Twitter Files, Part 3: Elon Musk sheds light on the ousting of Donald Trump

Elon Musk said on Friday that the FBI will moderate content ahead of the 2020 presidential election as part of an expanded three-part “Twitter file” that dives into the dismissal of former President Donald Trump. has revealed details of the work it has done in collaboration with Twitter employees. from the platform.

Just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, freelance journalist Matt Tybi added to previous revelations of Twitter’s left-wing tendencies that led to the censorship of conservative views and the suppression of Hunter Biden’s laptop story. promised Twitter users an inside look at what led to Mr. Trump’s expulsion following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

“Whatever your opinion on that day’s decision to fire Trump, the internal communications on Twitter between Jan. 6 and Jan. 8 clearly have historical significance.” Twitter employee Even understood that this was a landmark moment in the annals of speech.”

The first segment focused on what Taibi called the “erosion of internal standards” in the months leading up to the Capitol riots, with Twitter’s comments on censoring election-related content posted by Trump. The employee’s internal discussions were detailed.

An internal document revealed in the thread described what Taibbi said as “a decision by a high-level executive that violates its own policies against the backdrop of ongoing documented interactions with government agencies.” doing.

“During this time, executives were apparently in communication with federal enforcement and intelligence agencies regarding the moderation of election-related content,” Taibi wrote. “We are still in the early stages of reviewing #TwitterFiles, but we delve into these interactions daily.”

Taibi shows direct communication between federal officials and Twitter employees in the first Twitter file about the company’s decision to censor articles on Hunter Biden’s laptop weeks before the election. He reported that he had found no concrete evidence.

But in a thread on Friday, he uncovered evidence, including internal chat logs, pointing to an “enhanced relationship” between federal agencies and Twitter executives.

In a Slack exchange between Twitter employees published in a recent article, Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, listed correspondence with federal officials as a common meeting on his public calendar. I implied that I was disguised as

“I am a strong believer in calendar transparency,” Ross wrote to a colleague. “But I got to a point and my conference…became very interesting…for people…and there weren’t enough generic conference names to cover.”

“I swear I will never meet with the FBI,” he quipped.

“Laughter,” replied an anonymous colleague.

In a separate internal chat, Twitter policy director Nick Pickles strategized with an anonymous employee on how to disguise information obtained from federal officials in external communications.

“Are you satisfied with the marketing department saying that we detected misinformation? [machine learning], human review, ***partnerships with outside experts*?” an anonymous employee asked Mr. Pickles. “I know it’s been a slippery process, so I’m not sure our public account wants hats off to it.”

“Can we just say ‘partnership’? Mr. Pickles answers. “I don’t know how to describe the FBI/DHS as professionals.”

Other internal messages were reported by Ross to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the White House when a scandal over Twitter’s censorship of Hunter Biden’s laptop story unfolded in October 2020, just weeks before the White House. The election revealed that he had met with federal officials at the Department of Homeland Security.

“We sync with FBI/DHS/DNI weekly: Election security,” Roth reported to a colleague in one chat. “The meeting took place about 15 minutes after the implosion of the aforementioned hacked material. The government refused to share anything useful when asked.”

“Monthly meetings with the FBI [Foreign Influence Task Force,]’ continues the report. “I was briefed on some ongoing investigations.”

Internal communications also revealed that the FBI had reported concerns about certain posts related to the election. Twitter employees made the final decision on what action to take after considering the FBI’s concerns.

In one instance, a Twitter employee decided to apply the note “learn how voting is safe and secure” to one post reported by the FBI.

Other internal chats revealed deliberations over whether to censor other posts that have not been flagged by federal agents. Many of them were created by Mr. Trump.