At first glance, this was a textbook example of a news report: a reporter receives internal documents from a large corporation that shed light on a political dispute that flared up in the final days of the 2020 presidential race.
But when it comes to Elon Musk and Twitter, nothing is typical.
The so-called Twitter files, released Friday night by freelance journalist Matt Taibbi, have sparked an uproar among experts, media ethicists and lawmakers on both sides. It also opened a window into today’s fractured news landscape, where the perception of a story is often shaped by readers’ assumptions about the motives of reporters and subjects.
The storm began when Mr. Musk teased the release of internal documents that he said would reveal the story behind Twitter’s 2020 decision to restrict postings related to the New York Post report on Joseph R. Biden Jr., Hunter.
Mr. Musk, who accused tech companies of censorship, then directed readers to the story of Mr. Taibbi, an iconoclastic journalist who shares some of Mr. Musk’s contempt for the mainstream media. Mr. Taibbi’s report, published as a long thread on Twitter, included footage of an email exchange between Twitter officials debating how to deal with Post’s story on their platform.
Mr Musk and Mr Taibbi called the exchanges evidence of heavy censorship and malign liberal influence. Many others — even some staunch Twitter critics — were less impressed, saying the exchanges simply showed a group of executives seriously debating how to handle an unconfirmed report based on information from a stolen laptop.
Learn more about Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter
- Settled pattern: the fire of people. Speaking of bankruptcy. Tell workers to be “hardcore”. Twitter is not the first company to see Elon Musk use this tactic.
- ‘Misunderstanding’ resolved: After Mr. Musk accused Apple of threatening to remove Twitter from its App Store, it looks like a potential feud between the tech titans has been averted.
- ‘War for Talent’: Seeing disinformation as a potentially costly liability, several companies are seeking to hire ex-Twitter employees with experience to control it.
- Unpaid bills: Mr. Musk and his advisers have been discussing all kinds of expenses on Twitter, asking employees to review, review and, in some cases, not pay third-party vendors at all.
And, like much of today’s news, the Twitter files were quickly used as weapons for a staggering array of pre-existing arguments.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who often accuses liberals of suppressing speech, stated that “the documents show a systematic violation of the First Amendment, the greatest example of this in modern history.” Republicans in the House of Representatives who called for an investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings said without any evidence that the report showed systematic collusion between Twitter and aides of Joe Biden, then the Democratic nominee. (Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive at the time, later reversed the decision to block the Post’s story and told Congress it was a mistake.)
Former Twitter executives who have lamented Mr. Musk’s chaotic management of the company called the release of the documents another sign of recklessness. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of trust and safety, said the release of unredacted documents, some of which included the names and email addresses of Twitter officials, was “fundamentally unacceptable” and put people “in danger.” (Mr. Musk later said that, in retrospect, “I think we should have excluded some email addresses.”)
The pivotal role of Mr. Taibbi, a controversial figure in journalistic circles, has sparked his own protest.
Once a major voice on the political left, Mr Taibbi has made a name for himself by portraying himself as an unabashed truth teller. He is perhaps best known for calling Goldman Sachs a “vampire squid” in an article that sparked public outrage on Wall Street. But his comment on former President Donald Trump was at odds with many Democrats — for example, he was skeptical of allegations of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign — and his fan base has changed.
On Friday, Mr Taibbi tweeted that his Twitter feed was “based on thousands of internal documents obtained from Twitter sources.” Musk previously mentioned the leaked information about how Twitter reacted to Hunter Biden’s report. On Friday, shortly before Mr. Taibbi’s keynote, Mr. Musk wrote, “This is going to be amazing,” and added a popcorn emoji, the universal online symbol for eager anticipation. Mr Taibbi also said he agreed to “certain conditions” in exchange for the documents, but did not provide details.
One of dozens of tweets from Matt Taibbi on Friday night.