BOMBSHELL: E-mails establish collusion between Twitter and Biden campaign ahead of 2020 election
Twitter CEO Elon Musk released bombshell internal emails on Friday regarding the platform’s decision to suppress the New York Post’s shocking Hunter Biden Laptop story ahead of the 2020 Presidential Election, which could have prevented Joe Biden from becoming President.
In a thread posted to Twitter by Substack journalist Matt Taibbi, it has been revealed that former Twitter Executive Vijaya Gadde, who headed the company’s Legal, Policy, and Trust department, played a "key role" in the story’s suppression, and that Twitter worked alongside the Biden campaign to censor content on the platform.
Here we go!! 🍿🍿 https://t.co/eILK9f3bAm
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022
“What you’re about to read is the first installment in a series, based upon thousands of internal documents obtained by sources at Twitter,” Taibbi wrote. “The ‘Twitter Files’ tell an incredible story from inside one of the world’s largest and most influential social media platforms. It is a Frankensteinian tale of a human-built mechanism grown out the control of its designer.”
3. The “Twitter Files” tell an incredible story from inside one of the world’s largest and most influential social media platforms. It is a Frankensteinian tale of a human-built mechanism grown out the control of its designer.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022
Taibbi explained that Twitter was created to give people “the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers,” but as time progressed the company was forced to implement tools to control speech that was first designed “to combat spam and financial fraudsters.” But those tools were quickly weaponized, and outsiders began petitioning the company to censor speech.
9. Celebrities and unknowns alike could be removed or reviewed at the behest of a political party: pic.twitter.com/4uzkHnQ65E
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022
One internal email exchange between two Twitter Executives shows that Twitter honored a request from the Biden campaign to remove tweets that they wanted censored.
“More to review from the Biden team,” an executive wrote, listing a series of Twitter accounts.
“Handled,” another executive said in response.
9. Celebrities and unknowns alike could be removed or reviewed at the behest of a political party: pic.twitter.com/4uzkHnQ65E
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022
While both parties (the Biden campaign and Trump White House) had access to these tools, Taibbi writes that “Because Twitter was and is overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation, there were more channels, more ways to complain, open to the left (well, Democrats) than the right.”
11. This system wasn't balanced. It was based on contacts. Because Twitter was and is overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation, there were more channels, more ways to complain, open to the left (well, Democrats) than the right. https://t.co/sa1uVRNhuH pic.twitter.com/K1xmqQ0TrD
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
On October 14, 2020, the New York Post published an expose based on the contents of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop which exposed the family’s alleged shady foreign business dealings.
“Twitter took extraordinary steps to suppress the story, removing links and posting warnings that it may be ‘unsafe.’ They even blocked its transmission via direct message, a tool hitherto reserved for extreme cases, e.g. child pornography.” Taibbi wrote.
18. Twitter took extraordinary steps to suppress the story, removing links and posting warnings that it may be “unsafe.” They even blocked its transmission via direct message, a tool hitherto reserved for extreme cases, e.g. child pornography.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was suspended from Twitter for sharing the report which led to Twitter’s public policy executive Caroline Strom sending an email to the communications team asking why she was suspended.
The answer: Violating the company’s “hacked materials” policy.
Except further internal emails obtained by Taibbi revealed that the article did not violate the company’s policy and that "The decision was made at the highest levels of the company, but without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, with former head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde playing a key role.”
24. “They just freelanced it,” is how one former employee characterized the decision. “Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that wasn’t going to hold. But no one had the guts to reverse it.”
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
“Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that wasn’t going to hold. But no one had the guts to reverse it,” one former employee said that recalled the decision, according to Taibbi.
In one email exchange, Gadde could be seen communicating with former Trust and Safety Chief Yoel Roth, regarding censoring the story for being "unsafe."
Taibbi said that according to a former Twitter employee, that Twitter refused to correct their mistake in suppressing the Hunter Biden Laptop story and covered it up instead, saying “everyone knew this was fucked.”
26. By this point “everyone knew this was fucked,” said one former employee, but the response was essentially to err on the side of… continuing to err. pic.twitter.com/2wJMFAUBoe
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
26. By this point “everyone knew this was fucked,” said one former employee, but the response was essentially to err on the side of… continuing to err. pic.twitter.com/2wJMFAUBoe
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
28. To which former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker again seems to advise staying the non-course, because “caution is warranted”: pic.twitter.com/tg4D0gLWI6
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
26. By this point “everyone knew this was fucked,” said one former employee, but the response was essentially to err on the side of… continuing to err. pic.twitter.com/2wJMFAUBoe
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
The internal documents show that Twitter mettled in the 2020 Presidential election by having a strong political bias against conservatives and censoring information that was unfavorable to Democratic politicians.
Journalist Matt Taibbi indicated that this was just the first release of the internal documents showing Twitter’s extreme bias and will release more shocking reports in the future.
Elon Musk confirmed on Twitter that part 2 will be out tomorrow.
Katie Daviscourt
Journalist
Katie Daviscourt is a Seattle-based journalist reporting on the U.S. for Rebel News. Katie has had her work featured across national media outlets including Fox News, Newsmax, One America News and more. Her independent reporting and investigative journalism on issues that local media refuses to report on, such as Antifa and corrupt politicians, has gotten her a guest spot commentating on Fox News.
https://twitter.com/KatieDaviscourt