Twitter Files

Overview

The Twitter Files refers to a series of internal emails shedding light on Twitter's alleged suppression of the 2020 Hunter Biden Hard Drive Leak story, which was released by journalist Matt Taibbi in early December 2022. The documents revealed the process of how the suppression was purportedly installed and pointed at possible drivers behind the decision, including many of Twitter's staff, with the following installments of the Twitter Files shedding light on visibility filtering on Twitter and on the decisionmaking process behind the "Donald Trump's ":https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/donald-trump suspension following the January 6th, 2021, Capitol attack. The leak prompted viral discussions of freedom of speech on social media and widespread controversy.

Background

New York Post's Hunter Biden Hard Drive Leak

On October 14th, 2020, the New York Post^[1] published an article titled, "Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad," in which emails allegedly sent between Joe Biden's son Hunter and a Ukrainian businessman were released. The article also included several photographs of Hunter Biden allegedly sourced from the hard drive, including pictures of him shirtless, smoking cigarettes and sleeping with a glass pipe hanging from his mouth.

That day, journalist Yashar Ali tweeted that Twitter was blocking users from posting a link to the NY Post story in both tweets and direct messages, purportedly suppressing the spread of the story. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany had notably been locked out of her account for posting a tweet about it.^[2] Later that day, the official @TwitterSafety feed published a series of tweets explaining the company's reasoning for censoring the NY Post story, claiming it violated a policy that "prohibits the use of our service to distribute content obtained without authorization."

The Twitter Files

Two years later, on December 2nd, 2022 (notably after Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter), journalist Matt Taibbi released screenshots of internal communications between high-ranking Twitter management on October 14th, 2020, which purportedly shed light on decision-making at the company that day. The documents, obtained by sources at Twitter and provided to journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss, contained emails in which Twitter management discussed measures taken by the company that day and the reasoning behind them.

The release, made in a 37-tweet-long thread,^[3] started with Matt Taibbi discussing Twitter deleting tweets allegedly at the behest of political parties, and, due to "Twitter [being] overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation," there were more ways to complain openly to the Democrats than to the Republicans, resulting in a "slant in content moderation decisions."

Further in the thread, Taibbi summarized the measures purportedly implemented by Twitter to suppress the spread of the New Your Post story, which was marked as violating Twitter's "Hacked Materials" policy, and published several emails sent by high-ranking officials on October 14th, 2020. In one of the leaked emails, communications official Trenton Kennedy writes,^[4] “I'm struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this as unsafe” (shown below, left). In another email,^[5] former Trust and safety chief Yoel Roth cited "lessons of 2016" as one of the reasons for suppressing the spread of the story (shown below, right).

More emails leaked by @mtabbi revealed a conversation between Twitter and the research firm NetChoice, in which NetChoice quoted Congress officials saying "tech is screwed and rightfully so" and reported that the Democratic party wanted social media to have more moderation.^[6][7]

The first tweet in the thread received over 130,000 retweets and 376,000 views in five days, and the Twitter Files were widely covered by mass media in the following days.

Developments

Twitter Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker Fired

On December 6th, 2022, Twitter Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker was fired^[8] by Twitter CEO Elon Musk for his role in the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story — with some notably purporting that Musk was unaware of Baker's role in his company prior to his dismissal.^[16] It was later revealed that Baker, a former FBI attorney, was involved in reviewing the Twitter files before they were sent to Taibbi and Weiss.

Twitter Files Supplemental

On December 6th, 2022, Matt Taibbi posted another Twitter Files thread in which he reported the firing of Jim Baker and disclosed that Baker was the person in charge of releasing the Twitter Files (shown below).^[9]

In the thread, Taibbi wrote that the next installment of The Twitter Files would be published on Twitter by journalist Bari Weiss.^[10]

The same day, investigative journalist Lee Fang highlighted^[15] that James Baker was allegedly involved in assisting the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign's operatives in spreading fabricated evidence against her competitor Donald Trump (tweet shown below).

Twitter Files Parts 2-5

On December 8th, Bari Weiss released^[17] the second part of the Twitter Files, dedicated to "Twitter's secret blacklists."

A new #TwitterFiles investigation reveals that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics--all in secret, without informing users.

On December 9th, 10th and 12th, journalists Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger and Bari Weiss released parts three,^[18] four^[19] and five^[20] of Twitter Files on Twitter, all revealing internal communications during the January 6th, 2021, Storming of the United States Capitol and in the days that followed, the events which ultimately resulted in Twitter suspending president Donald J. Trump on January 8th. The documents revealed that Twitter employees organized^[21] to demand their employer ban Trump, with Twitter executives banning Trump despite key staffers not being able to confirm that Trump did incite violence.^[21]

Online Reactions

The Twitter Files became a major topic in early December 2022 as it was widely covered in the media, with The New York Times,^[11] The Washington Post^[12] and other news outlets reporting on the story.

On social media, the release of the Twitter Files was followed by viral debates, with users expressing various opinions on the matter and demanding accountability from those involved (example tweets shown below).

On December 4th, YouTuber^[13] Asmongold also uploaded a video about the Twitter Files, which received over 363,000 views on YouTube in four days (shown below).

On December 7th, 2022, following the news of James Baker's involvement in reviewing the Twitter Files, Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey urged^[14] Elon Musk to "release everything without filter." The tweet (shown below) received over 2,100 retweets and 14,300 likes in one day.

Search Interest

External References