Political commentator and podcaster Dave Rubin said he will meet with Twitter engineers today regarding continued censorship and shadow ban of larger accounts.
Rubin’s meeting with Twitter engineers follows a myriad of users reporting inconsistent engagement and visibility on the platform.
“If you hit say 50 big accounts with a label so they couldn’t see each other, how that would crush views through the system,” Rubin wrote.
“So for example, I never see [Megyn Kelly], if she never saw [Tim Pool], if he never saw [Bret Weinstein]…”
One thing I will bring up to Twitter engineers today…
If you hit say 50 big accounts with a label so they couldn’t see each other, how that would crush views through the system. So for example, I never see @megynkelly, if she never saw @Timcast, if he never saw @BretWeinstein…
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) February 1, 2023
“Point is you don’t need to hit millions of accounts with shadow bans or tricks. You could take out entire swaths of Twitter by making sure certain people don’t see other people,” Rubin said. “And then if [Bret Weinstein] doesn’t see [Buck Sexton] and Buck doesn’t see [Christina Pushaw] etc…”
“Or if somehow internally they are able to stop your core audience from seeing you. That also would explain drop in engagement,” he continued. “[Elon Musk] is looking into everything but I’ll bring these ideas up specifically…”
Or if somehow internally they are able to stop your core audience from seeing you. That also would explain drop in engagement. @elonmusk is looking into everything but I’ll bring these ideas up specifically…
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) February 1, 2023
Earlier this week, Twitter users en masse restricted their accounts in a viral trend which claimed engagement among followers increased as accounts were set to “private.”
The extent of improved visibility is unclear, though users with restricted accounts reported general improvement in engagement.
Twitter owner Elon Musk announced he was participating in the trend in an early Wednesday post.
“Made my account private until tomorrow morning to test whether you see my private tweets more than my public ones,” Musk wrote.
The tech billionaire acknowledged a decrease in overall engagement, noting “something is wrong.”
Last week, Rubin met with Musk and Twitter engineers regarding decreased engagement. Rubin said Musk referred to Twitter as a “fractal rube Goldberg machine” and referred to the platform’s code as a chain reaction-type machine designed to perform simple tasks in impractical and complicated ways. Musk further likened the platform to a Jenga tower.
“One wrong move the whole thing collapses,” Rubin said. “They’re working nonstop, and both times I met him were after midnight.”
Rubin noted recent Twitter changes, including the incorporation of a “for you” tab, have impacted engagement for accounts which received NSFA tags.
“Twitter used to hide us with shadow bans, search bans, etc … now they’re hiding us through aggressive algorithms where we can’t find anyone,” said one user.
The podcaster responded to the user defending Musk’s handling of Twitter saying, “it’s just not that simple.”
“[Elon Musk] is trying to fix it. Give him some runway,” he said. “And I say that clearly seeing that my own reach is being crushed.”
And I say that clearly seeing that my own reach is being crushed. Everyone take a breath, they try to fix things and then other things break. Elon ain’t the enemy here…
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) February 1, 2023
“Everyone take a breath, they try to fix things and then other things break. Elon ain’t the enemy here…”
Rubin delved into tech and social media with the creation of his subscription-based Patreon competitor Locals in 2019. YouTube competitor Rumble purchased Rubin’s company in October 2021.
A few months after purchasing Locals, Rumble announced it would go public after entering a deal with global financial services firm CF Acquisition Corp. VI (CFVI). Rumble was initially valued at $2.1 billion, and current stock prices for CFVI are trading at about $10.15 per share.
