Topline
Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Friday released, through an independent journalist, the Twitter Files, a 37-part Twitter thread of internal documents that shows some of the internal debate and reasoning behind the social media platform’s controversial “free speech suppression” around a bombshell 2020 report on President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden—though despite Musk’s hype, it doesn’t deliver any particular shocking new details.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk released the "Twitter Files" Friday night exposing the platform's response to ... [+]
Key Facts
Musk, a self-described free-speech absolutist, retweeted the Twitter Files Friday night, releasing a series of internal communications released to and reported on by the independent journalist Matt Taibbi, who called the internal documents a “Frankenstinian tale of a human-built mechanism grown out the control of its designer.”
The documents show Twitter staff took “extraordinary steps” to suppress an October 2020 New York Post story that claimed unseemly ties between then Vice President Joe Biden and a Ukrainian energy company that paid money to Biden’s son Hunter—and which former President Donald Trump took as an October Surprise to falsely allege Biden had acted corruptly.
Twitter officials, the documents show, debated whether or not to suppress the story, which claimed to be sourced to a laptop once owned by Hunter Biden, but which they feared could be the result of Russian hacking.
Even without evidence the information came from the Russians—or any other third party—Twitter seemed, according to the documents, to decide to suppress the story under its Hacking Policy (no evidence has ever emerged that the information was hacked).
Twitter ultimately suppressed the story – and accounts trying to share it—a decision done without the knowledge of former CEO Jack Dorsey, who later admitted the suppression was a mistake.
Taibbi also alleges “celebrities and unknowns alike” could have their accounts removed or reviewed at the request of a political party, though the system “wasn’t balanced” between the parties but rather determined by contacts with staff, which he said leaned heavily to the left, providing more room for Democrats to “complain.”
It’s Musk’s latest plea to conservatives, one month after he said he would reinstate Trump’s account—which was suspended after the January 6 insurrection (although the former president has sworn off a return to the site)—and after he urged his followers to vote for Republicans in the midterm elections.
Key Background
Musk had teased the release of the documents pertaining to “free speech suppression” throughout the week, tweeting on Friday that Twitter would publish “what really happened with the Hunter Biden story suppression by Twitter.” By the end of 2020, Dorsey had admitted to members of Congress that Twitter’s suppression of the story was a mistake and that Twitter had since updated its policies, after news of an alleged suppression was the makings of anti-conservative bias within the platform. Earlier this week, Twitter’s former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth said the decision to suppress the story was the result of a fear that the story was the result of a hack, although he added he personally disagreed with the decision.
Surprising Fact
Taibbi suggests in his thread that there is “no evidence, that I’ve seen, of any government involvement in the laptop story”—undermining a Republican conspiracy that the FBI was involved in the move to suppress the reporting. Nonetheless, Musk tweeted separately, with no supporting evidence, that Twitter acted “under orders from the government to suppress free speech, with no judicial review.”
Tangent
Musk has also faced scorn from former Twitter officials, including Roth, who criticized Musk’s rollout of Twitter Blue, Musk’s program to allow people to purchase verification checkmarks without going through any vetting process. That rollout led to multiple parody accounts spreading disinformation about celebrities, athletes, politicians and brands, including Lockheed Martin, Eli Lilly and Nintendo. Before he completed his $44 billion purchase of the social media giant, Musk had pledged to advertisers he would prevent the platform from plummeting into a “hellscape” where anything can be said “without consequences,” although he has since come under fire, again, for loosening its free speech policies. That plea, however, did not prevent advertisers from leaving. After a series of high-profile antisemitic posts, primarily from rapper Kanye West, Musk suspended the controversial rapper’s account.
What To Watch For
Hours after the Twitter Files were released, Musk tweeted, “Tune in for Episode 2 of the Twitter Files tomorrow,” although he did not specify what the content of those files would include.
Further Reading
‘This will be awesome’: Musk leaks Twitter's Hunter Biden files (Politico)
Musk's "Twitter Files" spotlights Hunter Biden story ban (Axios)
