If you cant compete, cheat: Twitters shadow-banning of RT & other state-linked media proves the US narrative doesnt measure up – RT

With less than three months before US elections, Twitter has all but memory-holed RT and other state-run media even searching their handles draws a blank. For a supposedly free-market country, the US sure hates competition.

The official Twitter accounts for RT, Xinhua, and other media outlets owned by certain governments the US doesnt like are being pushed into the shadows, confirming that Twitter is getting serious about its role as one of the chief enforcers of US informational supremacy. But deploying the memory-hole against Washingtons rivals is tacitly admitting that the same informational supremacy would be doomed without such heavy-handed censorship.

Not only will Twitter refuse to auto-complete searches for the official accounts of RT, Sputnik, Xinhua, Global Times, and a handful of other outlets owned by Russia and China typing in their handles with the @ symbol yields no results for users who dont already follow these accounts. The platform has essentially made it impossible for the average Twitter user to accidentally stumble across their posts.

Turning off the hide sensitive content function in search settings allows state media accounts to surface under people if their handle is searched exactly, with the @ symbol tagged with the state-affiliated media warning Twitter has casually referred to as an election label. But posts from these outlets remain missing everywhere but in their own feeds. Running the accounts through Shadowban.eu confirms theyre subject to a search suggestion ban.

While Twitter announced earlier this month that it would remove state-run media accounts from any recommended screens, including the home screen, notifications, and search, the new policys wording left room for interpretation. Even employees at some of these organizations thought perhaps naively that Twitter wouldnt go so far as to block searches for RT from turning up, well, RT.

Twitter explained its failure to slap a scarlet letter on the BBC, NPR, or Voice of America all state-run media organizations by claiming these outfits maintained some degree of editorial independence. While many at the time called this out as the egregious double standard it was, that was before learning how deeply Twitter intended to bury its victims.

While Twitter theoretically has a financial responsibility to its shareholders that would be best served by giving customers what they want, the company appears to have long since decided the only customers who matter are Uncle Sam and his client states. Though its own links with empire are not quite as egregious as, say, Facebooks election integrity partnership with infamous pro-war think tank the Atlantic Council, one of Twitters highest-ranking European employees works for the UKs 77th Brigade propaganda outfit, and another staffer, who worked on Democratic VP candidate Kamala Harriss presidential campaign, is suspected of manipulating trending topics to bolster her chances at the White House. Representatives from the company have repeatedly met with US intelligence agencies to secure the 2020 elections.

The suppression of enemy state-run media is just one part of a sweeping multi-platform crackdown on information that runs contrary to the US establishment, from medical doctors recommending hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the novel coronavirus to positive or even neutral statements about murdered Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. Even the ramblings of QAnon conspiracy theorists who believe Trump is just pretendingto wallow in the swamp he promised to drain, playing 4D chess to psych out his enemies, are now considered too dangerous for Twitter and Facebook, while the mere existence of Chinese-owned TikTok a super-popular social platform not under US control has so infuriated the Trump administration that the president is trying to buy it (or, if that fails, ban it).

If Washington can only win the battle for hearts and minds by silencing its competitors, the problem isnt with Russian or Chinese state media its with the sloppy quality of US propaganda and its growing divergence from reality. Selling a bankrupt nation whose citizens are forever at each others throats as a shining city on a hill and glowing example to the worlds democracies is a tall order, but its much easier to convince someone the sky is green when they dont have any windows to look out of.

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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If you cant compete, cheat: Twitters shadow-banning of RT & other state-linked media proves the US narrative doesnt measure up - RT