Elon Musk’s Twitter exposé keeps getting crazier and even more infuriating as his team continues to divulge the inner workings of the company before he took over. On Friday, the third chapter of the Twitter Files dropped. It detailed how the previous leadership decided to suppress and later ban former President Donald Trump.
But one of the revelations that was particularly intriguing was how the company handled tweets coming from Joe Biden in contrast to its treatment of Trump. According to journalist Matt Taibbi, the difference was pretty stark. He noted that “there are multiple instances of involving pro-Biden tweets warning Trump ‘may try to steal the election’ that got surfaced, only to be approved by senior executives.”
41. Meanwhile, there are multiple instances of involving pro-Biden tweets warning Trump “may try to steal the election” that got surfaced, only to be approved by senior executives. This one, they decide, just “expresses concern that mailed ballots might not make it on time.” pic.twitter.com/kGtHHngtyd
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Taibbi also pointed to tweets with the hashtag #StealOurVotes that claimed the former president would attempt to steal the election were approved because it was “understandable” and a “reference to …. A US Supreme Court decision.”
42. “THAT’S UNDERSTANDABLE”: Even the hashtag #StealOurVotes – referencing a theory that a combo of Amy Coney Barrett and Trump will steal the election – is approved by Twitter brass, because it’s “understandable” and a “reference to… a US Supreme Court decision.” pic.twitter.com/6BjJhjypD2
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served under the Obama administration, posted a tweet claiming that Trump was “deliberately” trying to cripple the postal service to influence the outcome of the election. Twitter slapped a generic warning label on the tweet, but former cybersecurity head Yoel Roth quickly removed it.
43. In this exchange, again unintentionally humorous, former Attorney General Eric Holder claimed the U.S. Postal Service was “deliberately crippled,”ostensibly by the Trump administration. He was initially hit with a generic warning label, but it was quickly taken off by Roth: pic.twitter.com/UXoXxE9E1S
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Later in the thread, Taibbi explains that the company, in 2020, “was deploying a vast range of visible and invisible tools to rein in Trump’s engagement, long before J6.”
This little bit of information is yet another that vindicates what conservatives and other non-progressives have been saying for years. Twitter, in the pre-Musk era, was just like other social media companies, including Facebook and YouTube. It essentially functioned as an arm of the progressive movement, throttling the reach of conservative accounts while boosting the signals of those on the left.
Naturally, left-wing activist media outlets are going to downplay or spin the latest skinny on Twitter’s malfeasance, as they have been doing ever since the first installment of the Twitter Files dropped. But even the most cursory of glances shows they are struggling to craft arguments that would actually convince people that these details are not significant.
In a sense, Musk has yanked the curtain off, and progressives can no longer deny that the company was extremely biased in how it applied its content moderation policies. If he were to stop even at this moment, it would be enough to show how depraved the company’s leadership was when it came to the spirit of the First Amendment. But as Taibbi indicated, there is more to come.
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