First Amendment
The Alex Berenson Twitter Files
Alex Berenson, who sued to get back onto Twitter last year, now can reveal that Twitter’s legal department was not confident of prevailing.
Two days ago, for the first time, a Twitter Files journalist released a thread concerning … himself. Alex Berenson suffered a ban in the summer of 2021, and sued Twitter, alleging breach of contract. Twitter settled last year and restored the account. Now, for the first time, he reveals internal memoranda and other documents from Twitter’s own lawyers, discussing his case. Those discussions revealed that Twitter’s legal department very much feared that they would lose.
Alex Berenson got banned because…
In the summer of 2021, shortly after the COVID vaccines became available, Alex Berenson sounded an alarm about them.
In the years since, many reputable epidemiologists have had to bear out almost every statement he made. But back then, Twitter was in the grip of its original censorship regime, and he had challenged the narrative. Which was one thing Twitter could not then tolerate – hence the ban.
Twitter settled the case of Berenson v. Twitter, apparently to avoid pre-trial discovery. Jay Bhattacharya, who of course has his own lawsuit pending against the Biden administration, shared these insights:
In answer to that last recommendation, Berenson suggested Elon Musk, as the new owner, should release the documents himself.
He also clarified that his difficulties are with the old Twitter legal team – including the infamous Jim Baker.
Once Elon Musk realized the sort of man Jim Baker was, he fired him. This happened after the release of the first Twitter files installment. Thereafter, further releases were far more informative. (Baker’s name also figures prominently in the Durham Report.)
Shortly after dropping the thread, Alex Berenson speculated that the legacy or “elite” media would never want to cover it.
The thread
Herewith the twenty-nine-tweet thread, as the odd numbers:
Worth noting is that Twitter, shortly after Elon Musk took it over, abruptly rescinded its COVID Medical Misinformation Policy.
In reaction, several users expressed their good wishes. One referred to the case of Jamie Foxx, an actor now “partially paralyzed and blind” from a likely vaccine injury.
Two other users discussed possible manipulation at other tech companies. For example, Google is known to have its human staff interfere with its algorithm from time to time.
Analysis
Twitter’s treatment of Alex Berenson was, unfortunately, typical of its treatment of anyone who questioned the COVID narrative. (And other narratives besides.) What is not typical is that Berenson fought back and scored at least a partial victory. The revelations of the past forty-eight hours show that Twitter was on unsound ground with its ban. They knew it, or they would not have settled. One wonders how many other users could have broken the censorship regime even before Elon Musk bought the platform. How if all those others had filed their own lawsuits – or banded together to file a class action?
As Alex Berenson indicates, most of the documentary evidence of the motives for their treatment of him remains hidden. It will be left to Elon Musk to decide to un-hide it.
Sadly, Twitter has troublemakers on its Trust and Safety staff even today. This became abundantly clear when, also on June 1, Twitter canceled its plan to premiere Matt Walsh’s documentary, What is a Woman. The alleged grounds were two instances of “misgendering” and refusing to use “preferred” third-person singular personal pronouns. Jeremy D. Boreing of The Daily Wire protested the cancellation.
Elon Musk found out about this – and reversed it, and apologized to Boreing.
One of those “people” was Ella Irwin, the head of Trust and Safety – whom Musk fired. Eventually Musk completed the censorship reversal, then promoted the film directly.
And to resolve any doubts as to his opinion, he said this:
Whither Alex Berenson?
Happily, Alex Berenson remains. But this accountholder’s story illustrates an important point: freedom isn’t free. Those who want people to respect their liberty, must fight for it. Those who fight, win that much more liberty for the rest of us. CNAV hopes that Berenson’s example will inspire others – especially since we now know that Twitter could not justify most of its censorship decisions.
Furthermore, Alex Berenson will likely prevail against the government, just as Jay Bhattacharya and his fellow plaintiffs in Missouri v. Biden will. As Justice Clarence Thomas said: even a private actor, who acts on the State’s orders, becomes a State actor.
Terry A. Hurlbut has been a student of politics, philosophy, and science for more than 35 years. He is a graduate of Yale College and has served as a physician-level laboratory administrator in a 250-bed community hospital. He also is a serious student of the Bible, is conversant in its two primary original languages, and has followed the creation-science movement closely since 1993.
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