“Twitter Files Suppressing Free Speech Will Be Released On Twitter Soon. The public deserves to know what really happened. In late November, Elon Musk announced with a bang the impending release of internal company documents designed specifically to prove that the network had indeed been run by bright leftists who had censored conservative voices, protected Hunter and Joe Biden, and wrongly suspended Donald Trump after the Storming the Capitol. But instead of a transparent internal audit, the “Twitter files” produced five threads, published by journalists selected by Musk. Who seem more interested in validating grievances, often exaggerated and out of context, than making a nuanced inventory of the moderation of the platform.
Who are the journalists posting the “Twitter Files”?
Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss are two now independent journalists who have worked for several major American media outlets. Taibbi did Wall Street research for Rolling Stone magazine and Weiss worked as a columnist for the New York Times. Both describe themselves as centrists disillusioned with the “mainstream media,” which they say leans too far to the left. In their newsletter on Substack, they regularly play the opposite, particularly on Covid for Taibbi and gender issues for Weiss.
Did they have access to users’ private messages?
The question arose after Bari Weiss posted a screenshot of the LibsofTikTok account showing the Direct Messages folder. Former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos and constitutional law professor Orin Kerr noted that Elon Musk faced legal action if he allowed journalists access to some users’ private messages. But meanwhile, a Twitter exec, Ella Irwin, assured that it was she who took that screenshot, clarifying that the journalists had “no access” to the company’s internal tools or to user contributions.
What Do The Twitter Files Reveal About Hunter Biden?
Not much new. Three weeks before the 2020 presidential election, the New York Post published emails and photos of Joe Biden’s son, claiming they were from Hunter Biden’s personal laptop, which had been left at a repair shop 18 months earlier. Faced with doubts about the origin of this October surprise, Twitter, which had been warned by the FBI that a “hack and leak” disinformation campaign could disrupt the election, decided for the first time to block any sharing of the article link.
In an affidavit two years ago, former Twitter security chief Yoel Roth said the decision was a “mistake”. In his first thread Matt Taibbi revealed that the decision was not unanimous internally and, more importantly, was made without the knowledge of boss Jack Dorsey. We also learn that Biden’s team flagged five tweets that were deleted by Twitter moderators. The journalist does not indicate that the content is pornographic, including photos of Hunter Biden’s penis. Taibbi also acknowledges that Donald Trump’s team also had the same access to Twitter for pressing moderation questions. And important detail: if the Hunter-Biden saga shows that he tried to monetize his family name internationally, notably by sitting on the board of directors of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, there is nothing to indicate improper behavior on the part of Joe Biden.
Has Twitter Censored Conservatives and Practiced Shadow Banning?
Bari Weiss then turned to Twitter moderation. Who is accused of “trends blacklisting” an anti-lockdown and natural mass immunity doctor, Jay Bhattacharya, which prevented his tweets from appearing in the trends of the day. And two conservative figures, Dan Bongino and Charlie Kirk, on a “search blacklist” and a “do not amplify” list.
Were there repeated infringements in the three examples mentioned? How many users have undergone such treatment? Were the conservatives more affected than the liberals? Weiss provides no context and doesn’t seem interested in the answer.
Conservatives see it as evidence Twitter is guilty of shadow ban. But the definition of this practice of quietly reducing the visibility of certain accounts without banning them entirely remains vague. In 2018, Twitter strongly opposed the shadow ban and made sure all tweets remained viewable by going straight to a profile. However, the network has never hidden that it weights tweets in its ranking algorithms. What all platforms do. Elon Musk himself stated that with his “free speech, not free reach” philosophy, he would do the same: “Negative or hateful tweets will be deboosted and demonetized. You won’t find these tweets unless you specifically search for them. »
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Did Twitter break its rules by suspending Donald Trump?
That last three episodes “Twitter files” address Donald Trump’s suspension from the platform after the Capitol attack. After the publication of the video in which he repeated: “The election was stolen from us”, Twitter initially blocked the American President’s account for 12 hours. Two days later, Donald Trump writes that he will not run for Biden’s inauguration and that “no one will disregard the 75 million American patriots who voted for me”. Twitter then invoked its rule against the “glorification of violence” and the risks of future excesses to justify a permanent suspension.
This decision sparked debates around the world, including internally. According to the documents consulted by Bari Weiss, several Twitter executives felt that the American President’s messages did not meet the bar of “incitement to violence”. But while the network’s decision can be criticized, the company was right. The First Amendment protects freedom of speech from government restrictions. Private companies can moderate their platform at their own discretion.