'Twitter files' confirm Stanford professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was 'blacklisted' for COVID-19 information
Dr. Bhattacharya says the suppression of fair COVID conversations on social media ultimately harmed data, children and the American public
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The second installment of Elon Musk's "Twitter Files" confirmed that Twitter was secretly "blacklisting" certain users and tweets that did not align with the platform's left-leaning agenda.
Stanford University professor of medicine, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, was one of many on the platform's "blacklist," according to information revealed Thursday by The Free Press reporter Bari Weiss.
Bhattacharya was secretly blacklisted because he "argued that Covid lockdowns would harm children," and was thus unable to trend on the platform, Weiss reported in a Twitter thread.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The medical professional spoke with Laura Ingraham about the revelation Thursday night.
ELON MUSK'S SECOND INSTALLMENT OF 'TWITTER FILES' REVEALS 'SECRET BLACKLISTS,' BARI WEISS REPORTS
On "The Ingraham Angle," Bhattacharya said the suppression of his voice, which questioned much of Dr. Anthony Fauci's guidance and the COVID-19 policies, ultimately harmed data, children and the American public.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He believes he was essentially silenced because the opposing "arguments were not strong enough to survive the light of day."
"If we had an open discussion, Laura, the schools would not have closed in the fall of 2020. If we had an open discussion, the lockdowns would have been lifted much earlier because the data and evidence behind them was so bad," he said on the show.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Dr. Jay Bhattacharya speaks during a roundtable discussion with members of the House Freedom Caucus on the COVID-19 pandemic at The Heritage Foundation on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
He stated that open, "free and fair" conversations should have been allowed on social media during the pandemic to avoid the "harmfulness" of the lockdowns and the forced vaccination campaigns.
He added that he never once used threatening language toward a person, only Dr. Fauci's thoughts.
"They've gone way too far," Bhattacharya said. "It's one thing to suppress violent threats against people."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}U.S. politicians often use social media platforms like Twitter to communicate with the public. (Fox News )
The professor also told Ingraham he has no clue who requested that he be on Twitter's "blacklist," but he believes "very strongly" there was government direction in the decision.
Bhattacharya said he joined a lawsuit filed by doctors and scientists against the Biden administration over the social media censorship related to COVID-19 information. He said the lawsuit has "uncovered tremendous evidence" that federal agencies directed social media platforms about who and what to censor.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Every American should be outraged," Bhattacarya said.
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Bhattacharya is also an economist who serves as director of Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging.