Last Friday, freelance journalist Matt Taibbi posted a series of tweets on Twitter called the “Twitter Files.” These are so-called revelations delivered and amplified by Elon Musk himself.
The objective of the information that the boss of Twitter transmitted to Taibbi was to prove the ideological bias of the platform he denounces and which would favor progressive voices. In fact, this case is not based on any new element and shows how the social network prevented the dissemination of pornographic images of Hunter Biden, the son of the current American president.
Hunter Biden’s laptop, sea serpent of American Republicans and conspirators
What Elon Musk presents as a scandal is in truth the decision of the Twitter teams to prevent the dissemination on the platform of an article from New York Post during the 2020 presidential campaign. The newspaper relayed a story there reported by a computer repairman who allegedly had in his hands that of Hunter Biden, the son of the one who was still a candidate at that time. According to his statements, there were e-mails exchanged with Ukrainian officials as well as videos in which he had sex and smoked crack.
The illegal origin, in addition to being generally dubious, of the source had at the time pushed most American press organs not to cover the affair, with the notable exception of the New York Post. For their part, Twitter and Facebook had simply banned its distribution on their platforms, which had enraged Republican activists, but also defenders of freedom of expression. Since then, the mystery surrounding this laptop has fueled many conspiracy theories across the Atlantic. By publishing information on the case, Elon Musk therefore knew very well who he was addressing.
If the decision to prevent the publication of an article is exceptional on a platform which has seen much more dangerous articles being published, the Twitter Files did not have the expected impact. Indeed, these revelations are, for the most part, screenshots of e-mails exchanged between company executives (who have almost all since left) about facts that have been widely known to the public for two years. They reveal that Twitter executives discussed the matter internally at the time, which isn’t really a surprise. No new information on the reasons for the censorship is therefore to be noted. Many Republicans have expressed their disappointment, directly on Twitter or in talk shows dedicated to the case.
Several people harassed as a result
As we know, Elon Musk’s vision of freedom of expression with variable geometry consists in theory of letting everyone express themselves equally, in a world where all speeches are equal. And this, even if these speeches are insults and death threats addressed by the thousands to the same person or entity. In French law, this is called harassment. But anyone who is unfamiliar with European law, and sometimes even just law, doesn’t care.
If the alleged revelations of the Twitter Files are far from having had the expected effect in the media, which only marginally picked up the story to focus on the method, some of the people quoted in the affair nevertheless did not could afford the luxury of ignoring it.
Thus, some people mentioned in the files have received hundreds of insulting messages, and their personal information, not or poorly protected in the screenshots, has been widely leaked. This is the case of Ro Khanna, a member of the House of Representatives, but also of people a priori less public, members of Twitter’s moderation teams. They now face the wrath of anyone who views their work as censorship. The boss of their former company is also the first of these.
Sources: Gizmodo, The Verge
3