Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., took to Sean Hannity’s show to defend his lawsuit against Twitter: “Our First Amendment rights are at stake here.” But that is like saying that Nerf needs to make a football that I can actually throw in a spiral, and if it doesn’t it is threatening my freedom. It is just ridiculous.
Twitter isn’t perfect. For instance, during the recent annual gathering of conservatives at the Conservative Political Action Conference, real-time mentions were higher for #CPAC than most of the items on Twitter’s “Trending” top 10. Alas, CPAC was nowhere to be found in the trending topics, and CPAC noticed. Bernie Sanders’ campaign announcement was there at No. 2 despite having fewer mentions.
That isn’t okay, and fortunately this probably isn’t all right with the rest of Twitter’s users or, more importantly, advertisers. Therefore, Twitter is likely trying to find ways to improve its system. It is a business. It relies on the trust of its users, and if that trust erodes so does the user’s demand for its platform. That is the way markets work.
