37 Jeremy Boreing (@JeremyDBoreing), “I appreciate the reply. We posted the two clips flagged by Twitter and they were indeed labeled ‘hateful conduct’ and the share functions were disabled on the…,” Twitter, Juny 1, 2023, https://twitter.com/JeremyDBoreing/status/1664332765226057730?s=20.
38 Daysia Tolentino and David Ingram, “Musk’s response to an anti-trans video sparks 24 hours of chaos at Twitter,” NBC News, June 3, 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/musk-elon-twitter-ella-irwin-trans-video-what-is-a-woman-stream-rcna87429.
39 Robert B. Cialdini, Influence: Science and Practice, 5th ed. (1984; reis., Boston: Pearson, 2009), 210–211.
40 “Community Principles,” TikTok, last updated March 2023, https://www.tiktok.com/community-guidelines/en/community-principles.
41 “Ensuring Respect for Free Expression, Through Independent Judgement,” Oversight Board, https://www.oversightboard.com.
42 For example, Twitter and Facebook have programs to ensure that moderation actions against high-profile users are checked by multiple reviewers, including at times the executive team. Preliminary indications from some of our data in the 2020 election suggested that lower-follower accounts were actioned for election misinformation even as influencers with far more reach did not appear to be. This is perhaps a natural defensive stance for Big Tech platforms, but it preferentially favors those with large audiences or offline power. Renée DiResta and Matt Debutts, “‘Newsworthiness,’ Trump, and the Facebook Oversight Board,” Columbia Journalism Review, April 26, 2021, https://www.cjr.org/the_new_gatekeepers/facebook-oversight-board-2.php.
43 For a nuanced explanation of how content moderation work is done and the mental health impacts it has, see Casey Newton, “The Trauma Floor: The Secret Lives of Facebook Moderators in America,” The Verge, February 25, 2019, https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/25/18229714/cognizant-facebook-content-moderator-interviews-trauma-working-conditions-arizona.
44 “Singapore Tightens the Reins on Extreme Social Media Content,” Japan Times, November 12, 2022, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2022/11/12/general/social-media-content-law-singapore.
45 Yashraj Sharma, “Twitter Accused of Censorship in India as It Blocks Modi Critics,” The Guardian, April 5, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/05/twitter-accused-of-censorship-in-india-as-it-blocks-modi-critics-elon-musk.
46 Charlie Savage, “Trump’s Order Targeting Social Media Sites, Explained,” New York Times, May 28, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/us/politics/trump-twitter-explained.html.
47 David Shepardson, “Biden Revokes Trump Order That Sought to Limit Social Media Firms’ Protections,” Reuters, May 17, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/technology/biden-revokes-trump-order-that-sought-limit-social-media-firms-protections-2021-05-15.
48 Fletcher Schoen and Christopher J. Lamb, “Deception, Disinformation, and Strategic Communications: How One Interagency Group Made a Major Difference,” Institute for National Strategic Studies, June 1, 2012, https://inss.ndu.edu/Media/News/Article/693590/deception-disinformation-and-strategic-communications-how-one-interagency-group.
49 Fred Barbash, “U.S. Ties ‘Klan’ Olympic Hate Mail to KGB,” Washington Post, August 7, 1984, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/08/07/us-ties-klan-olympic-hate-mail-to-kgb/80918fe8-fcf0-46cf-bb58-726ee46d8ce9.
50 Michael Dhunjishah, “Countering Propaganda and Disinformation: Bring Back the Active Measures Working Group?,” War Room, July 7, 2017, https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/countering-propaganda-disinformation-bring-back-active-measures-working-group.
51 Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, https://knightcolumbia.org/blog/channel/jawboning.
52 Will Oremus with David DiMolfetta, “Disinfo Researchers Are Under Pressure from the Right. They’re Starting to Push Back,” Washington Post, August 3, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/08/03/disinfo-researchers-are-under-pressure-right-theyre-starting-push-back.
53 Mike Masnick, “5th Circuit Cleans Up District Court’s Silly Jawboning Ruling About the Biden Admin, Trims It Down to More Accurately Reflect the 1st Amendment,” Techdirt, September 11, 2023, https://www.techdirt.com/2023/09/11/5th-circuit-cleans-up-district-courts-silly-jawboning-ruling-about-the-biden-admin-trims-it-down-to-more-accurately-reflect-the-1st-amendment.
54 Stanford University filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, as we had with the Fifth Circuit, fact-checking the claims about us and our work. That can be found at http://www.supremecourt.gov /DocketPDF/23/23-411/294255/20231226143930837_Murthy%20v.%20Missouri%20--%20SCOTUS%20Amicus%20FINAL.pdf.
55 Yoel Roth, “Getting the Facts Straight: Some Observations on the Fifth Circuit Ruling in Missouri v. Biden,” Jawboning (blog), Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, September 27, 2023, https://knightcolumbia.org/blog/getting-the-facts-straight-some-observations-on-the-fifth-circuit-ruling-in-missouri-v-biden-1.
56 State of Missouri, et al. v. Joseph R. Biden Jr., et al., 3:22-CV-01213 (W.D. La. Jul. 4, 2023), https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/missouri-v-biden-ruling.pdf.
57 Robby Soave, “Inside the Facebook Files: Emails Reveal the CDC’s Role in Silencing COVID-19 Dissent,” Reason, January 19, 2023, https://reason.com/2023/01/19/facebook-files-emails-cdc-covid-vaccines-censorship.
58 For coverage of the controversy, see David Ingram, “Elon Musk’s Twitter Faces Censorship Allegations in India Free Speech Battle,” NBC News, January 25, 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/modi-twitter-bbc-musk-elon-documentary-watch-video-rcna67497. Also see Lumen’s post about Twitter ceasing contributions: Lumen (@lumendatabase), “As of April 15th, 2023, Twitter has not submitted copies of any of the takedown notices it receives to Lumen…” Twitter, April 27, 2023, 4:25 p.m., https://twitter.com/lumendatabase/status/1651578251599310849.
59 Herbert A. Simon, “Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World,” in M. Greenberger (ed.), Computers, Communications, and the Public Interest (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1971).
60 Renée DiResta, “How Online Mobs Act like Flocks of Birds,” NOEMA, November 3, 2022, https://www.noemamag.com/how-online-mobs-act-like-flocks-of-birds.
61 Kaitlyn Tiffany, “Very, Very Few People Are Falling Down the YouTube Rabbit Hole,” The Atlantic, August 30, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/08/youtube-rabbit-holes-american-politics/675186.
62 Sandra González-Bailón et al., “Asymmetric Ideological Segregation in Exposure to Political News on Facebook,” Science 381, no. 6656 (July 2023): 392–398, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade7138.
63 Kai Kupferschmidt, “Does Social Media Polarize Voters? Unprecedented Experiments on Facebook Users Reveal Surprises,” Science, July 27, 2023, https://www.science.org/content/article/does-social-media-polarize-voters-unprecedented-experiments-facebook-users-reveal; Brendan Nyhan et al., “Like-Minded Sources on Facebook Are Prevalent but Not Polarizing,” Nature 620 (July 2023): 137–144, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06795-x.
64 Justin Hendrix and Paul M. Barrett, “The Meta Studies: Nuanced Findings, Corporate Spin, and Media Oversimplification,” Tech Policy Press, August 2, 2023, https://www.techpolicy.press/the-meta-studies-nuanced-findings-corporate-spin-and-media-oversimplification.