The Twitter Files 1: How and why Twitter blocked the Hunter Biden laptop story
Musk releases The Twitter Files, Part One: How and Why Twitter Blocked the Hunter Biden Laptop Story, though journalist Matt Taibbi. In a 30-plus post thread, Taibbi relates how Twitter executives blocked the New York Post’s October 14, 2020, Hunter Biden laptop story, using the excuse that it was ‘hacked’, despite having received no notification or confirmation from law enforcement that the laptop actually was hacked. The posts were given warnings and were blocked from being to be shared on Twitter’s direct message system. Taibbi says that executives did this without CEO Dorsey’s knowledge.
The posts details how political parties were able to contact Twitter executives to censor stories, and show communications between ex-staff, including Gadde, Roth, discussing the block.
2. What you’re about to read is the first installment in a series, based upon thousands of internal documents obtained by sources at Twitter.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022
Roth: Musk running Twitter ‘like a dictator’
Speaking at an event hosted by the Knight Foundation, Roth, the former head of Trust and Saftey at Twitter, says the social networking site had started to stray from adhering to publicly available policies towards decisions made by Musk alone.
Roth: Twitter ‘safer’ under Musk than before
In an op-ed in the New York Times, Roth says Twitter is safer under Musk’s ownership:
Almost immediately upon the acquisition’s close, a wave of racist and antisemitic trolling emerged on Twitter. Wary marketers, including those at General Mills, Audi and Pfizer, slowed down or paused ad spending on the platform, kicking off a crisis within the company to protect precious ad revenue. In response, Mr. Musk empowered my team to move more aggressively to remove hate speech across the platform — censoring more content, not less. Our actions worked: Before my departure, I shared data about Twitter’s enforcement of hateful conduct, showing that by some measures, Twitter was actually safer under Mr. Musk than it was before.”
His ability to make decisions unilaterally about the site’s future is constrained by a marketing industry he neither controls, nor has managed to win over.
However:
[Even as Musk] criticizes the capriciousness of platform policies, he perpetuates the same lack of legitimacy through his impulsive changes and tweet-length pronouncements about Twitter’s rules. In appointing himself ‘chief twit,’ Mr. Musk has made clear that at the end of the day, he’ll be the one calling the shots. It was for this reason that I chose to leave the company: A Twitter whose policies are defined by edict has little need for a trust and safety function dedicated to its principled development.
Musk defends Roth
After the disclosure of internal Twitter communications by Roth, that Musk says showed other Twitter staff hiding evidence, Musk defends Roth.
We’ve all made some questionable tweets, me more than most, but I want to be clear that I support Yoel. My sense is that he has high integrity, and we are all entitled to our political beliefs.
We’ve all made some questionable tweets, me more than most, but I want to be clear that I support Yoel. My sense is that he has high integrity, and we are all entitled to our political beliefs.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
Musk: Twitter lawyers hid evidence
Musk shares internal Twitter communications that he says were hidden by Twitter’s lawyers, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. The messages were written by Yoel Roth, Head of Safety & Integrity at Twitter, apparently about Amir Shevat, Head of Product, alleging Shevat was using ‘fraudulent metrics’ and may be actively trying to hide the ball’, which was what Musk was accusing the company of. Roth’s messages:
But also lol if Amir continues to BS me my escalation route is “Amir’s OKRs are entirely based on fraudulent metrics ad he doesn’t care an may be actively trying to hide the ball”
Literally doing what Elon is accusing us of doing
Musk says:
Wachtell & Twitter board deliberately hid this evidence from the court. Stay tuned, more to come …
Wachtell & Twitter board deliberately hid this evidence from the court. Stay tuned, more to come … pic.twitter.com/CifaNvtRtt
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022
Musk later clarifies that he supports Roth:
I want to be clear that I support Yoel. My sense is that he has high integrity, and we are all entitled to our political beliefs.
We’ve all made some questionable tweets, me more than most, but I want to be clear that I support Yoel. My sense is that he has high integrity, and we are all entitled to our political beliefs.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022