The internal “Twitter Files,” which discuss the social media company’s “restriction on free speech,” were made public Saturday morning by Twitter CEO Elon Musk. Mr. Musk again posted a link to the account of independent author and journalist Matt Taibbi, who published a series of tweets outlining the thinking behind the decision to censor the news about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
This data, which appears to be censored emails from Twitter employees, explains why the tech giant decided to bury the Hunter Biden story in the closing days of the 2020 presidential campaign.
“Some of the early speech control tools were designed to combat spam and financial fraudsters. Slowly, over time, Twitter employees and executives began to find more and more uses for these tools. Outsiders began to petition at the company to manipulate speech like well: first a little, then more often, then constantly,” Taibbi tweeted.
Also read | Facebook censored story about Joe Biden’s son, Mark Zuckerberg admits
“By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive wrote to the other, “More to review from the Biden team.” The answer would come back: “Treated.”
The journalist posted the tweets along with a screenshot of an internal email that contained links to tweets that should have been removed.
9. Both celebrities and strangers can be removed or reviewed at the behest of a political party: pic.twitter.com/4uzkHnQ65E
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022
“Both sides had access to these tools. In 2020, for example, requests from both the Trump White House and the Biden campaign were received and honored. But… This system was not balanced. It was based on contacts. Because Twitter was and will be staffed overwhelmingly by people of one political orientation, there were more channels, more ways to complain, open to the left (well, Democrats) than the right,” the journalist wrote.
He then tweeted about the strategies used by the social networking site to suppress the “Biden Secret Emails” story.
“Twitter has taken extraordinary steps to suppress the story, removing links and posting warnings that it may be ‘unsafe’. They even blocked its transmission via direct message, a tool hitherto reserved for extreme cases, for example child pornography. he wrote.
Mr. Taibbi made another revelation, tweeting: “White House spokeswoman Kaleigh McEnany was denied access to her account for tweeting about the story, prompting a furious letter from Trump campaign staffer Mike Hahn, who boiled: “At least pretend you care about the next 20 days.”
19. White House spokeswoman Kaleigh McEnany was banned from accessing her account for tweeting about the story, prompting a furious letter from Trump campaign aide Mike Hahn, who boiled: “At least pretend you care about the upcoming 20 days.” pic.twitter.com/CcXTfsdzCT
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
According to information from Elon Musk, Vijaya Gadde, the former chief legal officer at Twitter, had a “significant role” in the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020.
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