T.A. Frank

Writer-at-Large, Vanity Fair
[email protected]

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

I covered Mike Pence, who is running as a 2003 conservative in 2023.
https://t.co/BACF1qh3QD

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

@HansMahncke Thank you Hans!

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

@ggreenwald @davidmirandario I am so sorry for your family's loss.

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

Excellent.

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

@MichaelMcGough3 Already is: https://t.co/2R2HcrgG2V

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

But the main point is that the very image of these censors musing over their rules like judges in a court is a distortion of what was going on. Judges operate under restraints. Twitter had no such restraints. Low-level bureaucratic whims ruled the day.

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

In an odd way, the revelations from the Twitter Files make the censors look better than they deserve. We see them debate about applying the rules to various troublesome users, as if, despite their biases, the censors made a habit of close scrutiny and careful consideration.

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

This made accounts on the right most susceptible to the ire of the bureaucrats, but you didn't have to be on the right. Plenty of accounts on the traditional left got kicked off as well, especially if they often inveighed against U.S. foreign policy or Covid policy.

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

I fear it may be necessary to subject Surowiecki to L3 deamplification.

[James Surowiecki @JamesSurowiecki]

The idea that it was somehow problematic for Twitter to try to limit the reach of Trump's many outright lies, both before and especially after the election, is ludicrous. He was not making political statements. He was lying, in order to manipulate public opinion.

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

@RaniaKhalek @aaronjmate @elonmusk @DavidSacks @bariweiss Plenty of left accounts were banned, too. Twitter's practice was to stifle dissent that seemed too threatening to the liberal establishment. That's going to net more people on the right, but not only on the right.

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

It is certainly one thing to hate about the term. But "hate most" about it? I'd nominate its use as a tool to erode fundamental liberties.

[Josh Barro @jbarro]

This is what I hate most about the “misinformation” frame: it reinforces liberals’ tendency to assume that everyone naturally agrees with them and if anyone votes otherwise it must be because they were tricked.

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

@HansMahncke @ClimateAudit Thank you, Hans!

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

@rpezer1 Did you read the paragraph?

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

@CathyYoung63 “La République n'a pas besoin de savants.”

[T.A. Frank @tafrank]

What went wrong with Seattle? I put together a cop's-eye view of the story:

https://t.co/lbSfm0yTeU

[Marc Rebillet’s Mustache @RebilletStache]

@JamesSurowiecki @SkipSchweiss How did you decide?