Just within a month of acquiring Twitter, the company’s new chief, Elon Musk has published disturbing internal records and documents related to the platform’s decision-making process that lead to the hysterical censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020.
Just weeks leading to the Presidential election, The New York Post dropped a bombshell report on then-candidate, Joe Biden and his illegal family business dealings sourced from his son, Hunter’s abandoned laptop in a Delaware computer repair shop.
Twitter, along with Facebook, and several mainstream media outlets made mass censorship efforts, falsely alleging that the details of the story were part of a “Russian disinformation campaign”
Independent journalist and author Matt Taibbi reporting on the TWITTER FILES reveals that the Biden campaign was colluding with Twitter weeks prior to the election. According to the reporting, company executives would receive requests from the Biden team citing unfavorable content on Twitter. The executives would respond to the requests as “handled.”
8. By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: “More to review from the Biden team.” The reply would come back: “Handled.” pic.twitter.com/mnv0YZI4af
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022
Celebrities and Biden critics would be removed at the request of the Biden campaign, Taibbi reports.
9. Celebrities and unknowns alike could be removed or reviewed at the behest of a political party: pic.twitter.com/4uzkHnQ65E
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022
Taibbi further reports that top-level Twitter executives made the decision without informing then-CEO, Jack Dorsey. The company’s former head of legal, policy, and trust Vijaya Gadde played a key role in the censorship of the New York Post story.
23. The decision was made at the highest levels of the company, but without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, with former head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde playing a key role.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
Further discussions with former Twitter employees reveal that executives debating if the contents were indeed “hacked” as they had initially perceived. But without any verification, the ban on any discussion surrounding the story was upheld.
Taibbi further reports that Carl Szabo from the political research firm NetChoice, wrote to a Twitter executive indicating that members of congress are upset with the company’s decision to censor the story, warning of a potential hearing in the near future.
34.NetChoice lets Twitter know a “blood bath” awaits in upcoming Hill hearings, with members saying it's a "tipping point," complaining tech has “grown so big that they can’t even regulate themselves, so government may need to intervene.” pic.twitter.com/2EE1NlWQ5k
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
Szabo noted that some Democrats in Congress beilived “THE FIRST AMENDMENT ISN’T ABSOLUTE” and encouraged Twitter’s censorship of the Hunter Biden story.
36.Twitter files continued:
"THE FIRST AMENDMENT ISN’T ABSOLUTE”
Szabo’s letter contains chilling passages relaying Democratic lawmakers’ attitudes. They want “more” moderation, and as for the Bill of Rights, it's "not absolute" pic.twitter.com/cWdNYIprp8— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
Taibbi remarks that most of the censorship decisions were made without the knowledge of the company’s then-CEO, Jack Dorsey.
An amazing subplot of the Twitter/Hunter Biden laptop affair was how much was done without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, and how long it took for the situation to get "unfucked" (as one ex-employee put it) even after Dorsey jumped in.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022