashworth\n\nSome of this discrepancy may come down to how different governments react to moderation by social platforms. After Twitter removed Buhari’s threatening tweet against Biafran separatists, the company was [slapped with a ban](https:\/\/restofworld.org\/2021\/inside-nigerias-decision-to-ban-twitter\/). But instead of banning Buhari in turn, the company later negotiated with the government to be [reinstated](https:\/\/restofworld.org\/2022\/how-twitter-rolled-over-to-get-unblocked-in-nigeria\/) by agreeing, among other things, to open a local office, pay local taxes, and register as a broadcaster. Nigeria is now [considering](https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2022\/06\/13\/nigerias-internet-regulator-releases-draft-to-regulate-twitter-facebook-tiktok-and-others\/) legislation to regulate platforms.\n\n“I think there are a lot of calculations that go into the trade-off about whether to take enforcement actions, and of course access to markets is one of them,” says Kian Vesteinsson, senior research analyst for tech and democracy at Freedom House, a nonprofit research and advocacy group focused on democracy and political freedoms.\n\nThis question of market access has likely also come into play in India, the company’s [third largest market](https:\/\/datareportal.com\/essential-twitter-stats). Despite filing a [lawsuit](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/twitters-case-in-india-could-have-massive-ripple-effects\/) to protect tweets and accounts that the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ordered removed, Twitter has, as Weiss noted, refused to ban Modi and other BJP members from the platform. The BJP government has already begun to [increase pressure](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/twitter-free-speech-musk-takeover\/) on social media companies, requiring them to have [in-country representatives](https:\/\/restofworld.org\/2021\/social-media-laws-twitter-facebook\/) that can be held legally accountable if companies do not comply with government takedown requests.\n\nWhen making the decision to ban Trump, Twitter staff likely didn’t have to consider whether the company would face a situation where it would be shut out of its home market in the US.\n\nBut this is not always the case. For instance, Twitter has technically been banned in Iran since [2009](https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/2021\/02\/02\/will-twitter-ban-irans-supreme-leader-next\/), and yet the company let a [tweet](https:\/\/twitter.com\/bariweiss\/status\/1602370518585221120) by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling Israel a “tumor” that needs to be “eradicated” remain on the platform. Khamenei’s account was [temporarily suspended](https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/86df2730d0a3f25972e2bb3a8c94dd02) in 2019, and on the same day Trump was banned, tweets from [Khamenei’s accounts](https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/a\/silicon-valley-technology_twitter-bans-trump-removes-tweet-irans-khamenei-same-day-sparking-double\/6200516.html) were removed—but his account remained active. At the time, Twitter did not respond to questions about how it had applied its policies to reach this decision.\n\n“At a very high level, tech companies have not been clear or consistent about how they treat speech by politicians and other influential political figures,” says Vesteinsson. “But it’s been clear for years that technology companies need to step it up when it comes to protecting people in the global south and in markets that might not be deemed as valuable to these companies.”\n\nBut even in instances where market access may not be a driving force, such as Ethiopia, where the company boasts only [34,000 users](https:\/\/datareportal.com\/reports\/digital-2022-ethiopia#:~:text=Twitter%20users%20in%20Ethiopia%20in,total%20population%20at%20the%20time.), a tweet from [Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/meta-hate-speech-lawsuit-ethiopia\/) supporting the genocide against ethnic Tigrayans was left up, accompanied by an annotation that it had violated the company’s policies, but that it had been preserved as a public record of a world leader. Ahmed’s Twitter account remains active with more than a million followers.\n\nThe employee involved in Twitter’s trust and safety council tells WIRED that they believe that instances like Prime Minister Ahmed’s in Ethiopia are given “less regard, overall, by these Western platforms because they are not considered as important.” And for platforms, maintaining good relationships with foreign governments may take precedence over applying their own rules.\n\nMost Popular\n\n- [![As the Strait of Hormuz Reopens, Global Shipping Will Take Months to Recover](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69d6a5839dad1bfe79e89f12\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-strait-of-hormuz-reopens-but-global-shipping-will-take-months-to-recover\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  Gear\n  \n  [As the Strait of Hormuz Reopens, Global Shipping Will Take Months to Recover](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-strait-of-hormuz-reopens-but-global-shipping-will-take-months-to-recover\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  By Jumana Naim\n- [![Anthropic’s New Product Aims to Handle the Hard Part of Building AI Agents](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69d55aad5eeab2b48af87714\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/anthropic-launches-claude-managed-agents\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  Artificial Intelligence\n  \n  [Anthropic’s New Product Aims to Handle the Hard Part of Building AI Agents](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/anthropic-launches-claude-managed-agents\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  By Maxwell Zeff\n- [![Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69d54188e378a93eb5dc3dea\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/artemis-ii-astronauts-witnessed-6-meteorites-collide-with-the-moon\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  Space\n  \n  [Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/artemis-ii-astronauts-witnessed-6-meteorites-collide-with-the-moon\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  By Jorge Garay\n- [![Amazon Pulls Support for Perfectly Fine Older Kindles](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69d679c9383b6979c9a47b1a\/1:1\/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/amazon-pulls-support-for-perfectly-fine-older-kindles\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  Gear\n  \n  [Amazon Pulls Support for Perfectly Fine Older Kindles](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/amazon-pulls-support-for-perfectly-fine-older-kindles\/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2)\n  \n  By Boone Ashworth\n\nThe employee also says that the choice to leave up accounts in the global south that violate the company’s policies may also come down to a lack of investment. “During sensitive political events, they don’t put as many resources into it, they don’t prioritize them,” the employee says. “And even when things are happening, when we call their attention to these issues, it’s dismissed.”\n\nBut Vesteinsson notes that, while platforms have historically been negligent of non-Western countries, the Files themselves are inherently selective, which can be misleading. “What I see here is internal teams carefully deliberating over content policy and enforcement,” he says. “We don’t have that same lens into how Twitter considered actioning posts from world leaders like Ahmed or Modi. We don’t have that transparency in these recent disclosures. What we really need here is for platforms like Twitter to invest in greater transparency over their operations and decisionmaking.”\n\n## You Might Also Like\n- **In your inbox:** Upgrade your life with [WIRED-tested gear](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/newsletter\/gear?sourceCode=BottomStories)\n- What you need to know about [the foreign-made router ban](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/us-government-foreign-made-router-ban-explained\/)\n- **Big Story:** Anduril wants to own [the future of war tech](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/andurils-real-war-is-with-itself\/)\n- How [Trump’s plot to grab Iran's nuclear fuel](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/us-iran-war-nuclear-extraction-ground-operation\/) would actually work\n- **WIRED Health:** Join [the boldest minds in healthcare](https:\/\/health.wired.com\/)\n\n[![](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/635b0ebb68addec416d5b99b\/1:1\/w_90%2Cc_limit\/Vittoria%2520Elliott.jpg)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/author\/vittoria-elliott\/)\n\n[Vittoria Elliott](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/author\/vittoria-elliott\/) is a reporter for WIRED, covering platforms and power. She was previously a reporter at Rest of World, where she covered disinformation and labor in markets outside the US and Western Europe. She has worked with The New Humanitarian, Al Jazeera, and ProPublica. She is a graduate of ... [Read More](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/author\/vittoria-elliott)\n\nPlatforms and power reporter\n\nTopics[twitter](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/twitter\/)[content moderation](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/content-moderation\/)[censorship](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/censorship\/)[Donald Trump](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/)[Social Media](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/social-media\/)[disinformation](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/disinformation\/)\n\n### Don't Just Keep Up. Get Ahead\nSign up for the *Daily* newsletter to get our biggest stories, handpicked for you each day.\n\nRead More\n\n[![That Ex-CIA Agent in All Your Feeds Is After a Pardon From Donald Trump](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69c2ea7b141776fd70b33ca4\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/that-ex-cia-agent-in-all-your-feeds-is-after-a-pardon-from-donald-trump\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[That Ex-CIA Agent in All Your Feeds Is After a Pardon From Donald Trump](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/that-ex-cia-agent-in-all-your-feeds-is-after-a-pardon-from-donald-trump\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\nJohn Kiriakou went to prison after exposing the CIA's torture program. Now he's going viral as he campaigns to get his name cleared and his pension restored.\n\nMakena Kelly\n\n[![Iranians Don’t Have a Missile Alert System, So Volunteers Built Their Own Warning Map](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69c2cdae2480fb7bcbde6c3c\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/iranians-dont-have-a-missile-alert-system-so-volunteers-built-their-own-warning-map\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[Iranians Don’t Have a Missile Alert System, So Volunteers Built Their Own Warning Map](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/iranians-dont-have-a-missile-alert-system-so-volunteers-built-their-own-warning-map\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\nThe crowdsourced website and app Mahsa Alert provides citizens in Iran with crucial information amid the country’s ongoing war with the US and Israel—and an internet blackout.\n\nMatt Burgess\n\n[![The New Era of Militia Influencers](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69cc3b08e44f7d6c4c984a2e\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-new-era-of-militia-influencers\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[The New Era of Militia Influencers](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-new-era-of-militia-influencers\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\nThe militia movement in the US is undergoing a rebrand that trades counterprotests for expensive weapons, manly sweatshirts, and highly curated Instagram grids.\n\nDavid Gilbert\n\n[![Edward ‘Big Balls’ Coristine Is Helping Out on Viral Fraud Videos Now](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69cfdb9ebd20ea771b0073ba\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/edward-coristine-nick-shirley-fraud-videos\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[Edward ‘Big Balls’ Coristine Is Helping Out on Viral Fraud Videos Now](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/edward-coristine-nick-shirley-fraud-videos\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\nThe DOGE engineer appeared on influencer Nick Shirley's podcast this week to talk corruption and government work—and how they collaborated on Shirley's recent ‘investigation.’\n\nMakena Kelly\n\n[![MyMove Is the US Government’s Shittiest Website](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69c44b8aa8ef1ae045a7c51c\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-governments-shittiest-website\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[MyMove Is the US Government’s Shittiest Website](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-governments-shittiest-website\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\nFor more than 30 years, the US Postal Service has sent people who need to change their addresses to MyMove. Experts say the site uses dark patterns to trap visitors in an online purgatory of “deals.”\n\nTodd Feathers\n\n[![The Pro-Iran Meme Machine Trolling Trump With AI Lego Cartoons](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69d681be0aa0c0c6d4da5c6c\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/inside-the-pro-iran-meme-machine-trolling-trump-with-ai-lego-cartoons\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[The Pro-Iran Meme Machine Trolling Trump With AI Lego Cartoons](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/inside-the-pro-iran-meme-machine-trolling-trump-with-ai-lego-cartoons\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\nSince the beginning of the Iran war, the group Explosive Media has released over a dozen viral videos mocking Trump and the US.\n\nDavid Gilbert\n\n[![‘We Were Not Ready for This’: Lebanon's Emergency System Is Hanging by a Thread](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69d66fdf5ed03f09403e5e8d\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/we-were-not-ready-for-this-lebanons-emergency-system-is-hanging-by-a-thread\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[‘We Were Not Ready for This’: Lebanon's Emergency System Is Hanging by a Thread](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/we-were-not-ready-for-this-lebanons-emergency-system-is-hanging-by-a-thread\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\nIn Lebanon, nearly 1 in 5 people has been displaced by Israeli attacks, leaving the government to manage a modern crisis without modern digital infrastructure.\n\nCarla Sertin\n\n[![John Solly Is the DOGE Operative Accused of Planning to Take Social Security Data to His New Job](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69b1e2dbc3f018fe4f48986f\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/john-solly-doge-operative-accused-social-security-data-leidos\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[John Solly Is the DOGE Operative Accused of Planning to Take Social Security Data to His New Job](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/john-solly-doge-operative-accused-social-security-data-leidos\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\nA whistleblower complaint alleges John Solly claimed to have stored highly sensitive Social Security data on a thumb drive. Solly and Leidos, his current employer, strongly deny the allegations.\n\nMakena Kelly\n\n[![Chris Hayes Has Some Advice for Keeping Up With the News](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69c1b2b856888c87f24c925c\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-big-interview-podcast-chris-hayes\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[Chris Hayes Has Some Advice for Keeping Up With the News](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-big-interview-podcast-chris-hayes\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\nThe host of MS Now’s *All In,* knows how hard it is to stay current. But he also knows where you should focus your attention—and it starts with a sober view of AI.\n\nKatie Drummond\n\n[![Men Are Buying Hacking Tools to Use Against Their Wives and Friends](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69d5582f2f6731ca306d1bb2\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/men-are-buying-hacking-tools-to-use-against-their-wives-and-friends\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[Men Are Buying Hacking Tools to Use Against Their Wives and Friends](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/men-are-buying-hacking-tools-to-use-against-their-wives-and-friends\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\nIn Telegram groups, men are sharing thousands of nonconsensual images of women and girls, buying spyware, and engaging in doxing and sexual abuse.\n\nMatt Burgess\n\n[![What Happens When You Can’t Get a Death Certificate in Gaza](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69bc9d53d27f8b362a665d48\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/what-happens-when-you-cant-get-a-death-certificate-in-gaza\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[What Happens When You Can’t Get a Death Certificate in Gaza](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/what-happens-when-you-cant-get-a-death-certificate-in-gaza\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\nFor families of the missing, systemic obstacles to identifying remains and locating people in Israeli detention has created a kind of social and legal purgatory.\n\nMahmoud Mushtaha\n\n[![The Rise of the Ray-Ban Meta Creep](https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/69b31c8f8b14f61e75112644\/16:9\/w_640%2Cc_limit\/undefined)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-rise-of-the-ray-ban-meta-creep\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\n[The Rise of the Ray-Ban Meta Creep](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-rise-of-the-ray-ban-meta-creep\/#intcid=_wired-article-bottom-recirc_b2943006-6d76-47c2-967f-c46eeccb1c55_roberta-similarity1)\n\nBetween pickup artists and juvenile pranksters, the wearable device is becoming associated with pests of all kinds.\n\nMiles Klee\n\n[![ZOOM IN \\<br\\> Insights at the intersection of technology, power, and culture \\<br\\> Subscribe today for only \\<del\\>\\$4\\<\/del\\> \\<strong\\>\\$2\/month\\<\/strong\\> and get access to exclusive benefits including \\<strong\\>5 all-new premium newsletters.\\<\/strong\\> \\<br\\> CTA:SUBSCRIBE](https:\/\/assets.bonappetit.com\/photos\/686ea46a1d57bf34560db527\/original\/pass\/Wired_Zoom_Footer_Desktop_940x140_v2e.gif?format=original)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/v2\/offers\/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_FOOTER_0_US_ACQ_NLI_QUICK_PAY_GENERIC_ZZ_PANELA)\n\n[![WIRED](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/verso\/static\/wired-us\/assets\/logo-reverse.svg)](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/)\n\nWIRED is obsessed with what comes next. Through rigorous investigations and game-changing reporting, we tell stories that don’t just reflect the moment—they help create it. When you look back in 10, 20, even 50 years, WIRED will be the publication that led the story of the present, mapped the people, products, and ideas defining it, and explained how those forces forged the future. WIRED: For Future Reference.\n\nMore From WIRED\n\n- [Subscribe](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/subscribe\/)\n- [Newsletters](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/newsletter?sourceCode=HeaderAndFooter)\n- [Livestreams](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/livestreams)\n- [Travel](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/travel\/)\n- [FAQ](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/faq\/)\n- [WIRED Staff](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/wired-staff\/)\n- [WIRED Education](https:\/\/www.wirededucation.com\/)\n- [Editorial Standards](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/wired-on-background-policy\/)\n- [Archive](https:\/\/archive.wired.com\/t\/storefront\/storefront)\n- [RSS](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/rss-feeds\/)\n- [Site Map](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/sitemap\/)\n- [Accessibility Help](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/accessibility-help\/)\n\nReviews and Guides\n\n- [Reviews](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/gear\/)\n- [Buying Guides](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/category\/gear\/buying-guides\/)\n- [Streaming Guides](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/culture-guides\/)\n- [Wearables](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/wearables\/)\n- [Coupons](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/coupons\/)\n- [Gift Guides](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/tag\/gift-guides\/)\n\n- [Advertise](https:\/\/www.condenast.com\/brands\/wired)\n- [Contact Us](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/feedback\/)\n- [Manage Account](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/account\/profile)\n- [Jobs](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/wired-jobs\/)\n- [Press Center](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/about\/press\/)\n- [Condé Nast Store](https:\/\/condenaststore.com\/)\n- [User Agreement](https:\/\/www.condenast.com\/user-agreement\/)\n- [Privacy Policy](http:\/\/www.condenast.com\/privacy-policy#privacypolicy)\n- [Your California Privacy Rights](http:\/\/www.condenast.com\/privacy-policy#privacypolicy-california)\n\n© 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. *WIRED* may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. [Ad Choices](http:\/\/www.aboutads.info\/)\n\n###### Select international site\nUnited States\n\n- [Italia](https:\/\/www.wired.it\/)\n- [Japón](https:\/\/wired.jp\/)\n- [Czech Republic & Slovakia](https:\/\/www.wired.cz\/)\n\nYour Privacy Choices","attrs_readable_markdown":"In January 2021, after former US president Donald Trump tweeted in support of an insurrection on the Capitol, his account was frozen and he was locked out. But across the world, leaders have tweeted in support of genocide and threatened violence, yet none of them have been banned from the platform. Less than six months later, in June 2021, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari [posted a tweet](https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-57336571) threatening violence against Biafran separatist groups in the country’s southwest. Buhari’s tweet was removed, but his account remained live.\n\nAlmost two years after Donald Trump [was banned from Twitter](https:\/\/blog.twitter.com\/en_us\/topics\/company\/2020\/suspension), Elon Musk has released a series of documents—dubbed the Twitter Files—arguing that the site got it wrong. The leaked documents show the way the platform made decisions before Musk took over, focused on the former president and other controversial moderation decisions.\n\nIn the most recent file dump published through Bari Weiss, the founder and editor of media organization The Free Press, Musk released several documents that revealed how Twitter’s policy and trust and safety teams came to the decision to ban Trump in the wake of the insurrection on January 6, 2021.\n\nIn an argument outlined over Twitter, Weiss alleges that the decision to ban Trump was unprecedented, deviating from the site’s reactions to other heads of state who also incited or supported violence with their tweets. Weiss cited examples from leaders in Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, and Iran that, she asserted, showed restraint on Twitter’s part when deciding whether or not to keep prominent political figures on the platform, even after violations. Twitter has not released the documents detailing the decision to keep other public figures on the site.\n\nWhile Weiss interpreted the reluctance to use such measures against other world leaders as evidence that Trump was treated particularly unfairly, the documents may also reveal the opposite: that the company consistently underestimated the danger its platform posed in contexts outside the US, and only acted forcefully against threats to American democracy. If Twitter had implemented its rules uniformly across the world, Trump’s ban would have extended to other leaders, too.\n\n“Vulnerable communities in far away countries are less important than the relationships with leaders like \\[India's Narendra\\] Modi or others,” says an employee at an organization that was a part of Twitter’s trust and safety council, which was disbanded earlier this month. The employee asked for anonymity because they are concerned their organization may be targeted by harassment and threats like those faced by former Twitter staffers.\n\nMost Popular\n\nSome of this discrepancy may come down to how different governments react to moderation by social platforms. After Twitter removed Buhari’s threatening tweet against Biafran separatists, the company was [slapped with a ban](https:\/\/restofworld.org\/2021\/inside-nigerias-decision-to-ban-twitter\/). But instead of banning Buhari in turn, the company later negotiated with the government to be [reinstated](https:\/\/restofworld.org\/2022\/how-twitter-rolled-over-to-get-unblocked-in-nigeria\/) by agreeing, among other things, to open a local office, pay local taxes, and register as a broadcaster. Nigeria is now [considering](https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2022\/06\/13\/nigerias-internet-regulator-releases-draft-to-regulate-twitter-facebook-tiktok-and-others\/) legislation to regulate platforms.\n\n“I think there are a lot of calculations that go into the trade-off about whether to take enforcement actions, and of course access to markets is one of them,” says Kian Vesteinsson, senior research analyst for tech and democracy at Freedom House, a nonprofit research and advocacy group focused on democracy and political freedoms.\n\nThis question of market access has likely also come into play in India, the company’s [third largest market](https:\/\/datareportal.com\/essential-twitter-stats). Despite filing a [lawsuit](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/twitters-case-in-india-could-have-massive-ripple-effects\/) to protect tweets and accounts that the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ordered removed, Twitter has, as Weiss noted, refused to ban Modi and other BJP members from the platform. The BJP government has already begun to [increase pressure](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/twitter-free-speech-musk-takeover\/) on social media companies, requiring them to have [in-country representatives](https:\/\/restofworld.org\/2021\/social-media-laws-twitter-facebook\/) that can be held legally accountable if companies do not comply with government takedown requests.\n\nWhen making the decision to ban Trump, Twitter staff likely didn’t have to consider whether the company would face a situation where it would be shut out of its home market in the US.\n\nBut this is not always the case. For instance, Twitter has technically been banned in Iran since [2009](https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/2021\/02\/02\/will-twitter-ban-irans-supreme-leader-next\/), and yet the company let a [tweet](https:\/\/twitter.com\/bariweiss\/status\/1602370518585221120) by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling Israel a “tumor” that needs to be “eradicated” remain on the platform. Khamenei’s account was [temporarily suspended](https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/86df2730d0a3f25972e2bb3a8c94dd02) in 2019, and on the same day Trump was banned, tweets from [Khamenei’s accounts](https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/a\/silicon-valley-technology_twitter-bans-trump-removes-tweet-irans-khamenei-same-day-sparking-double\/6200516.html) were removed—but his account remained active. At the time, Twitter did not respond to questions about how it had applied its policies to reach this decision.\n\n“At a very high level, tech companies have not been clear or consistent about how they treat speech by politicians and other influential political figures,” says Vesteinsson. “But it’s been clear for years that technology companies need to step it up when it comes to protecting people in the global south and in markets that might not be deemed as valuable to these companies.”\n\nBut even in instances where market access may not be a driving force, such as Ethiopia, where the company boasts only [34,000 users](https:\/\/datareportal.com\/reports\/digital-2022-ethiopia#:~:text=Twitter%20users%20in%20Ethiopia%20in,total%20population%20at%20the%20time.), a tweet from [Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed](https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/meta-hate-speech-lawsuit-ethiopia\/) supporting the genocide against ethnic Tigrayans was left up, accompanied by an annotation that it had violated the company’s policies, but that it had been preserved as a public record of a world leader. Ahmed’s Twitter account remains active with more than a million followers.\n\nThe employee involved in Twitter’s trust and safety council tells WIRED that they believe that instances like Prime Minister Ahmed’s in Ethiopia are given “less regard, overall, by these Western platforms because they are not considered as important.” And for platforms, maintaining good relationships with foreign governments may take precedence over applying their own rules.\n\nMost Popular\n\nThe employee also says that the choice to leave up accounts in the global south that violate the company’s policies may also come down to a lack of investment. “During sensitive political events, they don’t put as many resources into it, they don’t prioritize them,” the employee says. “And even when things are happening, when we call their attention to these issues, it’s dismissed.”\n\nBut Vesteinsson notes that, while platforms have historically been negligent of non-Western countries, the Files themselves are inherently selective, which can be misleading. “What I see here is internal teams carefully deliberating over content policy and enforcement,” he says. “We don’t have that same lens into how Twitter considered actioning posts from world leaders like Ahmed or Modi. We don’t have that transparency in these recent disclosures. What we really need here is for platforms like Twitter to invest in greater transparency over their operations and decisionmaking.”","meta_canonical":null}

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URL	https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-trump-world-leaders-ban/
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First Indexed	2022-12-16 16:53:51 (3 years ago)
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Meta Title	Trump’s Twitter Ban Was Unfair, but Not for the Reason You Think \| WIRED
Meta Description	If Twitter had implemented its rules uniformly, other world leaders would have been banned too.
Meta Canonical	null
Boilerpipe Text	In January 2021, after former US president Donald Trump tweeted in support of an insurrection on the Capitol, his account was frozen and he was locked out. But across the world, leaders have tweeted in support of genocide and threatened violence, yet none of them have been banned from the platform. Less than six months later, in June 2021, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari posted a tweet threatening violence against Biafran separatist groups in the country’s southwest. Buhari’s tweet was removed, but his account remained live. Almost two years after Donald Trump was banned from Twitter , Elon Musk has released a series of documents—dubbed the Twitter Files—arguing that the site got it wrong. The leaked documents show the way the platform made decisions before Musk took over, focused on the former president and other controversial moderation decisions. In the most recent file dump published through Bari Weiss, the founder and editor of media organization The Free Press, Musk released several documents that revealed how Twitter’s policy and trust and safety teams came to the decision to ban Trump in the wake of the insurrection on January 6, 2021. In an argument outlined over Twitter, Weiss alleges that the decision to ban Trump was unprecedented, deviating from the site’s reactions to other heads of state who also incited or supported violence with their tweets. Weiss cited examples from leaders in Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, and Iran that, she asserted, showed restraint on Twitter’s part when deciding whether or not to keep prominent political figures on the platform, even after violations. Twitter has not released the documents detailing the decision to keep other public figures on the site. While Weiss interpreted the reluctance to use such measures against other world leaders as evidence that Trump was treated particularly unfairly, the documents may also reveal the opposite: that the company consistently underestimated the danger its platform posed in contexts outside the US, and only acted forcefully against threats to American democracy. If Twitter had implemented its rules uniformly across the world, Trump’s ban would have extended to other leaders, too. “Vulnerable communities in far away countries are less important than the relationships with leaders like [India's Narendra] Modi or others,” says an employee at an organization that was a part of Twitter’s trust and safety council, which was disbanded earlier this month. The employee asked for anonymity because they are concerned their organization may be targeted by harassment and threats like those faced by former Twitter staffers. Most Popular Some of this discrepancy may come down to how different governments react to moderation by social platforms. After Twitter removed Buhari’s threatening tweet against Biafran separatists, the company was slapped with a ban . But instead of banning Buhari in turn, the company later negotiated with the government to be reinstated by agreeing, among other things, to open a local office, pay local taxes, and register as a broadcaster. Nigeria is now considering legislation to regulate platforms. “I think there are a lot of calculations that go into the trade-off about whether to take enforcement actions, and of course access to markets is one of them,” says Kian Vesteinsson, senior research analyst for tech and democracy at Freedom House, a nonprofit research and advocacy group focused on democracy and political freedoms. This question of market access has likely also come into play in India, the company’s third largest market . Despite filing a lawsuit to protect tweets and accounts that the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ordered removed, Twitter has, as Weiss noted, refused to ban Modi and other BJP members from the platform. The BJP government has already begun to increase pressure on social media companies, requiring them to have in-country representatives that can be held legally accountable if companies do not comply with government takedown requests. When making the decision to ban Trump, Twitter staff likely didn’t have to consider whether the company would face a situation where it would be shut out of its home market in the US. But this is not always the case. For instance, Twitter has technically been banned in Iran since 2009 , and yet the company let a tweet by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling Israel a “tumor” that needs to be “eradicated” remain on the platform. Khamenei’s account was temporarily suspended in 2019, and on the same day Trump was banned, tweets from Khamenei’s accounts were removed—but his account remained active. At the time, Twitter did not respond to questions about how it had applied its policies to reach this decision. “At a very high level, tech companies have not been clear or consistent about how they treat speech by politicians and other influential political figures,” says Vesteinsson. “But it’s been clear for years that technology companies need to step it up when it comes to protecting people in the global south and in markets that might not be deemed as valuable to these companies.” But even in instances where market access may not be a driving force, such as Ethiopia, where the company boasts only 34,000 users , a tweet from Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed supporting the genocide against ethnic Tigrayans was left up, accompanied by an annotation that it had violated the company’s policies, but that it had been preserved as a public record of a world leader. Ahmed’s Twitter account remains active with more than a million followers. The employee involved in Twitter’s trust and safety council tells WIRED that they believe that instances like Prime Minister Ahmed’s in Ethiopia are given “less regard, overall, by these Western platforms because they are not considered as important.” And for platforms, maintaining good relationships with foreign governments may take precedence over applying their own rules. Most Popular The employee also says that the choice to leave up accounts in the global south that violate the company’s policies may also come down to a lack of investment. “During sensitive political events, they don’t put as many resources into it, they don’t prioritize them,” the employee says. “And even when things are happening, when we call their attention to these issues, it’s dismissed.” But Vesteinsson notes that, while platforms have historically been negligent of non-Western countries, the Files themselves are inherently selective, which can be misleading. “What I see here is internal teams carefully deliberating over content policy and enforcement,” he says. “We don’t have that same lens into how Twitter considered actioning posts from world leaders like Ahmed or Modi. We don’t have that transparency in these recent disclosures. What we really need here is for platforms like Twitter to invest in greater transparency over their operations and decisionmaking.”
Markdown	[Skip to main content](https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-trump-world-leaders-ban/#main-content) [SECURITY](https://www.wired.com/category/security/) [POLITICS](https://www.wired.com/category/politics/) [THE BIG STORY](https://www.wired.com/category/big-story/) [BUSINESS](https://www.wired.com/category/business/) [SCIENCE](https://www.wired.com/category/science/) [CULTURE](https://www.wired.com/category/culture/) [REVIEWS](https://www.wired.com/category/gear/) [SUBSCRIBE](https://www.wired.com/v2/offers/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_NAV_CTA_0_US_ACQ_NLI_QUICK_PAY_GENERIC_ZZ_PANELA) [Newsletters](https://www.wired.com/newsletter?sourceCode=hamburgernav) [SUBSCRIBE](https://www.wired.com/v2/offers/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_NAV_CTA_0_US_ACQ_NLI_QUICK_PAY_GENERIC_ZZ_PANELA) [Security](https://www.wired.com/category/security/) [Politics](https://www.wired.com/category/politics/) [The Big Story](https://www.wired.com/category/big-story/) [Business](https://www.wired.com/category/business/) [Science](https://www.wired.com/category/science/) [Culture](https://www.wired.com/category/culture/) [Reviews](https://www.wired.com/category/gear/) More [The Big Interview](https://www.wired.com/the-big-interview/)[Magazine](https://www.wired.com/magazine/)[Events](https://www.wired.com/tag/wired-events/)[WIRED Insider](https://www.wired.com/collection/wiredinsider/)[WIRED Consulting](https://www.wired.com/tag/wired-consulting/) [Newsletters](https://www.wired.com/newsletter?sourceCode=hamburgernav) [Podcasts](https://www.wired.com/podcasts/) [Video](https://www.wired.com/video/) [Livestreams](https://www.wired.com/livestreams) [Merch](https://shop.wired.com/) [Search](https://www.wired.com/search/) [Sign In](https://www.wired.com/auth/initiate?redirectURL=%2Fstory%2Ftwitter-trump-world-leaders-ban%2F&source=VERSO_NAVIGATION) [START FREE TRIAL](https://www.wired.com/v2/offers/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_JNY_WIR_GLOBAL_NAV_DRAWER_0_US_ACQ_NLI_QUICK_PAY_GENERIC_ZZ_PANELA) [![ZOOM IN \<br\> Subscribe today for only \<del\>\$4\</del\> \<strong\>\$2/month\</strong\> and get access to exclusive benefits including \<strong\>5 all-new premium newsletters.\</strong\> CTA:SUBSCRIBE](https://assets.bonappetit.com/photos/686ea38fcb59aaabef7a795d/original/pass/Wired_Zoom_Rollover_300x200_v2a_Shorter.gif?format=original)](https://www.wired.com/v2/offers/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_NAV_ROLLOVER_0_US_ACQ_NLI_QUICK_PAY_GENERIC_ZZ_PANELA) [Sign In](https://www.wired.com/auth/initiate?redirectURL=%2Fstory%2Ftwitter-trump-world-leaders-ban%2F&source=VERSO_NAVIGATION) The intersection of technology, power, and culture. Start your free trial and get access to 5 all-new premium newsletters. [START FREE TRIAL](https://www.wired.com/v2/offers/wira01035?source=Site_0_JNY_WIR_DESKTOP_PAYWALL_THIN_METER_ARTICLE_1_0_US_ACQ_NLI_QUICK_PAY_GENERIC_ZZ_PANELA) [Vittoria Elliott](https://www.wired.com/author/vittoria-elliott/) [Business](https://www.wired.com/category/business) Dec 16, 2022 11:49 AM # Trump’s Twitter Ban Was Unfair, but Not for the Reason You Think If Twitter had implemented its rules uniformly, other world leaders would have been banned too. ![Line of red balls with one falling into a hole on a white background](https://media.wired.com/photos/639a49ba51401b7ec2ec5f76/3:2/w_2560%2Cc_limit/Trumps-Twitter-Ban-Wasn't-Fair-Business-964905918.jpg) Photograph: PM Images/Getty Images Save this story Save this story In January 2021, after former US president Donald Trump tweeted in support of an insurrection on the Capitol, his account was frozen and he was locked out. But across the world, leaders have tweeted in support of genocide and threatened violence, yet none of them have been banned from the platform. Less than six months later, in June 2021, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari [posted a tweet](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-57336571) threatening violence against Biafran separatist groups in the country’s southwest. Buhari’s tweet was removed, but his account remained live. Almost two years after Donald Trump [was banned from Twitter](https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension), Elon Musk has released a series of documents—dubbed the Twitter Files—arguing that the site got it wrong. The leaked documents show the way the platform made decisions before Musk took over, focused on the former president and other controversial moderation decisions. #### Content To honor your privacy preferences, this content can only be viewed on the site it [originates](https://player.spokenlayer.net/v1-wired-homepage?__v=linear&url=http://www.wired.com/story/twitter-trump-world-leaders-ban) from. In the most recent file dump published through Bari Weiss, the founder and editor of media organization The Free Press, Musk released several documents that revealed how Twitter’s policy and trust and safety teams came to the decision to ban Trump in the wake of the insurrection on January 6, 2021. Featured Video [Why Billionaires Are Actually Ruining the Economy](https://www.wired.com/video/watch/wired-news-and-science-why-billionaires-are-ruining-the-economy) In an argument outlined over Twitter, Weiss alleges that the decision to ban Trump was unprecedented, deviating from the site’s reactions to other heads of state who also incited or supported violence with their tweets. Weiss cited examples from leaders in Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, and Iran that, she asserted, showed restraint on Twitter’s part when deciding whether or not to keep prominent political figures on the platform, even after violations. Twitter has not released the documents detailing the decision to keep other public figures on the site. ### Don't just keep up. Get ahead—with our biggest stories, handpicked for you each day. By signing up, you agree to our [user agreement](https://www.condenast.com/user-agreement) (including [class action waiver and arbitration provisions](https://www.condenast.com/user-agreement#introduction-arbitration-notice)), and acknowledge our [privacy policy](https://www.condenast.com/privacy-policy). While Weiss interpreted the reluctance to use such measures against other world leaders as evidence that Trump was treated particularly unfairly, the documents may also reveal the opposite: that the company consistently underestimated the danger its platform posed in contexts outside the US, and only acted forcefully against threats to American democracy. If Twitter had implemented its rules uniformly across the world, Trump’s ban would have extended to other leaders, too. “Vulnerable communities in far away countries are less important than the relationships with leaders like \[India's Narendra\] Modi or others,” says an employee at an organization that was a part of Twitter’s trust and safety council, which was disbanded earlier this month. The employee asked for anonymity because they are concerned their organization may be targeted by harassment and threats like those faced by former Twitter staffers. Most Popular - [![As the Strait of Hormuz Reopens, Global Shipping Will Take Months to Recover](https://media.wired.com/photos/69d6a5839dad1bfe79e89f12/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/the-strait-of-hormuz-reopens-but-global-shipping-will-take-months-to-recover/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) Gear [As the Strait of Hormuz Reopens, Global Shipping Will Take Months to Recover](https://www.wired.com/story/the-strait-of-hormuz-reopens-but-global-shipping-will-take-months-to-recover/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) By Jumana Naim - [![Anthropic’s New Product Aims to Handle the Hard Part of Building AI Agents](https://media.wired.com/photos/69d55aad5eeab2b48af87714/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-launches-claude-managed-agents/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) Artificial Intelligence [Anthropic’s New Product Aims to Handle the Hard Part of Building AI Agents](https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-launches-claude-managed-agents/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) By Maxwell Zeff - [![Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon](https://media.wired.com/photos/69d54188e378a93eb5dc3dea/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/artemis-ii-astronauts-witnessed-6-meteorites-collide-with-the-moon/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) Space [Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon](https://www.wired.com/story/artemis-ii-astronauts-witnessed-6-meteorites-collide-with-the-moon/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) By Jorge Garay - [![Amazon Pulls Support for Perfectly Fine Older Kindles](https://media.wired.com/photos/69d679c9383b6979c9a47b1a/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-pulls-support-for-perfectly-fine-older-kindles/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) Gear [Amazon Pulls Support for Perfectly Fine Older Kindles](https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-pulls-support-for-perfectly-fine-older-kindles/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) By Boone Ashworth Some of this discrepancy may come down to how different governments react to moderation by social platforms. After Twitter removed Buhari’s threatening tweet against Biafran separatists, the company was [slapped with a ban](https://restofworld.org/2021/inside-nigerias-decision-to-ban-twitter/). But instead of banning Buhari in turn, the company later negotiated with the government to be [reinstated](https://restofworld.org/2022/how-twitter-rolled-over-to-get-unblocked-in-nigeria/) by agreeing, among other things, to open a local office, pay local taxes, and register as a broadcaster. Nigeria is now [considering](https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/13/nigerias-internet-regulator-releases-draft-to-regulate-twitter-facebook-tiktok-and-others/) legislation to regulate platforms. “I think there are a lot of calculations that go into the trade-off about whether to take enforcement actions, and of course access to markets is one of them,” says Kian Vesteinsson, senior research analyst for tech and democracy at Freedom House, a nonprofit research and advocacy group focused on democracy and political freedoms. This question of market access has likely also come into play in India, the company’s [third largest market](https://datareportal.com/essential-twitter-stats). Despite filing a [lawsuit](https://www.wired.com/story/twitters-case-in-india-could-have-massive-ripple-effects/) to protect tweets and accounts that the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ordered removed, Twitter has, as Weiss noted, refused to ban Modi and other BJP members from the platform. The BJP government has already begun to [increase pressure](https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-free-speech-musk-takeover/) on social media companies, requiring them to have [in-country representatives](https://restofworld.org/2021/social-media-laws-twitter-facebook/) that can be held legally accountable if companies do not comply with government takedown requests. When making the decision to ban Trump, Twitter staff likely didn’t have to consider whether the company would face a situation where it would be shut out of its home market in the US. But this is not always the case. For instance, Twitter has technically been banned in Iran since [2009](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/02/02/will-twitter-ban-irans-supreme-leader-next/), and yet the company let a [tweet](https://twitter.com/bariweiss/status/1602370518585221120) by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling Israel a “tumor” that needs to be “eradicated” remain on the platform. Khamenei’s account was [temporarily suspended](https://apnews.com/article/86df2730d0a3f25972e2bb3a8c94dd02) in 2019, and on the same day Trump was banned, tweets from [Khamenei’s accounts](https://www.voanews.com/a/silicon-valley-technology_twitter-bans-trump-removes-tweet-irans-khamenei-same-day-sparking-double/6200516.html) were removed—but his account remained active. At the time, Twitter did not respond to questions about how it had applied its policies to reach this decision. “At a very high level, tech companies have not been clear or consistent about how they treat speech by politicians and other influential political figures,” says Vesteinsson. “But it’s been clear for years that technology companies need to step it up when it comes to protecting people in the global south and in markets that might not be deemed as valuable to these companies.” But even in instances where market access may not be a driving force, such as Ethiopia, where the company boasts only [34,000 users](https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-ethiopia#:~:text=Twitter%20users%20in%20Ethiopia%20in,total%20population%20at%20the%20time.), a tweet from [Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed](https://www.wired.com/story/meta-hate-speech-lawsuit-ethiopia/) supporting the genocide against ethnic Tigrayans was left up, accompanied by an annotation that it had violated the company’s policies, but that it had been preserved as a public record of a world leader. Ahmed’s Twitter account remains active with more than a million followers. The employee involved in Twitter’s trust and safety council tells WIRED that they believe that instances like Prime Minister Ahmed’s in Ethiopia are given “less regard, overall, by these Western platforms because they are not considered as important.” And for platforms, maintaining good relationships with foreign governments may take precedence over applying their own rules. Most Popular - [![As the Strait of Hormuz Reopens, Global Shipping Will Take Months to Recover](https://media.wired.com/photos/69d6a5839dad1bfe79e89f12/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/the-strait-of-hormuz-reopens-but-global-shipping-will-take-months-to-recover/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) Gear [As the Strait of Hormuz Reopens, Global Shipping Will Take Months to Recover](https://www.wired.com/story/the-strait-of-hormuz-reopens-but-global-shipping-will-take-months-to-recover/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) By Jumana Naim - [![Anthropic’s New Product Aims to Handle the Hard Part of Building AI Agents](https://media.wired.com/photos/69d55aad5eeab2b48af87714/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-launches-claude-managed-agents/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) Artificial Intelligence [Anthropic’s New Product Aims to Handle the Hard Part of Building AI Agents](https://www.wired.com/story/anthropic-launches-claude-managed-agents/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) By Maxwell Zeff - [![Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon](https://media.wired.com/photos/69d54188e378a93eb5dc3dea/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/artemis-ii-astronauts-witnessed-6-meteorites-collide-with-the-moon/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) Space [Artemis II Astronauts Witnessed 6 Meteorites Colliding With the Moon](https://www.wired.com/story/artemis-ii-astronauts-witnessed-6-meteorites-collide-with-the-moon/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) By Jorge Garay - [![Amazon Pulls Support for Perfectly Fine Older Kindles](https://media.wired.com/photos/69d679c9383b6979c9a47b1a/1:1/w_120%2Ch_120%2Cc_limit/undefined)](https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-pulls-support-for-perfectly-fine-older-kindles/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) Gear [Amazon Pulls Support for Perfectly Fine Older Kindles](https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-pulls-support-for-perfectly-fine-older-kindles/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9ab84315-9d4b-49e6-b717-4eb1162fa306_popular4-2) By Boone Ashworth The employee also says that the choice to leave up accounts in the global south that violate the company’s policies may also come down to a lack of investment. “During sensitive political events, they don’t put as many resources into it, they don’t prioritize them,” the employee says. “And even when things are happening, when we call their attention to these issues, it’s dismissed.” But Vesteinsson notes that, while platforms have historically been negligent of non-Western countries, the Files themselves are inherently selective, which can be misleading. “What I see here is internal teams carefully deliberating over content policy and enforcement,” he says. “We don’t have that same lens into how Twitter considered actioning posts from world leaders like Ahmed or Modi. We don’t have that transparency in these recent disclosures. What we really need here is for platforms like Twitter to invest in greater transparency over their operations and decisionmaking.” ## You Might Also Like - In your inbox: Upgrade your life with [WIRED-tested gear](https://www.wired.com/newsletter/gear?sourceCode=BottomStories) - What you need to know about [the foreign-made router ban](https://www.wired.com/story/us-government-foreign-made-router-ban-explained/) - Big Story: Anduril wants to own [the future of war tech](https://www.wired.com/story/andurils-real-war-is-with-itself/) - How [Trump’s plot to grab Iran's nuclear fuel](https://www.wired.com/story/us-iran-war-nuclear-extraction-ground-operation/) would actually work - WIRED Health: Join [the boldest minds in healthcare](https://health.wired.com/) [![](https://media.wired.com/photos/635b0ebb68addec416d5b99b/1:1/w_90%2Cc_limit/Vittoria%2520Elliott.jpg)](https://www.wired.com/author/vittoria-elliott/) [Vittoria Elliott](https://www.wired.com/author/vittoria-elliott/) is a reporter for WIRED, covering platforms and power. She was previously a reporter at Rest of World, where she covered disinformation and labor in markets outside the US and Western Europe. She has worked with The New Humanitarian, Al Jazeera, and ProPublica. She is a graduate of ... [Read More](https://www.wired.com/author/vittoria-elliott) Platforms and power reporter Topics[twitter](https://www.wired.com/tag/twitter/)[content moderation](https://www.wired.com/tag/content-moderation/)[censorship](https://www.wired.com/tag/censorship/)[Donald Trump](https://www.wired.com/tag/donald-trump/)[Social Media](https://www.wired.com/tag/social-media/)[disinformation](https://www.wired.com/tag/disinformation/) ### Don't Just Keep Up. Get Ahead Sign up for the Daily newsletter to get our biggest stories, handpicked for you each day. 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Readable Markdown	In January 2021, after former US president Donald Trump tweeted in support of an insurrection on the Capitol, his account was frozen and he was locked out. But across the world, leaders have tweeted in support of genocide and threatened violence, yet none of them have been banned from the platform. Less than six months later, in June 2021, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari [posted a tweet](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-57336571) threatening violence against Biafran separatist groups in the country’s southwest. Buhari’s tweet was removed, but his account remained live. Almost two years after Donald Trump [was banned from Twitter](https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension), Elon Musk has released a series of documents—dubbed the Twitter Files—arguing that the site got it wrong. The leaked documents show the way the platform made decisions before Musk took over, focused on the former president and other controversial moderation decisions. In the most recent file dump published through Bari Weiss, the founder and editor of media organization The Free Press, Musk released several documents that revealed how Twitter’s policy and trust and safety teams came to the decision to ban Trump in the wake of the insurrection on January 6, 2021. In an argument outlined over Twitter, Weiss alleges that the decision to ban Trump was unprecedented, deviating from the site’s reactions to other heads of state who also incited or supported violence with their tweets. Weiss cited examples from leaders in Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, and Iran that, she asserted, showed restraint on Twitter’s part when deciding whether or not to keep prominent political figures on the platform, even after violations. Twitter has not released the documents detailing the decision to keep other public figures on the site. While Weiss interpreted the reluctance to use such measures against other world leaders as evidence that Trump was treated particularly unfairly, the documents may also reveal the opposite: that the company consistently underestimated the danger its platform posed in contexts outside the US, and only acted forcefully against threats to American democracy. If Twitter had implemented its rules uniformly across the world, Trump’s ban would have extended to other leaders, too. “Vulnerable communities in far away countries are less important than the relationships with leaders like \[India's Narendra\] Modi or others,” says an employee at an organization that was a part of Twitter’s trust and safety council, which was disbanded earlier this month. The employee asked for anonymity because they are concerned their organization may be targeted by harassment and threats like those faced by former Twitter staffers. Most Popular Some of this discrepancy may come down to how different governments react to moderation by social platforms. After Twitter removed Buhari’s threatening tweet against Biafran separatists, the company was [slapped with a ban](https://restofworld.org/2021/inside-nigerias-decision-to-ban-twitter/). But instead of banning Buhari in turn, the company later negotiated with the government to be [reinstated](https://restofworld.org/2022/how-twitter-rolled-over-to-get-unblocked-in-nigeria/) by agreeing, among other things, to open a local office, pay local taxes, and register as a broadcaster. Nigeria is now [considering](https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/13/nigerias-internet-regulator-releases-draft-to-regulate-twitter-facebook-tiktok-and-others/) legislation to regulate platforms. “I think there are a lot of calculations that go into the trade-off about whether to take enforcement actions, and of course access to markets is one of them,” says Kian Vesteinsson, senior research analyst for tech and democracy at Freedom House, a nonprofit research and advocacy group focused on democracy and political freedoms. This question of market access has likely also come into play in India, the company’s [third largest market](https://datareportal.com/essential-twitter-stats). Despite filing a [lawsuit](https://www.wired.com/story/twitters-case-in-india-could-have-massive-ripple-effects/) to protect tweets and accounts that the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has ordered removed, Twitter has, as Weiss noted, refused to ban Modi and other BJP members from the platform. The BJP government has already begun to [increase pressure](https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-free-speech-musk-takeover/) on social media companies, requiring them to have [in-country representatives](https://restofworld.org/2021/social-media-laws-twitter-facebook/) that can be held legally accountable if companies do not comply with government takedown requests. When making the decision to ban Trump, Twitter staff likely didn’t have to consider whether the company would face a situation where it would be shut out of its home market in the US. But this is not always the case. For instance, Twitter has technically been banned in Iran since [2009](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/02/02/will-twitter-ban-irans-supreme-leader-next/), and yet the company let a [tweet](https://twitter.com/bariweiss/status/1602370518585221120) by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling Israel a “tumor” that needs to be “eradicated” remain on the platform. Khamenei’s account was [temporarily suspended](https://apnews.com/article/86df2730d0a3f25972e2bb3a8c94dd02) in 2019, and on the same day Trump was banned, tweets from [Khamenei’s accounts](https://www.voanews.com/a/silicon-valley-technology_twitter-bans-trump-removes-tweet-irans-khamenei-same-day-sparking-double/6200516.html) were removed—but his account remained active. At the time, Twitter did not respond to questions about how it had applied its policies to reach this decision. “At a very high level, tech companies have not been clear or consistent about how they treat speech by politicians and other influential political figures,” says Vesteinsson. “But it’s been clear for years that technology companies need to step it up when it comes to protecting people in the global south and in markets that might not be deemed as valuable to these companies.” But even in instances where market access may not be a driving force, such as Ethiopia, where the company boasts only [34,000 users](https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-ethiopia#:~:text=Twitter%20users%20in%20Ethiopia%20in,total%20population%20at%20the%20time.), a tweet from [Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed](https://www.wired.com/story/meta-hate-speech-lawsuit-ethiopia/) supporting the genocide against ethnic Tigrayans was left up, accompanied by an annotation that it had violated the company’s policies, but that it had been preserved as a public record of a world leader. Ahmed’s Twitter account remains active with more than a million followers. The employee involved in Twitter’s trust and safety council tells WIRED that they believe that instances like Prime Minister Ahmed’s in Ethiopia are given “less regard, overall, by these Western platforms because they are not considered as important.” And for platforms, maintaining good relationships with foreign governments may take precedence over applying their own rules. Most Popular The employee also says that the choice to leave up accounts in the global south that violate the company’s policies may also come down to a lack of investment. “During sensitive political events, they don’t put as many resources into it, they don’t prioritize them,” the employee says. “And even when things are happening, when we call their attention to these issues, it’s dismissed.” But Vesteinsson notes that, while platforms have historically been negligent of non-Western countries, the Files themselves are inherently selective, which can be misleading. “What I see here is internal teams carefully deliberating over content policy and enforcement,” he says. “We don’t have that same lens into how Twitter considered actioning posts from world leaders like Ahmed or Modi. We don’t have that transparency in these recent disclosures. What we really need here is for platforms like Twitter to invest in greater transparency over their operations and decisionmaking.”
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