Twitter Reportedly Has A ‘Search Blacklist’ And ‘Trends Blacklist’

A purported screenshot of the internal tool accessed by hackers via a Twitter employee’s account revealed that the platform has a “search blacklist” and “trends blacklist” option, Vice News reported. As noted by Breitbart, the company — which has been accused of bias many times in the past — has yet to address the alleged photo of the console.

“Twitter has yet to publicly acknowledge the existence of this console, despite the fact that it has been leaked by hackers,” the publication wrote. “Nor has it responded to Breitbart News‘ request for an explanation as to what the search and trends blacklists are, what their function is, and what accounts they have been applied to.”

According to the website, the tags — if used to hide certain content — would contradict the company’s claim that it does not “covertly suppress” its users. Nevertheless, a Twitter spokesman appeared to contradict this claim.

“For those asking, we’ve always been clear that not all Tweets or accounts can appear in Trends or search,” the individual tweeted.

The hack was allegedly conducted by bribing a Twitter worker with $2,000 for their account, Vice reported. From here, the scammers took control of many prominent profiles, including Elon Musk, Barack Obama, and Bill Gates, and promoted a Bitcoin scam. Reports suggest that the individuals behind the grift earned as much as $110,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

“The hack also reveals that Twitter employees have the ability to access the accounts of world leaders and post on their behalf,” Breitbart noted.

According to the publication, Twitter has yet to reveal how many of its workers have such power.

The security of Twitter also came under scrutiny back in 2017 when a low-level employee temporarily deleted Donald Trump’s account. However, the individual claimed that the deletion was a mistake.

Conservatives have long accused social media platforms like Twitter of bias against people with right-wing political beliefs; Trump himself has taken aim at the company and echoed such calls. But according to The Verge, the preference on social platforms is not against conservatives but toward “polarization.” As the publication noted, one study for Media Matters for America found that right-leaning Facebook pages earned more weekly interactions than left-leaning pages over a 37-week period. In addition, partisan pages received more interactions than those with no political alignment.

As The Inquisitr reported, Trump previously expressed interest in creating a panel to investigate the alleged anti-conservative bias in social media. The president’s administration is also allegedly seeking to push the Federal Election Commission Federal Communications Commission to conduct their own parallel reviews.