David Zweig (@davidzweig) / X

David Zweig

4,816 posts

David Zweig

@davidzweig

Author of INVISIBLES and AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION. Order now: amzn.to/3Q3k44c Subscribe: SilentLunch.net Clips: NYT, Atlantic, NYmag, TFP, Wired.

Lower Hudson Valley

Joined May 2011

Pinned
David Zweig
@davidzweig
Feb 18, 2021
💥🔥🧨 I am beyond excited to announce that I will be writing AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION, a book for @mitpress, about the schools debacle in America during the pandemic. The book, in essence, will be a case study of how and why bad decisions are made THREAD 1/12
David Zweig
@davidzweig
Dec 26, 2022
1. THREAD: THE TWITTER FILES: HOW TWITTER RIGGED THE COVID DEBATE – By censoring info that was true but inconvenient to U.S. govt. policy – By discrediting doctors and other experts who disagreed – By suppressing ordinary users, including some sharing the CDC’s *own data*
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David Zweig
@davidzweig
Dec 26, 2022
Replying to @davidzweig
4. The United States government pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to elevate certain content and suppress other content about Covid-19.
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David Zweig
@davidzweig
Dec 26, 2022
Replying to @davidzweig
2. So far the Twitter Files have focused on evidence of Twitter’s secret blacklists; how the company functioned as a kind of subsidiary of the FBI; and how execs rewrote the platform’s rules to accommodate their own political desires.
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David Zweig
@davidzweig
Dec 26, 2022
Replying to @davidzweig
14. But Twitter did suppress views—many from doctors and scientific experts—that conflicted with the official positions of the White House. As a result, legitimate findings and questions that would have expanded the public debate went missing.
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David Zweig
@davidzweig
Nov 6, 2024
This is fascinating. Any hot takes on why Gen X decided the election?
Philip Klein
@philipaklein
Nov 6, 2024
Looks like Gen X delivered the White House to Trump.
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David Zweig
@davidzweig
Dec 26, 2022
Replying to @davidzweig
20. Exhibit A: Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School, tweeted views at odds with US public health authorities and the American left, the political affiliation of nearly the entire staff at Twitter.
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David Zweig
@davidzweig
Dec 26, 2022
Replying to @davidzweig
22. But Kulldorff’s statement was an expert’s opinion—one which also happened to be in line with vaccine policies in numerous other countries. Yet it was deemed “false information” by Twitter moderators merely because it differed from CDC guidelines.
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David Zweig
@davidzweig
Dec 26, 2022
Replying to @davidzweig
8. When the Biden admin took over, one of their first meeting requests with Twitter executives was on Covid. The focus was on “anti-vaxxer accounts.” Especially Alex Berenson:
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David Zweig
@davidzweig
Dec 26, 2022
Replying to @davidzweig
3. What we have yet to cover is Covid. This reporting, for The Free Press, @TheFP, is one piece of that important story.
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David Zweig
@davidzweig
Dec 26, 2022
Replying to @davidzweig
5. Internal files at Twitter that I viewed while on assignment for @TheFP showed that both the Trump and Biden administrations directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform’s pandemic content according to their wishes.
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David Zweig
@davidzweig
Dec 26, 2022
Replying to @davidzweig
19. Inevitably, dissident yet legitimate content was labeled as misinformation, and the accounts of doctors and others were suspended both for tweeting opinions and demonstrably true information.
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David Zweig
@davidzweig
Dec 26, 2022
Replying to @davidzweig
10. Berenson sued (and then settled with) Twitter. In the legal process Twitter was compelled to release certain internal communications, which showed direct White House pressure on the company to take action on Berenson. alexberenson.substack.com/p/jesse-jackso…
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David Zweig
@davidzweig
Dec 26, 2022
Replying to @davidzweig
9. In the summer of 2021, president Biden said social media companies were “killing people” for allowing vaccine misinformation. Berenson was suspended hours after Biden’s comments, and kicked off the platform the following month.
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