A brief batch of Twitter Files dropped on Friday by Matt Taibbi shows that staff of House Democrat Adam Schiff were in frequent communication with Twitter to demand the removal of content from the platform. Documents show that the DNC and Schiff made requests to remove a “Peter Douche” parody photo of Joe Biden after President Donald Trump retweeted the photo.
Twitter refused to remove the photo, with Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth saying that it had obvious “humorous intent” and that “any reasonable observer” could tell that the photo was edited.
Sloppy Joe is trending. I wonder if it's because of this. You can tell it's a deep fake because Jill Biden isn't covering for him. pic.twitter.com/LMzx7fpMaP
— Dr. Wen Leans Right – Parody of a Parody (@SilERabbit) April 26, 2020
Schiff’s staff did not lay off, however, claiming that there was a “slippery slope concern” to be had.
Taibbi wrote that even when Twitter did not suspend accounts, they would often act against accounts. “Schiff’s office repeatedly complained about “QAnon related activity” that were often tweeting about other matters, like the identity of the Ukraine “whistleblower” or the Steele dossier.
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1613932031142133761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1613932031142133761%7Ctwgr%5Eefc2956c1a5539bd6b64ae2931d8938391a7e8df%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthepostmillennial.com%2Fbreaking-adam-schiff-continuously-demanded-twitter-ban-censor-suppress-criticism-of-self-staff-biden-twitter-files
“Schiff’s office had a concern about “deamplification,” though: it might make it harder for law enforcement to track the offending Tweeters,” Taibbi wrote.
Previous Twitter Files by Taibbi showed that Schiff’s office sent several communications to Twitter. November 2020, California Congressman Adam Schiff reached out to Twitter to ask them to specifically ban journalist Paul Sperry. Schiff alleged that Sperry, who is an investigative reporter for Real Clear Investigations, had “repeatedly promoted false QAnon conspiracies and harassed [name redacted.]”
This reinforces previous Twitter File drops that showed that Schiff lobbied the big tech platform to ban journalists and even ideas.
