Twitter Files Part 1: What inside details were revealed in Elon Musk’s ‘expose’

World’s richest man and new Twitter boss Elon Musk on Saturday released the first part of his ‘expose’ called the ‘Twitter Files’. Released with an independent journalist Matt Taibbi, the Twitter Files part 1 shows the social media platform’s internal exchange with the campaign team of US President Joe Biden during the 2020 US Elections. 

The expose reveals the inside story behind Twitter’s decision to censor the story around President Biden’s son Hunter’s laptop. Titled, “The Twitter Files, Part One: How and Why Twitter Blocked the Hunter Biden Laptop Story”, a series of tweets claimed that Twitter took “extraordinary steps” to suppress the story on Biden’s secret emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop published by New York Post in October 2020.

2. What you’re about to read is the first installment in a series, based upon thousands of internal documents obtained by sources at Twitter.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022

The company removed links to the story from the platform and discouraged users by posting warnings that the content may be “unsafe”. Twitter even blocked transmission via direct messages using a tool “hitherto reserved for extreme cases, e.g. child pornography". 

It was further revealed that while the decision was made at the “highest levels of the company”, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey did not have knowledge. Twitter’s former head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde played a key role, Taibbi added.

What was the Hunter Biden laptop story?

The New York Post reported back in 2020 that Joe Biden was introduced to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm by Hunter while he was vice president. Less than a year later, Biden pressured Ukraine government officials to remove a prosecutor probing the energy firm. It was also revealed that Hunter Biden was on the board of the company and had a reported salary of $50,000 per month. 

More such inside details are expected to emerge in the coming days as part of the 'Twitter Files' expose that Elon Musk will release as he bids to assert his idea that the platform suppressed free speech instead of promoting it during the earlier reign.

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