Twitter Staff Fact Checked by Community Notes Over Bellingcat 'Shadow Ban'

The standoff between Elon Musk's Twitter and the investigative outlet Bellingcat continued to escalate on Monday, resulting in an unexpected development as one of Twitter's own employees was corrected via the platform's "Community Notes" feature, previously known as "Birdwatch."

The latest development is the culmination of a feud that began in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Allen, Texas, on May 6—which left eight people dead and several others injured—and ensuing speculation and misleading claims about the alleged perpetrator's identity.

With both sides accusing each other of making misleading claims, Newsweek Misinformation Watch tried to untangle the complex story.

Initial investigative reporting in the aftermath of the attack indicated that the alleged shooter, Mauricio Garcia, was a "white supremacist" and "neo-Nazi" sympathizer, a claim that was refuted by a number of right-wing commentators at the time.

Bellingcat is a Netherlands-based OSINT (open source intelligence) outlet best known for its investigation of the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, purportedly by Russian state operatives.

Following the Texas mass shooting, Bellingcat researchers claimed—citing social media posts on the Russian social media platform Odnoklassniki (OK)—that photos and written content by the alleged shooter confirmed his reported far-right leanings.

Musk, in turn, questioned this narrative, accusing the outlet, without evidence, of "specializing in psychological operations."

"This is either the weirdest story ever or a very bad psyop!" the Twitter and Tesla owner wrote on May 9.

One of the most prominent counter-claims that followed Bellingcat's revelations questioned the notion that Garcia had "white supremacist" leanings, citing a purported photo of him online that did not appear to show the "neo-Nazi" insignia tattooed on his body that could be seen in the photos shared by Bellingcat investigator Aric Toler.

But as Newsweek Fact Check verified days later, the mugshot used in that "debunk" was in fact of a different man named Mauricio Garcia, and thus did not disprove Bellingcat's research.

Yet even as their research was corroborated by other outlets including the Associated Press, as well as police officials' statements regarding investigations into Garcia's "neo-Nazi ideation," Bellingcat appeared to fall foul of Twitter's internal guardrails.

Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins and multiple Twitter users began to report the disappearance of the outlet's account from Twitter's search page around May 11, 2023, though it was not immediately clear when the changes were made, nor Twitter's motive for introducing them.

Twitter's moderation policies have come under attack from both right and left-leaning users in recent years, with shadow bans and "deboosting"—both a way to limit an account's prominence and reach—drawing some backlash.

But this latest twist was especially surprising given Twitter's recent decision to award the "Blue Tick" label to the Bellingcat account, despite its owners' refusal to pay for the feature.

"In the past 24 hours, I've realized that Blue Ticks on Twitter are increasingly associated with individuals holding morally bankrupt and idiotic ideologies, so I've got rid of my Blue Tick by removing my affiliate status with @Bellingcat," Higgins tweeted on May 9.

Then, on Monday, Higgins claimed to have solved the 'shadow ban' mystery, suggesting that "@bellingcat has been marked as sensitive content, reserved for accounts that post graphic violence and pornography, which the Bellingcat account doesn't do."

While it was initially unclear exactly what piece of content was deemed "sensitive" or "graphic" by Twitter, the platform's Trust and Safety Head Ella Irwin appeared to offer some insight into the decision-making process.

"A video of the Allen, Tx shooting was posted recently, which resulted in the label being applied. Mass shooting related videos are considered sensitive content and the label helps prevent users who do not want to see graphic content from seeing it," Irwin replied to the Bellingcat thread.

But there was one problem with the response: It offered no evidence that the outlet's account had posted such content—an issue that was highlighted in a Community Note tagged onto her tweet.

Community Notes, a "crowdsourced" fact-checking tool on Twitter, was introduced by the platform in late 2022 in an effort to combat misinformation that is still rampant.

In a follow-up post, Irwin appeared to admit the error, noting that having re-read the case notes, it became clear that the trigger for the sensitive label was not a video, but the images of the alleged shooter featuring "nazi imagery."

"The team removed the account's sensitive content setting earlier as the user does not normally post sensitive content," she said in the tweet.

Irwin did not elaborate on how and if this latest U-turn would impact further coverage of Garcia's identity and affiliations, nor if Twitter would address the conspiracy theories and unevidenced "psyop" claims, including those made by its owner.

While somewhat unexpected, this is not the first time that the Community Notes feature has been used to correct public figures affiliated with Twitter, including Elon Musk himself (which he touted as evidence of its effectiveness).

The feature has received some praise from journalists and those combating misinformation, while others have argued that it falls short of verifying divisive content.

Newsweek reached out to Bellingcat and Twitter for comment via email.