Thursday, July 28, 2022

Twitter resumes purge of scientists, critics of gender ideology after Musk pullout

The free-speech wing of the internet cheered when Elon Musk, a vocal critic of social media censorship, said he would purchase Twitter for $44 billion

  • But by backing out of the deal earlier this month over Twitter’s alleged undercounting of spam accounts, the Tesla CEO may have emboldened the social media platform to resume or expand its aggressive moderation of tweets that offend elite opinion.

The number of spam accounts is just a subset of potential fraud

  • Twitter's alleged refusal to disclose information about its suspension processes during Musk's due diligence led to his suspension.
  • Ivy League epidemiologist Andrew Bostom woke up Wednesday to learn his account had been suspended for the second time in a month for purported COVID misinformation. Twitter reinstated him hours after receiving a legal warning letter from former Trump administration lawyer James Lawrence.

Bostom tweeted that the "only" randomized controlled trial data from children "reveals ZERO hospitalizations prevented by vacci[n]ation vs. placebo."

  • The RCT data from adults "shows more [severe adverse events] caused by vax than C19 hosp[italization]s prevented."

The June 15 document for children under 5 showed the sole hospitalization in the trial was in the vaccinated group, and the Oct. 26 document for 5-11 year-olds showed no severe COVID cases in either vaccinated or placebo groups, even though children with comorbidities "made up approximately 20% of the evaluable efficacy population."

  • For his adult claims, Bostom pointed to a June preprint study, not yet peer-reviewed, led by the editor of the British Medical Journal.
  • It found mRNA vaccines associated with an "absolute risk increase of serious adverse events of special interest of 12.5 per 10,000," far higher than the hospitalization reduction of 2.3 and 6.4 per 100,000 from Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Twitter slapped genomics researcher Kevin McKernan with a weeklong lockout shortly after Just the News reported on his preemptive threat to sue the company for baseless "strikes" against his account.

  • The triggering tweet challenged another user for claiming COVID vaccines reduce "serious illness and death."
  • Twitter called his response "misleading" and blocked interaction with the tweet.
  • In response, Twitter surreptitiously changed the grounds for sanction. The July 21 response says his "account features will remain limited" for violating "our rules against abusive behavior."

Twitter is going even further to squelch criticism of proposals opposite to Florida's

  • Twitter imposed a lockout Monday against the activist group Moms for Liberty, which recently expanded its focus to crime, for criticizing California legislation that would make it a sanctuary state for adults who bring out-of-state children there for gender-affirming medical procedures.

Twitter notified the group the tweet amounted to "hateful conduct" and unilaterally removed it from public view

  • Moms for Liberty appealed the sanction, asking Twitter to specify what was hateful
  • This was the group's first run-in with Twitter since it got "dinged" more than a year ago for tagging a curriculum maker
  • Twitter didn't respond to requests to explain its behavior since Musk withdrew from the deal 

https://justthenews.com/nation/free-speech/twitter-resumes-purge-scientists-critics-gender-ideology-after-musk-pullout 

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