Table of contents
- Twitter Files is a "PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL" tale about Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, which Twitter censored for holding information from his abandoned laptop.
- Twitter even sent the prohibition by direct message, and there was no evidence that the government was engaged in the laptop tale.
- Although many people recall hearing a generic warning from federal law enforcement about potential foreign hackers.
- Vijaya Gadde, a former head of legal Policy and Trust, played a crucial part in suppressing the information on Team Biden's request without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey.
- While Elon Musk has been hyping the publication of the confidential documents and has vowed to transform Twitter into a platform for free speech.
The confidential "Twitter Files," disclosed by Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Friday (1), showed how the firm handled a request "from the Biden team" during the 2020 race, immediately after cracking down on Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, and his laptop tale.
Musk shared a link to the account of independent journalist and novelist Matt Taibbi, who started sharing a series of tweets that revealed the reasoning behind the decision to censor the news about Hunter Biden's laptop (2).
Twitter Blocked the Hunter Biden Laptop StoryIn a tweet. Matt Taibbi asked, "How and why?" The New York Post's exposé, "BIDEN SECRET EMAILS," based on the information found on Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop, was released on October 14, 2020 (3).
1. Thread: THE TWITTER FILES
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022
Taibbi claims that the social media platform went above and beyond to hide "The New York Post's Hunter Biden Laptop Story" by taking down the links and posting cautionary messages. He said in a tweet that they even prohibited its transmission via direct message using a feature formerly saved for serious situations, such as child pornography.
The article said, "There is no indication that anyone witnessed any government involvement in the laptop narrative, despite many people recalling hearing about a "general" warning from federal law enforcement that summer about potential foreign hacks." That could have been the issue.
"A former head of legal policy and trust, Vijaya Gadde, played a key role in the decision, which was made at the highest levels of the business without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey," he continued (4).
One of the workers criticized the move to conceal the news on Twitter. Taibbi further described the employee as saying, "They just freelanced it," citing hacking as the justification. Nevertheless, after a few hours, everyone saw that it would not hold. Nobody dared to turn it around.
On Twitter, Taibbi posted a picture and captioned it, saying, "You can see the uncertainty in the following drawn-out exchange, which includes Gadde and former Trust and safety chief Yoel Roth (5).
"I'm having trouble understanding the policy justification for classifying this as dangerous," writes communications official Trenton Kennedy.
The Hunter Biden Laptop Article from the New York Post was described as "privileged and confidential" in a tweet by Taibbi, who also posted the image (6). It further stated that "our teams continue to examine the provenance of the material included in the reporting."
Twitter user Trenton Kennedy said, "I'm having trouble understanding the policy justification for designating this as unsafe, and I think the best external justification for this would be that we are waiting to know if this report is the result of hacked documents."
If we don't have any compelling justification for declaring the link hazardous, we'll be faced with tough questions. Trenton Kennedy cc: @yoel@twitter.com @rsommers@twitter.com @iplunkett@twitter.com @krosborough@twitter.com," reads the picture the author posted.
The New York Post reported earlier in 2020 that less than a year before the elder Biden's pressure campaign to get a prosecutor who was looking into the company fired in Ukraine, Hunter Biden introduced his father, the vice president at the time, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy company.
Approximately a year after Hunter joined the Burisma board at a claimed salary of up to USD 50,000 per month, Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, allegedly emailed Hunder Biden a message of thanks on April 17, 2015, mentioning the never-before-seen encounter (7).
"Dear Hunter, I appreciate you inviting me to Washington, DC, and allowing me to meet and get to know your father. "It's truly a joy and an honor," the email states. In a previous email dated May 2014, Pozharskyi appears to have requested guidance from Hunter on how you may use your influence for the company's benefit.
The 51-year-old has been teasing the release of the internal papers for several days. He has vowed to transform Twitter into a platform for free speech. The public deserves to know the truth, and The Twitter Files on free speech suppression will soon be published on Twitter itself.
He tweeted Monday after promising the data would "soon be published on Twitter itself." "This is a war for the survival of civilization, and if free speech is lost even in America, dictatorship is all that lies ahead," he wrote.
Who is Vijaya Gadde?
Vijaya Gadde, one of the high-ranking Twitter officials, is credited with having "a crucial role" in the company's choice to block The Post's explosive report on Hunter Biden's laptop. Twitter has a long history of being accused of stifling conservative viewpoints (8).
Independent journalist Matt Taibbi, who allegedly obtained communications between top executives at the social media company in the wake of The Post's October 2020 story on Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop, singled out Twitter's former top attorney Vijaya Gadde in an explosive Twitter thread on Friday.
As previously reported, the CEO, Jack Dorsey, was not informed of the decision. Still, it was taken at the highest levels of the organization, with the former head of legal, policy, and Trust, Vijaya Gadde, playing a crucial role.
After looking at internal company correspondence for an article he called "The Twitter Files," Taibbi wrote. Conservatives have long seen Gadde as the organization's main censor.
Elon Musk, the newly appointed CEO and owner of Twitter, has criticized her in the past, alleging that she had already stopped The Post from covering Hunter Biden before Friday's revelations.
After the Capitol Riot, she is said to have been a driving force behind the decision to remove then-President Donald Trump from the podium permanently. Gadde, 48, who earned $17 million at the firm last year, sobbed in front of coworkers in April as he discussed Twitter's future after Musk moves to acquire the company. (9).
Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Republican, noted on Twitter that the weeping Gadde was the same person who spearheaded the effort to hide the Hunter Biden laptop news. It says it all. In response to the barrage of online criticism directed against Gadde, Lara Cohen, then-head of global partnerships at Twitter, accused Musk of "misogyny."
Gadde oversaw the banning of several right-wing personalities from Twitter during her time in office, including the provocateur Milo Yiannapolis and self-described journalist Charles "Chuck" Johnson.
