Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) has once again embraced silent suppression and has begun placing sensitive content filters on nearly every original media post from a government watchdog organization.
The American Accountability Foundation reported on Substack Monday that Twitter has begun censoring much of its content. The group has worked to expose the President of the American Library Association Emily Drabinski as a leftist activist dimissing parental concerns and pushing wild LGBT ideologies in libraries.
AAF says they immediately saw apparent backlash via X censorship. “[A]fter we posted images of the LGBTQ books they are pushing on our children, X (Twitter) hit our account with a ‘sensitive content’ warning on ALL OUR MEDIA POSTS, and shadowbanned our account so that you won’t find us in a search on X.”
AAF called the ban the “height of absurdity.” The organization also noted the irony of the censorship. “If these images are too inappropriate for social media, why on earth are they being shown to children???” AAF posted on X.
Users who visit AAF’s X page will find that original posts that include an image or a link are covered by a notice that reads “The following media includes potentially sensitive content.” In the mobile version of the app, users cannot even click “view” to move past the warning and see the post without changing their default X settings. Yes, one of X’s default settings censors content.
“Your Privacy and safety settings include Tweet media options, if you decide that you want to see a warning over media in Tweets that may contain sensitive content,” the platform explained on its Help Center. “Your settings default is to provide the warning, but you can change the setting at any time.”
X also placed a search ban and a search suggestion ban on AAF. Users who search X for the words “American Accountability Foundation,” will not receive any search suggestions for the organization’s account, nor will they find results for the account after completing a search. This means that in order to find AAF’s X account, users must either already know the account’s official username or handle or have another link to the account.
An analysis of CensorTrack.org data indicates that when X places these restrictions on certain accounts it often chooses accounts that have a large enough following to be effective but a small enough following that it rarely causes widespread outrage on the platform.
Others who have had account-level sensitive content filters applied to their accounts include: author and speaker Yeonmi Park, Canadian transgender ideology protestor Billboard Chris, Ruby Media Group, Biden impersonator Kevin Dalton, Pro-Life Action League and the Heartland Institute. Over the past year, X has restored Yeonmi Park, Billboard Chris and Ruby Media Group’s accounts but Dalton, Pro-Life Action League and Heartland remain censored.
Due to being “busy,” X claimed it could not respond to MRC Free Speech America’s request for comment.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
