The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | Twitter Files Part 5, Court Blocks Biden’s Transgender Mandate, Iran Executes Second Protester | Dec. 12

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: The latest batch of The Twitter Files details the platform’s decision to remove former President Donald Trump from the platform. A court rules a Virginia Tech soccer player can sue her old coach after being benched for not kneeling during a social justice demonstration.  A federal court blocks the Biden Administration’s transgender mandate.  Iran executes a second anti-government protester. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Virginia Allen. I'm Samantha O'Shares. And this is the Daily Signal Top News for Monday, December 12. Here are today's headlines. The latest installment of the Twitter files hit the internet this afternoon. Twitter files part five is all about what went on behind the scenes at Twitter leading up to the removal of former President Donald Trump from the platform. Elon Musk gave the story to journalist Barry Weiss, who shared the information on Twitter in a thread of about four. 45 tweets. Following the attack on the Capitol on January 6th, calls came from inside and outside Twitter to ban Trump from the platform. But Elon Musk's Twitter files reveal that there were some employees within Twitter who opposed that ban. On January 7th, one Twitter employee sent a message to some of her colleagues, writing, maybe because I'm from China, I deeply understand how

censorship can destroy the public conversation. But other colleagues push back on this concern with one saying, I understand this fear, but I also think it's important to understand that censorship by the government is very different than censorship of the government. Here with us to break down the latest in the Twitter files is Heritage Foundation Research Associate in the Tech Policy Center, Jake Denton. Jake, thanks for being here. Yeah, thanks for having me.

So can you explain what we know about Twitter's decision, to remove Trump from the platform? What went on behind the scenes? Yeah, so Twitter Files 5 is essentially the internal deliberation surrounding, you know, will we be able to remove him for this speech? You know, there are mounting pressure from both the corporate side of things, advertisers and internal employees. And I think what it really revealed is that they weren't following their terms of service, right?

We see them basically say this isn't an incitement of violence. And then Vigaya Gad, the head of trust and safety legal, if you will, was basically saying, well, it could be coded language. to tweet out that these are American patriots. And then that gets shot down. They go, maybe it's under our glorification of violence. They were really just throwing darts at the dartboard trying to figure out how we could get them off of the platform.

And ultimately, I think, well, you know, there were a few dissenters. It really just highlighted how many activist employees have kind of entrenched themselves within Twitter. Well, and one thing that was fascinating that Barry Weiss pointed out in her thread was the individuals who have remained on Twitter amid, from her president, Donald Trump being kicked off the platform. What do we know were there conversations happening about, you know, these radical terrorist leaders and them being kicked off? Yeah, so the nature of kind of those comments really stemmed from, okay, if we ban Trump,

does that set of precedent, right? He would be, I think it's noted, the first kind of world leader to be removed. Included in the thread is an instance where President Moody of India had threatened to arrest Twitter employees if he was removed from the platform. He still remained on the platform. And so I think it kind of revealed that, you know, this wasn't really based on a coherent philosophy on how to moderate content. It was all on domestic politics. They had a clear political objective and that was making sure that President Trump was offline for the 2020 election cycle. And they made sure that they were going to execute that. So what can we expect moving forward?

Are there going to be more Twitter files released? I don't think it's ever going to end. It's every single day it seems like we're getting another Twitter file. I think the one that's on the horizon is going to be COVID. Elon confirmed last night that COVID files are coming. So we're going to see essentially the same thing, but for a different instance, a different topic. And I think ultimately at the end of the day, everything is going to come out. He's doing this in kind of a spectacle fashion to try and draw viewership into Twitter.

But at the end of the day, we will see, in theory, all of these Twitter files. And maybe there are things, you know, Barry Weissed. But, yeah, I don't think this is ever going to stop. You have to realize hundreds of thousands of internal communications over the last few years. Jake Denton of the Heritage Foundation Tech Policy Center. Thanks so much again for being here today. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. A judge has ruled that a former Virginia Tech women's soccer player can sue her coach for potentially violating her First Amendment rights.

Christian Henning was allegedly benched by her coach after she refused to kneel during a social justice demonstration before a game in September 2020. The soccer player declined to take a knee with her teammates. during a reading of a unity statement. She claims that her coach, Charles Adair, verbally attacked her during halftime, using expletives. That game was far from Heading's first. She played on the team from 2018 to 2020, but left when things became very unpleasant between her and her coach after she refused to kneel. Heading sued the coach in 2021, and federal judge Thomas Cullen ruled earlier this month

that the case can move forward. The judge said in his ruling that, Henning, who had been a major on-field contributor for two years prior to the 2020 season, also asserts that Adair removed her from the starting lineup for the next two games and drastically reduced her playing time in those games because she had engaged in this protected First Amendment activity. As a result, Heading resigned from the team after the third game of the season. Heading said in the lawsuit that she supports social justice and believes that Black Lives Matter, but she does not support BLM, the organization. We will keep you posted on this

case as it moves through the court. A federal court has blocked the Biden administration's transgender mandate. The mandate would have forced doctors and religious hospitals to perform gender reassignment surgeries, even if they had religious and moral concerns about doing so. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has agreed that doctors and hospitals should should not be forced to perform transgender procedures that violate their convictions. A group of Catholic nuns, clients, a university, and hospitals sued together to block the Biden administration mandate. The Catholic coalition was represented in court by the Beckett Fund. The Biden administration now only has two legal options if they want to continue to fight for the mandate.

The administration can either seek a rehearing in the Eighth Circuit or can appeal to the Supreme Court. Iran has publicly executed another man who was involved in the recent protests against the regime. On Monday, the Iran government hanged a man whose state media said has killed two members of Iran's security force. This is the second execution in less than a week in Iran amid protests in the country. The protests were sparked after a young woman was killed in the custody of Iran's morality police about three months ago. Reuters reports that Amnesty International has said Iranian officials, authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in what it called sham trials designated to intimidate those participating in the popular uprising that has rocked Iran.

The European Union is reportedly considering placing a package of tough sanctions on Iran in response to the suppression and intimidation of the protesters. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening to The Daily Signals, top news. If you haven't gotten a chance, be sure to check out our morning show right here. in this podcast feed where we interview lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices. Join us tomorrow morning for the Daily Signal interview edition. I'll be sitting down with Diana for Scott Roth to discuss Europe's energy crisis, how the U.S. can avoid getting into a similar

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