The former CEO of Twitter ordered a censorship campaign around tweets to President Barack Obama and Caitlyn Jenner, according to a new report.
BuzzFeed News cites sources inside the social media company that say Dick Costolo ordered some of his employees to use a Twitter-built algorithm to keep abusive language out of a Twitter Q&A with Obama in May 2015. A second layer of defense involving manually filtering by employees was also used.
BuzzFeed reports the same system was used during a Q&A with Olympian Jenner, formerly known as Bruce Jenner.
Twitter has prided itself on being a champion of free speech, although it has suspended and deleted several user accounts over the years for various reasons — some involving national security, in the case of accounts linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group.
Costolo, BuzzFeed reports, did not want senior Twitter staffers knowing about his censorship push.
"This was another example of trying to woo celebs and show that you can have civilized conversations without the hate even if you're a high-profile person," a source told BuzzFeed regarding the Jenner Q&A.
"But it's another example of a double standard — we'll protect our celebrities, while the average user is out there subject to all kinds of horrible things."
Costolo resigned from his CEO post at Twitter a month after the Obama Q&A.
Twitter banned conservative
blogger Milo Yiannopoulos for life last month after suspending his account several times. The permanent ban came after he played a role in the harassment of actress Leslie Jones, co-star of the recently released "Ghostbusters" movie.
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