Twitter believed it had a less than 50 percent chance of winning a censorship lawsuit brought against the company by journalist Alex Berenson, who was banned (and later reinstated) by the platform for flouting official narratives on coronavirus. Berenson recently published internal communications that show the company worried about its censorship policies.
The assessment was made by Micah Rubbo, associate director for litigation at Twitter, who said her team “believes our chances of success at the trial level are less than 50%, although we may have slightly more success on appeal.”
ORLANDO, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES – 2022/02/24: Former New York Times reporter and COVID-19 vaccine critic Alex Berenson addresses attendees on day one of Orlando’s 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Former U.S. President Donald Trump will deliver a speech during the four-day gathering of conservatives. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Berenson was banned by the platform in August 2021, at the height of the coronavirus panic, after he criticized vaccine mandates. The journalist filed a lawsuit against Twitter soon after, which the company chose to settle out of court, restoring access to his account in the process.
The news that Twitter believed it would lose in court against the journalist was revealed by Berenson on the platform he was previously banned from, although he stressed that questions still remain about the involvement of the White House and pharmaceutical companies in his ban.
“Twitter was likely to lose Berenson v Twitter, my federal lawsuit against the company for banning me over my mRNA vaccine reporting, Twitter’s lawyers concluded after reviewing internal documents related to the ban,” reported Berenson..
3/ The documents, whose details remain secret but which the lawyers called “problematic” and “sensitive,” also show Twitter’s most senior executives disagreed over its decision to censor me in the summer of 2021.
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) June 1, 2023
“The documents, whose details remain secret but which the lawyers called ‘problematic’ and ‘sensitive,’ also show Twitter’s most senior executives disagreed over its decision to censor me in the summer of 2021.”
“The newly revealed secret debate inside Twitter’s former leadership highlights the still-unanswered question of whether Twitter banned me because it feared government or corporate retribution for allowing me to continue to publish on its site.”
6/ Exactly what the documents say is still unclear. The lawyers describe them only generally. But they troubled the lawyers so much, the lawyers advised Twitter to settle my suit rather than risk them becoming public – even if the company had to agree to most of my demands.
— Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) June 1, 2023
“That issue is central to Berenson v Biden, my new lawsuit against the White House and Pfizer for allegedly conspiring to violate my First Amendment rights by coercing Twitter to ban me. It also impacts Missouri v Biden, about broader federal social media censorship efforts.”
“Exactly what the documents say is still unclear. The lawyers describe them only generally. But they troubled the lawyers so much, the lawyers advised Twitter to settle my suit rather than risk them becoming public — even if the company had to agree to most of my demands.”
As Breitbart News previously reported, Berenson’s ban came after months of pressure from the White House for tech companies to censor critics of vaccines policies. According to previous disclosures in the Twitter Files, the social media platform was also being lobbied by the same pharmaceutical companies that had a financial incentive in silencing critics.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.