Twitter has seen a lot of change since Elon Musk has taken over. The conversion of the blue tick to a revenue-generating paid option or the firing of thousands of employees. It’s difficult to say whether things have turned for the better or worse. And now Elon’s new stunt, which is called “Twitter files”, is again taking social media by storm. So, what is it? and why is everyone talking about it like a big deal? Let’s take a look.
What are Twitter files?
Elon wants to change Twitter completely, but to do that, he first has to change and reveal everything wrong with the social media platform. Twitter files are a way he is trying to do that. These files show conversations between executive officials of the platform before the US presidential elections took place in 2020 and were published by journalist Matt Taibbi.
It is clear that these conversations do have a lot of controversial elements, which is why the term Twitter files have become so viral. It primarily discusses the deleted article involving Hunter Biden (Joe Biden’s son) and his laptop. The blog published by the NY Post revealed that Hunter Biden’s laptop had proof that he was working with Ukrainian businesses using political power and also had a 12-minute sexual video of him. But there is also the possibility that the files have been manipulated because Hunter Biden’s laptop changed multiple hands.
When the blog post was published, Twitter did its best to hide the report about Hunter Biden. It used ‘extreme measures’, said Matt Taibbi. From suppressing tweets and even interfering with direct messages. However, it is difficult to say the real reason behind Twitter taking such steps and stopping the article’s propagation. It is said that it might have been due to the suspicion that the Russians were trying to manipulate the west.
The conversation in Twitter files
Matt Taibbi, the journalist, revealed the internal conversations that the company executives had at Twitter regarding the decision of shadow banning the article posted by the NY Post. The first decision to ban the New York Post account was changed after 48 hours, and they unblocked the account after a fortnight. Even Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter at the time, said it was a mistake that the New York Post was automatically deleted.
1. THREAD: The Twitter Files
THE REMOVAL OF DONALD TRUMP
Part One: October 2020-January 6th— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
This is totally against free speech, and Elon actually pointed it out, saying that Twitter violated the first amendment of the US Consitution. It also ensures that the government cannot censor most of the content we see. But again, there is a loophole to this because Joe Biden was not the president at the time, so his asking to remove tweets, pictures, and anything else that concerns his son is just a request by a US citizen. So, not that is not illegal.
At the same time, we must also note that Hunter Biden’s sexual images were not posted with this consent and that is against Twitter’s policies. This is also the reason why we can’t outright say that what Twitter did was wrong. Taibbi didn’t have any information or evidence from the Twitter files that showed that the company gave parties direct access to request content removal from their platform. But still, he claims so.
What does the whole saga mean?
If we conclude that Joe Biden had the ability to remove the blog post concerning his son from Twitter and he did it, then it also means the same could have been the case for much other information. At the same time, we could say that the election in 2020 might have come out in Trump’s favour if these things didn’t happen. This is also the reason Donald Trump has time and again talked about the fraud and deception tech companies are spreading.
Even if the president’s son is the focus of a federal investigation, the findings will have no influence on the president’s detractors since they don’t offer any information on the details of the Hunter Biden affair. It also doesn’t provide any new information on Twitter’s moderation policies, which are regularly attacked for being opaque, arbitrary, and inconsistent, except for the fact that they show internal conflicts and embarrassment inside the business.
So, I feel the biggest impact of Twitter files is on the social media platform itself. It has further lowered the image of the already tumbling social media platform. I am sure that’s what Elon Musk would want.
It doesn’t end here! Twitter files 2.0
The saga now continues to Twitter files 2.0, which was recently posted by Bari Weiss, a journalist for “The Free Press.” It talks about details like secret blacklists and shadowbanning from the social media platform. Starting with the “secret blacklists” it was created by some Twitter employees wanting to limit the activities of certain people or tweets.
THREAD: THE TWITTER FILES PART TWO.
TWITTER’S SECRET BLACKLISTS.
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 9, 2022
The worst part is that they do all this without sharing any information with the user. So, Twitter has never been about free speech if it completely controls what you and I can and cannot see on our feed.
The social media platform’s team also has an internal name for shadow banning. They call it ‘visibility filtering.’ There are claims that it is a very powerful tool and can absolutely control what shows up in the feed. It affects very selective and influential people, so it might not be the same for you and me.
Twitter files 2.0 also shows that Jack Dorsey was also involved in things that were going on in Twitter along with the Head of Legal Policy and trust, Global Head of Trust and Safety and even Parag Agarwal. They had a secret group that made political decisions. So, the idea that Dorsey was not involved in anything as per the Twitter files part 1 might not be true.
What are your thoughts on Twitter files and the 2.0 version? And do you think this new stunt by Elon will be beneficial for the company as they are coming clean? Let us know in the comments below. And, if you found our content informative, share it with your family and friends.
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