Twitter Files
The Twitter Files are a series of releases of select internal Twitter, Inc. documents published from December 2022 through March 2023 on Twitter. CEO Elon Musk gave the documents to journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, and authors Michael Shellenberger, David Zweig and Alex Berenson shortly after he acquired Twitter on October 27, 2022. Taibbi and Weiss coordinated the publication of the documents with Musk, releasing details of the files as a series of Twitter threads.[1][2][3][4]
Description
December 2022 – March 2023
Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, Michael Shellenberger, David Zweig
After the first set of files was published, an assortment of technology and media journalists said that the reported evidence demonstrated little more than Twitter's policy team struggling with difficult decisions, but resolving such matters swiftly; conservative journalists characterized the documents as confirmation of Twitter's liberal bias.[5][6]
A major aspect of the examination surrounded assertions by Musk and others that Twitter had been ordered by the government to help presidential candidate Joe Biden in the coming election by suppressing an October 2020 New York Post story about Hunter Biden's laptop, though researcher Matt Taibbi found no evidence of government involvement in Twitter's decision to initially withhold the story.[7]
In a June 2023 court filing, Twitter attorneys strongly denied that the Files showed the government had coerced the company to censor content, as Musk and many Republicans claimed,[8] and asserted that Republican officials also made takedown requests so often that Twitter had to keep a database tracking them.[9]
Internal Twitter emails showed the company allowed accounts operated by the U.S. military to run a Middle East influence campaign; some accounts were kept on the platform for years before being taken down.[10][11]
The releases prompted debate over the nature of blacklisting,[12] vows for congressional investigation, calls for the full release of all documents for the sake of transparency, and calls to improve content moderation processes at Twitter.
Background[edit]
The inner workings of content moderation systems are not well known to the public, as knowledge of the details could enable manipulation.[13] But American conservatives had long contended that Twitter used its moderation policies to muzzle conservative views.[14] On November 28, 2022, a month after Musk officially acquired Twitter, Musk announced that he planned to release a portion of Twitter's internal documents related to "free speech suppression", adding, "The public deserves to know what really happened" under Twitter's prior leadership.[15]
Musk subsequently gave a series of internal Twitter documents—including screenshots, emails, and chat logs—to freelance journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss.[13][16][5] Taibbi noted that "in exchange for the opportunity to cover a unique and explosive story, I had to agree to certain conditions" that he did not disclose.[17] Weiss stated that the only condition she and her reporting team agreed to was that the material would be first published on Twitter.[18] Musk later stated he had not read the documents before their release to Taibbi and Weiss.[19]
On December 6, Musk fired James Baker, deputy general counsel at Twitter, for allegedly vetting the information before it was passed on to Taibbi and Weiss and providing an explanation that Musk found "unconvincing."[6] Taibbi said that the planned publication of Twitter's internal documents related to its handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story had been delayed because of Baker's vetting.[6] Baker had previously been general counsel for the FBI and investigated Russian interference into the 2016 election.[6][20][21][22][23]
Reactions[edit]
Politicians[edit]
In a Fox News interview, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy defended Taibbi's reporting and said of Elon Musk that his critics are "trying to discredit a person for telling the truth."[1]
Democratic House Representative Ro Khanna confirmed the authenticity of his email to Twitter criticizing the suppression of the New York Post's story as a violation of First Amendment principles.[73] He also said that Twitter should implement "clear and public criteria" of removal or non-promotion of content, make such decisions in a transparent way, and give users a way to appeal the decisions.[74] House Republicans have stated their intention to investigate the exchange between Khanna and Twitter.[75]
Donald Trump referred to the first release of Twitter Files as proof of "Big Tech companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party" rigging the 2020 United States presidential election against him, declaring that "the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution" was necessary. He asked whether the "rightful winner" should be declared or a new election should be held. White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates condemned Trump's comments, writing that the U.S. Constitution is a "sacrosanct document" that unites the country "regardless of party" and that calling for its termination is an attack against "the soul of our nation".[76] Musk tweeted, "The Constitution is greater than any President. End of story."[2]
Aftermath[edit]
In June 2023, lawyers working for Twitter contested many of the claims made in the Twitter Files in court. According to CNN "Altogether, the filing by Musk’s own corporate lawyers represents a step-by-step refutation of some of the most explosive claims to come out of the Twitter Files and that in some cases have been promoted by Musk himself."[98]