Ex-Twitter Engineer Admits Company Colludes With Oppressive Governments To Ban Users | Zero Hedge
Description: PV Journalist: Normally does Twitter, like, say if someone in Iran calls and is, like, ‘Hey, in our country we need these people banned so that they’re not seen?Miranda: Yeah. We do that a lot for China...

Skip to main content

## Senate Passes Warrantless Spying Reauthorization Bill

by Elizabeth Lea Vos - Jan 18, 2018 4:49 pm

The Senate voted to pass the extremely controversial bill which would reauthorize FISA, and which many claim would result in increased warrantless spying powers for an already grotesquely powerful NSA.

## Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are just the Beanie Babies of the moment

by Vitaliy Katsenelson - Jan 18, 2018 5:05 pm

It is hard to observe the Bitcoin mania and not experience the feeling that you’ve seen this movie before and know how it will end.

## Central Banks Are Going to Have to "Pull the Plug" on Stocks

by Phoenix Capita… - Jan 18, 2018 10:46 am

Central Bank cannot risk blowing up this debt bomb. So they will be forced to “pull the plug” on liquidity.

# Ex-Twitter Engineer Admits Company Colludes With Oppressive Governments To Ban Users

A former Twitter engineer intimated that the social media giant acts on requests from foreign governments to ban users, reveals undercover footage from Project Veritas released Wednesday as part of a series of covert stings on the company revealing atrocious abuses of privacy by Twitter employees.

Carefully choosing his words, former Twitter engineer Conrado Mirando conveys to an undercover Project Veritas journalist that the company works with countries such as China and Iran to censor users upon request.

In one segment of the video, the undercover journalist asks “Does the Chinese government or anybody, like, do you think they call Twitter and be, like, ‘You need to ban anyone that’s on Twitter that’s from China’?”

Miranda pauses, smiles, and coyly says "I cannot disclose that information."

“What? Why?” the journalist asks, to which Miranda repeats his statement, neither confirming nor denying the practice.

“That’s crazy,” she replies, adding “So, that means yes?”

Miranda replies, smiling: “I did not say that.”

At another point in the discussion, Miranda finally discloses that Twitter acts on requests from foreign governments.

> PV Journalist: Normally does Twitter, like, say if someone in Iran calls and is, like, ‘Hey, in our country we need these people banned so that they’re not seen?

> Miranda: Yeah

> PV Journalist: That happens?

> Miranda: Yeah. We do that a lot for China... We are actually under constant attack from the Chinese. Like, both Chinese hackers, like, ‘good guys’ and from Chinese government.

> PV Journalist: Wow

> Miranda: Because sometimes they ask us to take down an account, and we don’t take it down, because we’re, like, at the end of all it, like, anybody say... And then the Chinese government, like, starts to try and hack us, and sometimes they point someone, or like yeah, we actually violated blah, blah, blah. And then, the ‘good guys’ from China start attacking us. It’s a mess.”

On the topic of free speech, the Project Veritas journalist asks Miranda "So, Twitter doesn’t necessarily offer free speech around the world?" to which Miranda replies: No.

(h/t thefederalist)

As we reported last week, Project Veritas and James O'Keefe dropped the first two parts of their new undercover series which exposed rampant political bias and generally creepy behavior at Twitter. We covered both of them here:

> O'Keefe Strikes Again: Twitter Engineer Admits Willingness To Share Trump DMs Without A Warrant

> Project Veritas Exposes Twitter "Shadow Banning", Blocking Opposing Views

Then on Monday, O'Keefe dropped part 3 of the series which takes the Twitter creepiness to a whole new level. Among other things, four Twitter engineers openly talk about a team of 300-400 people working at Twitter whose sole role is to review your "private" direct messages to create a more complete profile of your personal interests which can be sold to advertisers.

Per the exchange below, Clay Haynes, who was featured in part one of the Twitter exposé, admitted in a January 6, 2018 meeting that Twitter has hired hundreds employees with the express purpose of looking at these “d*ck pics,” stating:

> “There’s teams dedicated to it. I mean, we’re talking, we’re talking three or four… at least, three or four hundred people… Yes, they’re paid to look at d*ck pics.”

> “I’ve seen way more penises than I’ve ever wanted to see in my life.”

> “That’s, yeah… You know, actually… This sounds horrible, but I’m actually glad and fortunate it’s just dicks, it’s just blow job pictures, it’s just that type of stuff.”

Meanwhile, Pranay Singh, a Direct Messaging Engineer for Twitter corroborated Haynes claims and even joked about using someone's private messages for blackmail purposes:

> “Everything you send is stored on my server… So all your sex messages and you, like, d*ck pics are on my server now…”

> “All your illegitimate wives and, like, all the girls you’ve been f*cking around with, they’re are on my server now… I’m going to send it to your wife, she’s going use it in your divorce.”

> “So, what happens is like, you like, write something or post pictures on line, they never go away… Because even after you send them, people are like analyzing them, to see what you are interested in, to see what you are talking about. And they sell that data.”

> BREAKING: HUNDREDS of Twitter Employees Paid to View "Everything You Post Online" Including Private "Sex Messages"
> FULL VIDEO: https://t.co/73Ub3LjjU2 pic.twitter.com/YZaS9GrJTv

> — James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) January 15, 2018

So, just how intrusive is Twitter? Singh continues...

> Twitter Engineer: "So what happens is, like, when you, like, write stuff of when you post pictures online, they never go away. Like, they're always on there."

> "Even after you send them, people are analyzing them, to see what you're interested in, to see what you're talking about, and they sell that data."

> PV Journalist: "They sell it to who, like advertisers?"

> Twitter Engineer: "Advertisers..."

> PV Journalist: "Wait, you're talking about just regular tweets or the DMs? Or both?"

> Twitter Engineer: "Everything. Anything you post online..."

> PV Journalist: "Wow. So even what you think is private, direct message..."

> Twitter Engineer: "Yeah, it's all analyzed."

Finally, perhaps no one summarizes this Project Veritas series better than one of Twitter's own engineers: "It is a creepy Big Brother. It’s like a level… I don’t want to say it freaks me out, but it disturbs me."

Tags
Social Media & Networking

## Comments

Vote up!
11
Vote down!
0
ReturnOfDaMac Jan 18, 2018 5:57 PM Permalink

Suprise! The state is deep, and don't believe for a minute that they don't do the same thing here.

Vote up!
3
Vote down!
0
takeaction ReturnOfDaMac Jan 18, 2018 6:17 PM Permalink

Is it that fucking hard to create a Facebook or Twitter Copy with TRUE FREEDOM away from all of this shit?

Anything goes....Guaranteed everything encrypted.....game on. No political partisanship, no SJW's getting involved?

Why am I so smart?

Shark Tank...here I come.

In reply to Suprise! They state is deep… by ReturnOfDaMac

Vote up!
1
Vote down!
0
aldousd takeaction Jan 18, 2018 6:25 PM Permalink

No. It's not possible. At least not without charging users money to use it. That sale of your data is how they make money, and even twitter isn't making any actual profit yet with billions of users. So... Nope.

In reply to Is it that fucking hard to… by takeaction

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
auricle aldousd Jan 18, 2018 6:27 PM Permalink

The jig is up with CIA twitter. It will be replaced by Distributed Applications on Distributed Ledger technology. Thank God!

In reply to No. It's not possible. At… by aldousd

Vote up!
2
Vote down!
0
stizazz auricle Jan 18, 2018 6:36 PM Permalink

A Palestinian teen was arrested by the Israhellis, and the same day her TWITTER account was deleted. http://bit.ly/2FTrm56

A land thief (aka settler) killed a Palestinian baby, yet he kept his Twitter account.

So yep! Twitter colludes with tyrannical regimes like the Apartheid state of Israhell.

In reply to The jig is up with CIA… by auricle

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
Oliver Klozoff aldousd Jan 18, 2018 8:21 PM Permalink

So,

How does tyler make money?

In reply to No. It's not possible. At… by aldousd

Vote up!
9
Vote down!
0
InjectTheVenom Jan 18, 2018 5:58 PM Permalink

Fuck Twitter.

Fuck Fakebook.

Fuck Google.

Sincerely,

The World.

Vote up!
2
Vote down!
0
Akzed InjectTheVenom Jan 18, 2018 6:36 PM Permalink

Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud owns (or owned) more Twitter than Jack Dorsey

https://qz.com/519388/this-saudi-prince-now-owns-more-of-twitter-than-j…

Now he's in jail. Huh.

#qanon

In reply to f by InjectTheVenom

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
MozartIII Akzed Jan 18, 2018 6:49 PM Permalink

The mightily informed Akzed has spoken!!

In reply to Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin… by Akzed

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
Akzed MozartIII Jan 18, 2018 7:08 PM Permalink

Does this cloth smell like chloroform to you...?

In reply to The mightily informed Akzed… by MozartIII

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
fishwharf Akzed Jan 18, 2018 9:07 PM Permalink

Where he belongs.

In reply to Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin… by Akzed

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
pc_babe InjectTheVenom Jan 18, 2018 7:37 PM Permalink

Its just business

In reply to f by InjectTheVenom

Vote up!
10
Vote down!
2
Full Court Lug… Jan 18, 2018 5:59 PM Permalink

Is there anyone alive yet who hasn't gotten the message loud and clear that companies like Twitter and Facebook are partisan political actors who aggressively manage what you can and can't say on their platforms? The idea that any of these companies (except maybe Gab) has any sort of commitment to free speech is a laugh riot.

Vote up!
1
Vote down!
0
radio man Full Court Lug… Jan 18, 2018 6:14 PM Permalink

Twitter is making no money. A bad business model on all fronts, but they've managed to coral a fine flock of sheeple.

In reply to Is there anyone alive yet… by Full Court Lug…

Vote up!
1
Vote down!
0
MozartIII Full Court Lug… Jan 18, 2018 6:19 PM Permalink

If you're not banned, you're villainized or ridiculed by gov paid trolls. That Cass Sunstein guy, and the plan he gave to the left, is quite the fuck!

In reply to Is there anyone alive yet… by Full Court Lug…

Vote up!
13
Vote down!
0
khnum Jan 18, 2018 6:00 PM Permalink

If you're not paying for it then you are the product being sold

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
ReturnOfDaMac khnum Jan 18, 2018 6:11 PM Permalink

Please, post it again. It needs repeat'n.

In reply to If your not paying for it… by khnum

Vote up!
3
Vote down!
0
Peacefulwarrior Jan 18, 2018 6:00 PM Permalink

You live in the Fishbowl, You die in the Fishbowl

Vote up!
4
Vote down!
0
johnnycanuck Jan 18, 2018 6:01 PM Permalink

Not just twitter and not just in China. There was a big story just the other day about the US and Israel meeting with Zuckerberg and dictating which accounts they wanted deleted. According to the story, Zuck was most cooperative. Think I saw that at the Intercept.

Edit

Facebook Says It Is Deleting Accounts at the Direction of the U.S. and Israeli Governments

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
verumcuibono Jan 18, 2018 6:03 PM Permalink

Apparently, Facebook users as well as Twitter users are reporting that they've been contacted by the company admins indicating that, for safety purposes and under threat of account disabling should they not comply, they must upload a self-identifying photograph for the company to "process", "use for identification", (store for all of eternity and god knows what else), and then "immediately destroy."

Of course, not even my dog believes any of the statements about purpose or process.

But - should we expect anything less of the social intelligence agency media?

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
khnum verumcuibono Jan 18, 2018 6:10 PM Permalink

Interesting a facial recognition system for social media thats about where Id delete my account

In reply to Apparently, Facebook users… by verumcuibono

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
RAT005 verumcuibono Jan 18, 2018 6:18 PM Permalink

Airbnb did this a long time ago for users. I avoid the other platforms but use this one.

In reply to Apparently, Facebook users… by verumcuibono

Vote up!
1
Vote down!
0
ted41776 Jan 18, 2018 6:03 PM Permalink

i'm glad this fascist platform is the one chosen by every local, state, and federal government agency as the official public communications mechanism. way to promote freedom and democracy

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
radio man Jan 18, 2018 6:05 PM Permalink

Well save me the price of a laxative.

Vote up!
2
Vote down!
1
BlindMonkey Jan 18, 2018 6:06 PM Permalink

Oppressive govs like the US and Israel?

(Imma just throw that out there first and then read the article.)

edit: yeah. I have zero faith this is limited to China and Iran.

Vote up!
1
Vote down!
0
VWAndy Jan 18, 2018 6:11 PM Permalink

As the curtain is slowly pulled away.

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
khnum VWAndy Jan 18, 2018 6:33 PM Permalink

Where's this end your name on a no fly list for something you said on social media?

In reply to As the curtain is slowly… by VWAndy

Vote up!
1
Vote down!
0
HRH of Aquitaine 2.0 Jan 18, 2018 6:19 PM Permalink

Twatter, supporting the Communist Chinese and shutting down conservative American voices.

Is there anything else you need to know about these Marxists? Good. Neither do I.

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
Unreconstructe… Jan 18, 2018 6:20 PM Permalink

What a Stage 5 creeper this guy is!

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
Davidduke2000 Jan 18, 2018 6:21 PM Permalink

these public companies cannot block anybody is the us or Canada and can be easily sued, but people prefer not to sue them thinking these companies are private but they are not, they are public, they cannot discriminate against some of the users. for people who are blocked or kicked out, go to small claims and ask for the maximum limit, some states or provinces can go as high $20,000.

Vote up!
1
Vote down!
0
Pendolino Jan 18, 2018 6:23 PM Permalink

Like, Twitter just sounds so like, you know, whatever and such.

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
FlKeysFisherman Jan 18, 2018 6:38 PM Permalink

If you like your twitter account you can keep...oops it's gone.

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
1
Dilluminati Jan 18, 2018 6:38 PM Permalink

Funny, no matter what outrage China and other totalitarian regimes get a pass and the hate America first crowd howls. sad but sort of funny also, these people should learn to love the sweet taste of shit as it is on menu for them...

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
ReturnOfDaMac Dilluminati Jan 18, 2018 6:51 PM Permalink

Pardon me, but I don't see China running around the world screaming that they are the "Land of the Free and Home of Brave".

Nor do I see China bringing democracy to her neighbors one bombing at a time. I also don't see China screaming human rights at everybody while unarmed citizens are shot in the back while running away from officers who then murder them 'cause they was scurred for their life.

So yea, folks do have some points here. It ain't "hate America", its more like "be who you claim to be or just STFU"

In reply to Funny, no matter what… by Dilluminati

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
Drop-Hammer Jan 18, 2018 7:28 PM Permalink

The jews are behind all tech/media in the U.S. The kikes will make deals with Satan if it makes them money.

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
ReturnOfDaMac Drop-Hammer Jan 18, 2018 8:18 PM Permalink

Yo Hammer, so will I, even buy squid Inc every quarter!

In reply to The jews are behind all tech… by Drop-Hammer

Vote up!
0
Vote down!
0
my new username Jan 18, 2018 9:47 PM Permalink

Gmail - every single line that you send and receive is scanned, stored, analyzed and sold. Send an email via Gmail, mentioning, say "I want to buy a new pickup truck".

You will get spam into your other email accounts, your browser will show truck ads.

So just think what the CIA now knows about you, from Facebook, Google, Twitter, Snapchat and Microsoft...

## User login

Username
Password

- Create new account
- Reset your password

## New Comments

Loading...

## Today's Top Stories

Loading...

## Contact Information

Tips: tips@zerohedge.com

General: info@zerohedge.com

Legal: legal@zerohedge.com

Advertising: ads@zerohedge.com

Abuse/Complaints: abuse@zerohedge.com

Advertise With Us

## Suggested Reading

Make sure to read our "How To [Read/Tip Off] Zero Hedge Without Attracting The Interest Of [Human Resources/The Treasury/Black Helicopters]" Guide

It would be very wise of you to study our disclaimer, our privacy policy and our (non)policy on conflicts / full disclosure. Here's our Cookie Policy.

How to report offensive comments

Notice on Racial Discrimination.