#Twitter Files: Elon Musk reveals pro-left bias, censorship at company
Microblogging platform Twitter is all set to receive its moment of reckoning. CEO Elon Musk has disclosed 'Twitter Files,' a cache of the firm's emails in the form of tweets, which reveal how it handled Hunter Biden's laptop story during the US Presidential election in 2020. The messages comprised internal communications among company officials and also with outsiders such as politicians.
Twitter censored info on behest of a particular political ideology
Musk tweeted a link to the account of a journalist called Matt Taibbi, who posted a series of 37 tweets, detailing the extraordinary steps Twitter took to censor information on behalf of a particular political party (Democrats). Taibbi claimed that the firm "was and is" staffed by employees of mostly one particular political orientation, and thus airing grievances was easier for Democrats than Republicans.
How did it all start?
Taibbi claimed that Twitter took "extraordinary steps" to censor a New York Post story dated October 14, 2020, which detailed the contents of a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden. The company started removing links to the story, posted warning that it might be "unsafe," and even prevented its transmission via direct messages. The last step is reserved for extreme cases like child pornography.
The laptop story allegedly violated company's 'Hacked Materials policy'
Prior to the 2020 election, White House spokesperson Kaleigh McEnany tweeted about the story and she was locked out of her account. This prompted the Donald Trump election campaign to send a strongly-worded letter to the company. In reply, Twitter's public policy executive Caroline Strom said that the story was removed because it violated the company's "Hacked Materials policy." Not a convincing argument indeed.
The hacking ruse had Vijaya Gadde's blessing
Taibbi said that there was no evidence of Hunter's laptop being hacked and the government getting involved. Hacking was "just an excuse" used by the Twitter staff, and they knew it would not hold. However, nobody reversed the decision. The biggest bombshell? Former legal, policy, and trust head Vijaya Gadde played a key role in the decision, without the knowledge of ex-CEO Jack Dorsey.
There was an internal meltdown
There was utter confusion at Twitter HQ regarding how to handle the laptop story. Communications official Trenton Kennedy wrote, "I'm struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this as unsafe." in an email. Meanwhile, the former VP of Global Communications, Brandon Borrman questioned, "Can we truthfully claim that this is part of the policy?" Sadly, the company continued to err.
Democrats wanted higher content moderation
Twitter also did not pay heed to blowback from outside. When Democratic congressman Ro Khanna told Gadde, that suppressing the laptop story would violate free speech rights, she quickly turned to recite company policy about "hacked materials." What might come as a shock is that several Democrat lawmakers believed that the First Amendment "wasn't absolute" and that "more" content moderation was needed.
'This is a battle for the future of civilization'
Elon Musk claims that the second part of the "Twitter Files" will be released tomorrow. He added that this was a "battle for the future of civilization" and that if free speech was lost even in the US, tyranny would be everyone's future.
