For Twitter bans, a 'lack of transparency' is a bigger issue than political bias, experts say

Twitter's decision to ban former Ontario teaching assistantLindsay Shepherd from its platform earlier this week has once again sparked accusations that the company unfairly targets people with certain viewpoints.

But the bigger issue, sayobservers, is not whether Twitter holds a political bias, butthe confusion and secrecy surrounding itsdecisions to punish someusers.

"It's not so much whether or not there's bias, it'sthat it's easy to perceive bias because of the lack of transparency and accountability on Twitter," saidFuyuki Kurasawa, an associate professorof sociology at York University.

"The broader problem is that Twitter is inconsistent and is not transparent in its decision-making processes when it comes to whom it bans," said Kurasawa, who is also director of the university'sglobal digital citizenship lab.

NikkiUsher, an associate professor at the University of IllinoisCollegeof Media, agreed it's difficult to hold Twitter to account.

"We don't really know what they're doing because all we can see is what they say theirestablished standards are.But we don't have any transparency about how they're actually going through and moderating these comments."

Shepherd, who made headlinesafter she was disciplined by Wilfrid Laurier University for showing a clip to her students of controversial professor Jordan Petersondiscussing gender-neutral pronouns, saidshe received a notice from Twitterthather account had been suspended for violating rules against hateful conduct.

She immediately appealed the suspension, and shortly after received a notice from Twitter that her account "will not be restored,"effectively banning her for life.

Although Twitter wouldn't tellShepherd how she violated their hateful conduct rules, the ban came soon aftera tweet spat she had with Jessica Yaniv, a transgender activist.

Yanivhad tweetedsome ugly remarks about Shepherd'sgenitalia, Shepherd told CBC News. At one point,Yaniv tweeted:"I heard @realDonaldTrump is building a wall inside of your uterus aka your "reproductive abnormality" hopefully the wallworks as intended."

Shepherd believes that was a reference to her septate uterus, an anomaly in the body that canlead to an increased rate of pregnancy loss.

Shepherd tweetedthat "at least I have a uterus, you ugly fat man" and also tweeted: "This is how men who don't have functional romantic relationships speak. But I guess that's kinda what you are."

Who reviews the guidelines?

Shepherd said the fact that Yaniv still has an accountisa "textbook case" of a double-standard employed by Twitter, that those within the transgender community are part of a "protected class" and can remain on the platform regardless of what they say.

"Yes I misgendered which is against the Twitter Rules. OK, fine," Shepherd said."But the thing is, what's also against the Twitter Rules is sexist insults. So technically [Yaniv]should be gone too."

Kurasawasuggested this case exemplifies the confusion aroundTwitter's rules. While Yaniv's tweets about Shepherd were "vile," he said personal insults, even about someone's medical issues,are permissible, according to the standards set by the platform.

The TwitterRules, published on the company's website,outline the reasons an account may be suspended. These includethreats of violence, targeted harassment, hateful conduct and posting graphic and sexual violence.

"The issue is not so much the guidelines," said Kurasawa. "The issue is whoare the people at Twitter who are making these decisions, interpreting those guidelines."

When a person is suspended or banned, little explanation is given, he said, meaningpeople don't understand the basis for Twitter'sdecisions and how the company has interpreted itsown rules.

AttheTED2019 conferencein Vancouver, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey would only saythat when it comes to bans, Twitter focusses on conduct versus content, CBC's Alex Migdal reported.

Twitter Canada wouldn'tcomment on individual cases like Shepherd's and referred CBC News to its Twitter Rules guidelines.

Accusation of bias

Shepherd's complaint about a double standard is oftenrepeatedby commentatorson the political right, who have accused Twitter of bias against conservatives.

Earlier this year, Republican lawmaker Devin Nunes suedthree Twitter users and Twitter itselffor defamation. In his lawsuit, Nunesclaimed that Twitter "actively censors" conservatives.

Richard Hanania, a social scientist and research fellow at Columbia University'sSaltzman Institute of War & Peace Studies, analyzed theseclaims.

Hanania compiled a list of prominent people who had been banned from Twitter. Hefoundthat of the 22 people banned, 21 had supported Donald Trump.

Acknowledging the small sample size, and that some of those who were disciplined were not exactly "innocent angels,"Hananiastill thought the results were clear: Twitter is biased against conservatives.

"Even if you assume conservatives are three times more likely to violate Twitter's terms of service ... you're still very, very unlikely to get a result that skewed even with the small sample size," he told CBC News.

Twitter's CEO Dorsey has rejectedsuch accusations of bias. "Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules," he testifiedbefore theU.S. Congress last year.

"We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially."

Usher said not just conservatives, but left-wing activists and marginalized groups, will complain that their speech is being compromised or banned by Twitter. She said if people could seethe entirelist of banned accounts, then possibly they could determine if there are some partisan trends.

Cherry pick

"We don't have a really good sense of who's getting banned and who's not getting banned because all we have is the data we can cherry pick," Ushersaid.

That's why she believes Hanania's study has some significant methodological problems, including an "extraordinarily cherry picked sample."

"We don't know the context for these bans. It's a really limited selection of people," she said.

"Just looking to see if there is equality inwho's getting banned doesn't tell you much about the content of the speech itself."

Meanwhile, Kurasawa saidthat at the very least, in high profile cases, Twitter shouldpublicly explain their decision making processes. Yet he understands why they'd be unwilling to do so.

"The inconsistencies with which they enforce their own regulations ...would probably be exposed," he said."Itwouldn't be favourable to Twitter to do that and therefore it would be probably undermining ofcorporate image."