Twitter CEO Elon Musk has finally released the ‘Twitter Files: Part One’ revealing how the Hunter Biden-Laptop story was censored by the social media platform during the last week of 2020 US Presidential elections. 


Journalist and author Matt Taibbi explained the entire findings in a series of tweets on Saturday. The tweets reveal how desperately twitter tried to censor the story while it received censorship requests from Democrats and Republicans both. 


Taibbi begins by explaining what ‘Twitter Files’ is and how the operation inside Twitter changed with time.  


“The “Twitter Files” tell an incredible story from inside one of the world’s largest and most influential social media platforms. It is a Frankensteinian tale of a human-built mechanism grown out the control of its designer,” he said. 


He added, “In an early conception, Twitter more than lived up to its mission statement, giving people “the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers. Slowly, over time, Twitter staff and executives began to find more and more uses for these tools. Outsiders began petitioning the company to manipulate speech as well: first a little, then more often, then constantly.” 






He further mentioned how in 2020, Twitter received requests from Biden team to delete tweets to which the reply would come back: “Handled.” 


The thread also explains how everything was done without then Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s knowledge and then legal head Vijaya Gadde ‘playing a key role’. 


Musk responded to entire revelations in a tweet saying, “Handled”, imitating the reply to one of the delete request messages to Biden team by Twitter. 






Read below the finding of ‘Twitter Files, Part One: How and Why Twitter Blocked the Hunter Biden Laptop Story’ 



  •  Taibbi said that on October 14, 2020, the New York Post published BIDEN SECRET EMAILS, an expose based on the contents of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop and Twitter took extraordinary steps to suppress the story. “Twitter took extraordinary steps to suppress the story, removing links and posting warnings that it may be “unsafe.” They even blocked its transmission via direct message, a tool hitherto reserved for extreme cases, e.g., child pornography,” Taibbi said. 


 



  • The thread then shows how a White House spokeswoman’s account was blocked after she tweeted about the story and someone from the Trump administration asked Twitter to “At least pretend to care for the next 20 days” in an e-mail. 







  • The development is then followed by a series of emails within twitter staff to decide if restricting tweets in connection with the Hunter Biden story under the “hacked materials” policy would work. 







  • Taibbi further reveals that the decisions were being made at the highest level of the company but without then CEO Jack Dorsey’s knowledge. Though, he said, former head of legal, policy, and trust Vijaya Gadde played a key role. 







  • “'They just freelanced it',” is how one former employee characterized the decision. “Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that wasn’t going to hold. But no one had the guts to reverse it,” Taibbi said on Twitter’s ‘hacked materials’ policy. 

  • It goes on to reveal the confusion among top heads over maintaining the ‘hacked materials’ ground but decided to hold on to it. 

  • Matt further put the screengrab of the mail exchange between Democratic leader Ro Khanna who, Taibbi claimed was the only one he could find, expressed concern over the issue. Khanna mailed Vijaya Gadde to discuss this on phone. 







  • Matt says that within a day, head of Public Policy Lauren Culbertson receives a ghastly letter/report from Carl Szabo of the research firm NetChoice, which had already polled 12 members of congress – 9 Republicans and 3 Democrats, from “the House Judiciary Committee to Rep. Judy Chu’s office.” 







  • Taibbi wrote that it was too messy and late by the time Dorsey jumped in. He mentioned that at several instances, Dorsey intervened to question suspensions and other moderation actions. 






The journalist mentioned that though both political parties attempted to influence Twitter, it was more open for the Democrats (left), mentioning the hefty monetary contributions made by Democrats to Twitter. 






After the release of part one, Elon Musk tweeted that Part 2 of the Twitter Files would be made public tomorrow. 






Hunter Biden Laptop Story 


It is alleged that Hunter Biden used his father, Joe Biden’s influence, when the latter was the Vice President of the USA, for escaping action against him. Hunter Biden sought huge sums of money for lobbying purposes which have been linked to Libya and China, reported Outlook. 


The New York Post investigation of an abandoned laptop allegedly given for repair by Hunter Biden showed that he introduced his father, Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company.