#Twitter exec says company taking crackdown on conspiracy theorists ‘global’

Footage released Monday shows a top Twitter executive discussing the company’s recent crackdown on accounts that push conspiracy theories, calling it a “global” initiative.

Vijaya Gadde’s comments to employees were leaked to the right-wing activist group Project Veritas, and a Twitter spokesperson confirmed the video is authentic.

“Beyond de-amplification, we are going to — conspiracy theories — we are going to be permanently suspending those accounts,” Gadde says in the clip.

The statements appeared to be related to Twitter’s massive purge of 70,000 QAnon-related accounts in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6 riot in Washington, DC.

Around the world, “we’ve seen violence unfold as a result of either misleading information or coded rhetoric,” Gadde told staffers.

“So a lot of our learning here has come from other markets. So in that sense, we do feel like it is — this is our global approach.”

She added: “We need to be very focused on being able to enforce any of these policies or enforcement decisions we make at scale.”  

“I think long-term we want to be in terms of building trust and enforcing policies consistently and providing adamant notice before we take a very aggressive step like a permanent suspension,” Gadde said.

In an unprecedented move, the social media giant also permanently banned President Trump from the platform two days after the Capitol siege “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

“Whether we believe Trump’s tweets are inciting violence and having real-world harm. I think that we’ve seen in fact, they are,” Gadde said in the video.

In a clip published by Project Veritas last week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey warned staffers that the crackdown will be “much bigger” than just banning Trump’s account.

“We are focused on one account right now, but this is going to be much bigger than just one account, and it’s going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week, and the next few weeks, and go on beyond the inauguration,” Dorsey said.

A Twitter spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of both clips.

“The remarks shown in the video were delivered to our more than 5,400 employees and are nearly the same words Jack shared in a recent Tweet Thread offering context around and reflections on our work to protect the conversation in recent weeks,” the spokesperson said.

Last week, Dorsey explained Twitter’s decision in banning Trump in a lengthy thread.

“I believe this was the right decision for Twitter,” he tweeted. “We faced an extraordinary and untenable circumstance, forcing us to focus all of our actions on public safety. Offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real, and what drives our policy and enforcement above all.”