Former NYT columnist Bari Weiss releases ‘Twitter Files Part Two’

Former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss released the second installment of the “Twitter Files” on Thursday night, sharing images of accounts that Twitter allegedly placed on various types of “blacklists.”

Weiss posted several images of what appears to be an internal Twitter system that marked certain accounts as being under various kinds of “blacklists,” in addition to flagging other information about the accounts.

Jay Bhattacharya, a health policy professor from Stanford University who opposed COVID-19 lockdowns, appeared to have been placed on a “Trends Blacklist,” as was the right-wing Libs of TikTok account, according to the photos.

The account of conservative commentator Dan Bongino was apparently placed on a “Search Blacklist,” while the photos seemed to show Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk had his account marked as “Do Not Amplify.”

The images also appeared to show that several of the accounts had been flagged with “Recent Abuse Strike” and that more basic information, such as when the accounts were “Twitter Blue Verified” or “High Profile,” had also been noted.

Weiss also shared purported screenshots of internal messages from Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of safety and integrity, including one in which he appeared to ask for research on “non-removal policy interventions like disabling engagements and deamplification/visibility filtering.”

Weiss’s Twitter thread is the second installment in what Twitter CEO Elon Musk has dubbed the “Twitter Files.” The first installment, released by independent journalist Matt Taibbi, appeared to show an internal debate at the social media company over how to handle a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.

While the first installment of the “Twitter Files” sparked outrage across right-wing outlets, it seemed to fall flat otherwise, with some criticizing the release for failing to deliver groundbreaking revelations.

The release of the “Twitter Files” comes just over a month after Musk acquired the social media company. The billionaire, who promised to reshape Twitter into a “free speech” platform, shared the trove of internal documents with Weiss and Taibbi in an apparent effort to show that content moderation under the previous management was biased against the political right.

Updated at 10:22 p.m.