Elon Musk will finally reveal how Twitter engaged in free speech suppression in the run-up to the 2020 election through internal files of his new company.
“This is going to be awesome,” tweeted Elon Musk, teasing the announcement with a popcorn emoji.
Elon Musk’s Twitter files produced by No Smoking Gun show the tech giant bowing to the wishes of Democrats. A handful of 2020 screenshots in an unrelated nearly 40-tweet thread over the course of two hours on Friday evening debating the San Francisco company’s decision to block sharing of a controversial New York Post story about the son of then-Democrat Shows the presidential candidate.
This will be awesome 🍿
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022
Twitter threads based on internal communications posted by Substack writer Matt Tibby showed that the company independently decided to limit the article’s spread, without Democratic politicians, the Biden campaign or the FBI taking control of the social media network and a The only input that Taibi noted was from a current politician.
That was Silicon Valley representative Ro Khanna, who told Twitter executives that he should distribute the story regardless of the potential consequences for his party.
Jamil Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in an interview, “I’m not sure these bombs are close to detonation.” Insiders say Musk’s ‘free speech’ agenda overrules security work at Twitter.
Elon Musk took the extraordinary step of promoting the leak of internal company communications to Taibi, exposing the names of several rank-and-file workers and Khanna’s personal email address in the process. Twitter activists mobbed online over the series, threatening them and circulating their photos online.
Former Twitter trust and security chief Joel Roth, who was among the employees named in the tweets, said publicly posting the names and identities of front-line employees involved in content moderation harms them and is fundamentally unacceptable. said in a social media post.
Elon Musk, Tabby and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Elon Musk admitted in a Twitter Space audio chat Saturday afternoon that he made some mistakes, including some cases where I think we should have excluded some email addresses.
Elon Musk said during a Twitter space that the idea is to explain what has happened in the past to build public confidence for the future. Elon Musk said he joined via a Starlink satellite connection from his private jet.
Elon Musk also criticized media coverage of the files. He said that instead of admitting that he lied to the public, he is trying to pretend that it was nothing. shame on them.
Elon Musk and Tabby both tweeted that they would reveal more details on a second chapter on Saturday. Musk also said on Space that he shared the documents with another Substack author, Bari Weiss, and suggested he might share them with the public in the future.
Authorities say growing Twitter antisemitism fueled the violence. Musk, the spectacle of another week of chaos on Twitter after the key tweet, met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday afternoon and reported the rise of hate speech on the Twitter platform.
He also drew attention to suspending rapper Yeh, who tweeted a picture of a swastika with the Star of David. The relaunch of the paid Check Mark system, expected for Friday, has been delayed again, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the decision.
Elon Musk’s free speech agenda has defined his turbulent acquisition of Twitter, as he has argued from the early days of the deal that the platform serves as a de facto city square where people can “speak freely within limits.” are capable.” He claimed that the company has a strong leftist bias.
In recent days, he has pardoned a number of previously suspended accounts, including those of far-right influencers and those affiliated with the QAnon extremist ideology. Elon Musk has said that while he agrees with some Democratic Party and some Republican policies, he is increasingly turning to the GOP. Before the midterm elections, he encouraged millions of his followers to vote Republican.