Elon Musk made us a promise, and now he is keeping it. The new CEO has released the first in a likely series of threads that will eventually become “The Twitter Files.” The information was given to independent journalist Matt Taibbi, who has been posting the details on the platform in a lengthy thread.

The first part of the drop details how the company added tools to create “barriers” to accessing the platform. At first, they were only designed to “combat the likes of spam and financial fraudsters,” according to Taibbi.

6. As time progressed, however, the company was slowly forced to add those barriers. Some of the first tools for controlling speech were designed to combat the likes of spam and financial fraudsters.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022

But later, the company’s staff and leadership discovered more ways to use content moderation tools. At this point, “[o]utsiders began petitioning the company to manipulate speech as well: First a little, then more often, then constantly.”

7. 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.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022

At some point, politicians, including former President Donald Trump and the Biden campaign, began making requests regarding content moderation. But overall, the system was not “balanced” and was “based on contacts.” Since Twitter is “overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation,” those on the left had a distinct advantage.

11. This system wasn't balanced. It was based on contacts. Because Twitter was and is overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation, there were more channels, more ways to complain, open to the left (well, Democrats) than the right. https://t.co/sa1uVRNhuH pic.twitter.com/K1xmqQ0TrD

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022

Later in the thread, Taibbi begins unfolding the story regarding Twitter’s suppression of the Hunter Biden story.

17. On October 14, 2020, the New York Post published BIDEN SECRET EMAILS, an expose based on the contents of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop: https://t.co/q4zaMw6aVV

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022

The journalist noted that the company “took extraordinary steps to suppress the story,” which included “removing links,” “posting warnings that it may be ‘unsafe,’” and blocking it from being sent through direct messages. What is most noteworthy about this part of the story is that these steps are typically used for extreme cases like child pornography.”

18. 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.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022

Taibbi’s thread details some of the internal exchanges between Twitter’s employees, some of which expressed concerns about suppressing the story. It is also worth noting that then-CEO Jack Dorsey knew nothing about the censoring of the story. Indeed, one employee noted that his co-workers “just freelanced it” and admitted that “[h]acking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that [excuse] wasn’t going to hold.”

However, as time passed, those responsible for the censorship appeared so ensconced in the effort that it was difficult to reverse course. Throughout the course of the scandal, Gadde and other members of leadership spoke with various members of the government. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) expressed concerns about free speech in an email exchange with former head of legal, policy, and trust Vijaya GaddeGadde. He noted, “the story has become more about censorship than relatively innocuous emails and it’s become a bigger deal than it would have been.”

It appears Taibbi still has more information to publish. But even this initial offering is scandalous enough. While Democrats and the activist media will almost surely try to spin this as hard as possible, it is clear that these revelations confirm what conservatives have been saying all along: This was never about “hacked materials” but about trying to influence the 2020 election.