Ex-Twitter Engineer Admits Company Colludes With Oppressive Governments To Ban Users

A former Twitter engineer intimated that the social media giant acts on requests from foreign governments to ban users, reveals undercover footage from Project Veritas released Wednesday as part of a series of covert stings on the company revealing atrocious abuses of privacy by Twitter employees. 

Carefully choosing his words, former Twitter engineer Conrado Mirando conveys to an undercover Project Veritas journalist that the company works with countries such as China and Iran to censor users upon request. 

In one segment of the video, the undercover journalist asks “Does the Chinese government or anybody, like, do you think they call Twitter and be, like, ‘You need to ban anyone that’s on Twitter that’s from China’?”

Miranda pauses, smiles, and coyly says "I cannot disclose that information." 

“What? Why?” the journalist asks, to which Miranda repeats his statement, neither confirming nor denying the practice.

“That’s crazy,” she replies, adding “So, that means yes?”

Miranda replies, smiling: “I did not say that.”

At another point in the discussion, Miranda finally discloses that Twitter acts on requests from foreign governments. 

PV Journalist: Normally does Twitter, like, say if someone in Iran calls and is, like, ‘Hey, in our country we need these people banned so that they’re not seen?

Miranda: Yeah

PV Journalist: That happens?

Miranda: Yeah. We do that a lot for China... We are actually under constant attack from the Chinese. Like, both Chinese hackers, like, ‘good guys’ and from Chinese government.

PV Journalist: Wow

Miranda: Because sometimes they ask us to take down an account, and we don’t take it down, because we’re, like, at the end of all it, like, anybody say... And then the Chinese government, like, starts to try and hack us, and sometimes they point someone, or like yeah, we actually violated blah, blah, blah. And then, the ‘good guys’ from China start attacking us. It’s a mess.”

On the topic of free speech, the Project Veritas journalist asks Miranda "So, Twitter doesn’t necessarily offer free speech around the world?" to which Miranda replies: No. 

(h/t thefederalist)

As we reported last week, Project Veritas and James O'Keefe dropped the first two parts of their new undercover series which exposed rampant political bias and generally creepy behavior at Twitter.  We covered both of them here:

O'Keefe Strikes Again: Twitter Engineer Admits Willingness To Share Trump DMs Without A Warrant

Project Veritas Exposes Twitter "Shadow Banning", Blocking Opposing Views

Then on Monday, O'Keefe dropped part 3 of the series which takes the Twitter creepiness to a whole new level.  Among other things, four Twitter engineers openly talk about a team of 300-400 people working at Twitter whose sole role is to review your "private" direct messages to create a more complete profile of your personal interests which can be sold to advertisers.

Per the exchange below, Clay Haynes, who was featured in part one of the Twitter exposé, admitted in a January 6, 2018 meeting that Twitter has hired hundreds employees with the express purpose of looking at these “d*ck pics,” stating:

“There’s teams dedicated to it. I mean, we’re talking, we’re talking three or four… at least, three or four hundred people… Yes, they’re paid to look at d*ck pics.”

“I’ve seen way more penises than I’ve ever wanted to see in my life.”

“That’s, yeah… You know, actually… This sounds horrible, but I’m actually glad and fortunate it’s just dicks, it’s just blow job pictures, it’s just that type of stuff.”

Meanwhile, Pranay Singh, a Direct Messaging Engineer for Twitter corroborated Haynes claims and even joked about using someone's private messages for blackmail purposes:

“Everything you send is stored on my server… So all your sex messages and you, like, d*ck pics are on my server now…”

“All your illegitimate wives and, like, all the girls you’ve been f*cking around with, they’re are on my server now… I’m going to send it to your wife, she’s going use it in your divorce.”

“So, what happens is like, you like, write something or post pictures on line, they never go away… Because even after you send them, people are like analyzing them, to see what you are interested in, to see what you are talking about. And they sell that data.”

So, just how intrusive is Twitter?  Singh continues...

Twitter Engineer:  "So what happens is, like, when you, like, write stuff of when you post pictures online, they never go away.  Like, they're always on there."

"Even after you send them, people are analyzing them, to see what you're interested in, to see what you're talking about, and they sell that data."

PV Journalist: "They sell it to who, like advertisers?"

Twitter Engineer: "Advertisers..."

PV Journalist: "Wait, you're talking about just regular tweets or the DMs? Or both?"

Twitter Engineer: "Everything. Anything you post online..."

PV Journalist: "Wow. So even what you think is private, direct message..."

Twitter Engineer:  "Yeah, it's all analyzed."

Finally, perhaps no one summarizes this Project Veritas series better than one of Twitter's own engineers: "It is a creepy Big Brother. It’s like a level… I don’t want to say it freaks me out, but it disturbs me."

 

Comments

Full Court Lug… Jan 18, 2018 5:59 PM Permalink

Is there anyone alive yet who hasn't gotten the message loud and clear that companies like Twitter and Facebook are partisan political actors who aggressively manage what you can and can't say on their platforms? The idea that any of these companies (except maybe Gab) has any sort of commitment to free speech is a laugh riot.

verumcuibono Jan 18, 2018 6:03 PM Permalink

Apparently, Facebook users as well as Twitter users are reporting that they've been contacted by the company admins indicating that, for safety purposes and under threat of account disabling should they not comply, they must upload a self-identifying photograph for the company to "process", "use for identification", (store for all of eternity and god knows what else), and then "immediately destroy."

Of course, not even my dog believes any of the statements about purpose or process.

But - should we expect anything less of the social intelligence agency media?

ted41776 Jan 18, 2018 6:03 PM Permalink

i'm glad this fascist platform is the one chosen by every local, state, and federal government agency as the official public communications mechanism. way to promote freedom and democracy

BlindMonkey Jan 18, 2018 6:06 PM Permalink

Oppressive govs like the US and Israel?

 

(Imma just throw that out there first and then read the article.)

edit: yeah.  I have zero faith this is limited to China and Iran. 

Davidduke2000 Jan 18, 2018 6:21 PM Permalink

these public companies cannot block anybody is the us or Canada and can be easily sued, but people prefer not to sue them thinking these companies are private but they are not, they are public, they cannot discriminate against some of the users. for people who are blocked or kicked out, go to small claims and ask for the maximum limit, some states or provinces can go as high $20,000.

Dilluminati Jan 18, 2018 6:38 PM Permalink

Funny, no matter what outrage China and other totalitarian regimes get a pass and the hate America first crowd howls.  sad but sort of funny also, these people should learn to love the sweet taste of shit as it is on menu for them...

ReturnOfDaMac Dilluminati Jan 18, 2018 6:51 PM Permalink

Pardon me, but I don't see China running around the world screaming that they are the "Land of the Free and Home of Brave".

Nor do I see China bringing democracy to her neighbors one bombing at a time.  I also don't see China screaming human rights at everybody while unarmed citizens are shot in the back while running away from officers who then murder them 'cause they was scurred for their life. 

So yea, folks do have some points here.  It ain't "hate America", its more like "be who you claim to be or just STFU"

In reply to by Dilluminati

my new username Jan 18, 2018 9:47 PM Permalink

Gmail - every single line that you send and receive is scanned, stored, analyzed and sold. Send an email via Gmail, mentioning, say "I want to buy a new pickup truck".

You will get spam into your other email accounts, your browser will show truck ads.

So just think what the CIA now knows about you, from Facebook, Google, Twitter, Snapchat and Microsoft...