You may not know Dr. Jay Bhattacharya's name, but you've likely heard his ideas. That's because some of his lines have become common refrains of many politicians: arguments against pandemic restrictions like vaccines mandates and school closings, which the social media-savvy doctor has railed against. His heterodox views on the pandemic have earned him acolytes, particularly among the right. Among them: Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk, who met with Bhattacharya on Saturday, and painted Bhattacharya as a man whose views had been wrongly stifled by Twitter prior to Musk purchasing it earlier this year.
Bhattacharya is a Stanford University professor best known for his outspoken opposition to the widespread COVID-19 lockdowns, as well as for his recent decision to work with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. According to a recent batch of Twitter documents released to the public, Bhattacharya had been "shadow-banned" by the social media giant during the pre-Musk era. This means that Bhattacharya's posts were de-emphasized by Twitter staff behind the scenes so other users would be significantly less likely to see what he said. The doctor was placed on a so-called Twitter "blacklist," one which Bhattacharya described as having deemed him a "fringe epidemiologist." Shadow-banning is characterized by critics as a form of censorship, as it effectively silences the target while they usually remain unaware of (and thus unable to remedy) their situation.
