“In the dim and distant days before word processing, editors used to wield a blue pencil to make changes to copy. Hence the universal symbol of censorship: to ‘blue pencil’ a piece of text means to delete, bowdlerise or otherwise interfere with it. How nice to see Twitter keeping up the old traditions. If they don’t like your tweet or consider it suspect then out comes the blue pencil in digital form. Except, instead of taking away from your text, they might add to it with a message of their own. Such labels begin with a little exclamation mark in a circle and then go on to say something like ‘Get the facts about COVID-19’ or ‘This claim about election fraud is disputed.’ And then there’s the grotesque inconsistency. Consider the following tweet from the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations: ‘China is a country with multiple religions. The freedom of religious belief is well protected’ (Chinese Mission to UN, Nov. 19, 2020). ‘The freedom of belief is well protected.’ Yes, apart for the 1 million plus Muslim Uighurs in concentration camps, the ongoing oppression of Buddhism in Tibet, the ripping down of crosses from Christian Churches and the systematic persecution of any group that refuses to submit to state control. So, do we see Twitter adding any little blue messages to the barefaced lies of the Beijing regime? We do not. So there we have it: a woke corporation that speaks over President Trump, while simultaneously providing a mouthpiece for President Xi. I guess it helps having the two faces.”
“Why Won’t Twitter,” Unherd.com, Nov. 20, 2020