“We are here !” Elon Musk hailed the release on Saturday of “Twitter files” that he himself announced and eagerly awaited by Republicans. On the same day, journalist Matt Taibbi revealed in 37 tweets what he claims was the content of internal Twitter conversations during a bluebird censorship of a New York Post article about the contents of the computer of Hunter Biden, son of the President of the United States, in October 2020, for three weeks before the American elections.
These Musk-sanctioned revelations are a way for Twitter’s new owner to fake the “freedom” he claims to take back the social network. But they also mark another twist in the case of Hunter Biden, who, as CheckNews was able to recall in a recent article, has been a sea serpent in American political life for two years now.
The story begins with Delaware computer repairman John Paul Mac Isaac, who allegedly repaired Joe Biden’s son’s computer. On the computer, McIsaac would have found tax returns (while Hunter Biden is at the center of a tax evasion investigation), as well as intimate memories, amateur pornographic content featuring Biden’s son, or even a video where you can see the latter. to take drugs. So much information that the Republican networks immediately tried to exploit… but which most of the mainstream media were initially very suspicious of, given the leak’s unclear origin, suspected hacking, and fear of attempted manipulation in the final stretch of the campaign. There is one exception, however: the New York Post, which quickly hit the ground running but whose article will be thwarted by Facebook and Twitter. Censorship allegations. Two years later, although the elements on which the New York Post was based have been confirmed, it is behind the scenes of this “obstacle” that the Twitter files are about to be taken down.
“Emergency Measures”
At the time, Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, was quick to disavow the social network’s message on the matter: “Our communication around our actions in the @nypost article was not very good. And to block URL sharing via tweet or DM without context explaining why we are blocking: unacceptable,” he wrote, relaying explanations posted via one of bluebird’s official accounts. “The images contained in the articles contain personal and private information such as email addresses and phone numbers, which violates our policies,” the teams justified.
According to Taibbi, “Twitter took extraordinary steps to remove the story, removing links and issuing warnings that it might be ‘dangerous’. They even blocked it from being transmitted via direct message, a tool previously used for extreme cases such as child pornography. The content of the messages reported by the journalist contains detailed information on how the decision was made to prevent the distribution of the content. Which, according to the journalist, was far from unanimous inside. This “was taken at the highest levels of the company, but without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey. Former Head of Legal, Policy and Trust, Vijaya Gadde [remerciée depuis par Elon Musk, ndlr]played a key role,” the journalist writes. According to a former employee, the suspicion of a “break-in”, for which there was no evidence, “was a pretext.” “In a few hours, almost everyone realized that she could not resist. But no one had the courage to reconsider their decision,” the source explained. Mark Taibbi notably posts several screenshots, presented as emails written by senior Twitter officials, questioning the decision to censor the publication of the New York Post article.
Political intervention
“I find it hard to understand how our policy allows us to flag this as unsafe. I think the best argument for the outsider plausibility of this case would be that we are waiting to see if this story is the result of pirated material,” wrote former public relations manager Trenton Kennedy, for example, according to the screenshot. And add: “We will face difficult questions about this if we do not have a solid argument.”
“The problem with the ‘document break’ ordinance, according to several sources, is that it usually requires a break-in to be discovered by a government official or law enforcement agency. But such a conclusion never emerges during what one executive describes as a 24-hour “whirlwind” of confusion across the company,” the journalist wrote on his Twitter thread. Another issue, he says, is that all of these decisions were made “without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey and how long it took for the situation to ‘unlock’.” […]even after Dorsey’s intervention.”
But it was in terms of political interference that the Twitter files were expected. Mark Taibbi reports, for example, that Ro Khanna, the Democratic Congressional Representative, concerned about the case, wrote to Vijay Gadda. The latter confirms, in particular, that the account of White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany was indeed suspended, according to Donald Trump, for sharing an article from the New York Post. Again, the reason is the sharing of personal and hacked data. But Taibbi also claims that both sides, the Biden campaign team as well as the Trump White House, have requested and sought to have the tweets removed. Such requests were “routine,” writes Taibbi, who, however, argues that this system was not “balanced” due to the democratic sympathies of those responsible for the social network.
Trump condemns ‘massive fraud’
The elements shared by Matt Taibbi, which could not be independently verified by other media, bring nothing really new to the merits. But they provide material to fuel Republican narratives about political censorship (Trump supporters systematically forget that social media tampering requests, according to the Taibbi report, were thus also an act of the White House).
On Saturday, Donald Trump reacted to Truth Social [son réseau social alternatif fondé après la suspension de son compte Twitter en 2021, ndlr] : “Are you throwing the results of the 2020 presidential election in the trash and declaring the legitimate WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A massive fraud of this type and magnitude overrides all rules, regulations and articles, even those contained in the Constitution,” he wrote, according to the CNN transcript.
Elon Musk has announced the second part of the upcoming Twitter Files.