Twitter kept a 'secret blacklist' of topics and accounts to prevent them from trending, according to data obtained by journalist Bari Weiss - with conservative commentators deliberately downplayed in what one called 'Soviet-style bulls***',' while another said he was treated 'with more censorship than Hamas'.

Specialist teams were put to work dealing with 200 cases a day. 

Conservative commentators, including Dan Bongino and Charlie Kirk, were deliberately put on a 'search blacklist' in Bongino's case or tabbed 'do not amplify,' in the case of Kirk.  

'They're treating my Twitter account with more scrutiny and censorship than the prime minister of Iran, than Hamas, than people who do actual terroristic type damage,' said Kirk. 'Now we have evidence to show that's exactly why my Twitter account the last couple years has been down 95 percent in engagement.'

Bongino said it was 'Soviet-style bulls***.'

Those who questioned the prevailing COVID orthodoxy of lockdowns and mask mandates, such as Stanford's Dr Jay Bhattacharya who argued that lockdowns harmed children, were also placed on a 'search blacklist.'  

Weiss made the revelations on Twitter Thursday night in the second tranche of what has been termed The Twitter Files. 

She reported that Twitter used what was termed 'visibility filtering' to downplay accounts they objected to, and had teams of people working to reduce the traction gained by individuals or their tweets.