Social media censorship background is difficult. Just ask before Twitter employees have a decision to block 2020 New York Post Office story about Hunter, son of Joe Biden was selected yesterday in tweets from writer Matt Taibbi of Substack.
Or ask Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter and self-proclaimed Director of Twit, who blasted Taibbi’s tweets, which were flooded with screenshots claiming to show internal company announcements. Despite their bill as evidence of a history of political bias at the company, the filings depict people caught in a trap that currently traps Musk himself, who must make any tough decisions. about what’s allowed on Twitter.
The tweet thread, which Taibbi calls a “Twitter File,” shows the company’s executives rushing to make a thorny censorship call in a no-win situation. With a looming presidential election, New York Post Office reports that a Hunter Biden laptop contains evidence that he improperly attempted to broker a meeting between a corporate client and his father when Joe Biden was vice president of the United States .
The emails and messages in the screenshots posted by Taibbi show what one executive called a “whirlwind,” as some of Twitter’s policy and reliability and safety staffers questioned. inquired about the original decision to block story sharing for violating the platform’s policy on distributing hacked material. (Origin of the notebook, and do all the files on it really belong for Hunter Biden, is still unclear.)
The screenshots show an employee warning, “We’re going to face tough questions on this if we don’t have some solid reason.” A lawyer for the company said it was “reasonable because [Twitter] to assume that the material obtained by the newspaper was stolen. Other screenshots show Twitter executives giving advice from a Democrat of Congress and tech industry lobbyists.
What has the world learned about Twitter’s handling of the incident from the so-called Twitter Files? Not much. After all, Twitter reversed its decision two days later, and then-CEO Jack Dorsey said the decision to moderate was “wrong”. Instead, the thread that feeds new conspiracy theories revolves around the laptop story, including the insinuation—without substantiated evidence—that government officials intervened. to suppress parcel story.
However, the most striking lesson from Taibbi’s topic can be applied to Musk himself, who made major moderation decisions at Twitter almost unilaterally.
Over the past two weeks, Musk has reinstated former US president Donald Trump’s account based on the results of a Twitter poll and unblocked a bunch of other users who were previously banned from the site for breaking the rules. content. Musk also champion the return of Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, whose account was restricted in October after Ye posted an anti-Semitic tweet. (Restricted accounts still appear on the platform, but users cannot post or interact with them.)
However, this week Musk announced that Ye will be suspend all again after tweeting the swastika image inside the Star of David. His reasoning, which academic and journalist called it unclear, that the post violated Twitter’s rules against inciting violence.
