Just like #PodestaEmails? Project Veritas says Twitter throttling #ExposeCNN

Though the recordings from inside CNN by Project Veritas are generating lots of interest, the hashtag is not auto-completing or showing up as trending on Twitter. But if it really is being throttled, it wouldn’t be the first time.

The conservative gadflies at Veritas, best known for making undercover videos of mainstream media figures saying things they’d rather keep private, have released a flurry of videos from inside CNN since Monday with the help of a whistleblower technician who worked for the network. The recordings purport to show CNN as being obsessed with resisting President Donald Trump.

Even before the first video dropped, however, Veritas director James O’Keefe made a point of showing how the hashtag #ExposeCNN is not being allowed to trend or auto-complete on Twitter, despite being vastly more popular than others suggested in its stead.

By Tuesday afternoon, more anecdotal evidence began coming in from other Twitter users. One shared a screenshot of a search returning no results. 

Another screenshot showed Twitter’s suggested auto-completions for #Expose, with none of the suggestions being “CNN.”

Twitter has not officially commented on the allegations. But the company has admitted in the past to hiding certain hashtags – such as those accompanying the release of DNC documents in July 2016, and Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s emails in October that year. 

Testifying under oath before the Senate Intelligence Committee in November 2017, Twitter’s acting general counsel Sean Edgett revealed that the platform worked to stop the #PodestaEmails and #DNCLeaks hashtags from reaching users, using automated detection systems to hide them from searches. 

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