Twitter: the secret account blacklisting and the class action by female employees

Twitter, the social network currently owned by the famous Elon Musk, apparently had a secret blacklist of accounts and topics and may soon delete 1.5 billion accounts.

Not only that, but Twitter is also the subject of a new class action lawsuit for the “disproportionate” firing of its female employees.

Twitter and the discovery of the secret blacklist of accounts and topics

Today it was revealed that Twitter has a secret blacklist of its accounts and topics that were prevented from searching and trending.

This was revealed by Bari Weiss, the founder and editor of The Free Press, in a series of her tweets. Here are the first ones:

1. A new #TwitterFiles investigation reveals that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics—all in secret, without informing users.

— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 9, 2022

“THREAD: THE TWITTER FILES PART 2. TWITTER’S SECRET BLACKLISTS.

A new #TwitterFiles investigation reveals that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics—all in secret, without informing users.“

Not only that but also earlier today, it appears that Elon Musk himself, Twitter’s new owner and CEO, shared with his more than 120 million followers as follows:

These are obvious account deletions with no tweets & no log in for years

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022

“Twitter will soon start freeing the name space of 1.5 billion accounts. These are obvious  account deletions with no tweets & no log in for years.”

Coincidence perhaps, but the two pieces of news were given almost concurrently, with the possibility that Musk wants to mask the deletion of secret blacklist accounts with his willingness to “make room” for new names. 

Twitter sued for disproportionate dismissal by former female employees

On the issue of the mass layoff that Musk initiated as soon as he became CEO of Twitter, reducing the company’s workforce by 7,500 people, former female employees are now also taking action. 

In fact, according to reports, it appears that former employees have filed their new class action lawsuit against the social media company in federal court in San Francisco, claiming that Twitter fired 57 percent of female workers compared to 47 percent of men.

The class action seeks to accuse Musk and his company of “disproportionately” firing women compared to men, adding to already two other class actions against Twitter in the firing area. 

Specifically, the disparity in layoffs is most evident in engineering roles, with 63 percent of women being left at home versus 48 percent of male engineers laid off. 

Of course, the class action was filed by two women affected by the layoffs, who accuse the company of violating California laws that protect individuals from sex discrimination in the workplace.

Jack Dorsey’s criticism

It has been some time since the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has been voicing his criticism of the choices made by Elon Musk involving the social media company. 

Even though the two have always appeared to be on the same page, with similar ideas about Twitter, ever since Musk began to disrupt the social media, Dorsey has wasted no time in showing his disapproval. 

One of the currently hottest issues is those of the “Twitter Files”, which precisely are internal documents (such as the blacklist) that would show how the social media has not been impartial in moderating content, especially political content.