General news
‘This will be amazing’: Musk leaks Hunter Biden files from Twitter
Matt Taibbi
y-text__paragraph “>POLITICO has not independently verified the communications, which were provided to Substack writer Matt Taibbi, a longtime critic of online censorship and mainstream media. Taibbi revealed parts of the leak in a lengthy Twitter thread on Friday night.
Musk teased the event hours before it began appearing in Taibbi’s tweets, promising, “This is going to be amazing,” and suggesting that he was personally involved in preparing it.
“We are double checking some facts so we will probably start live tweeting in about 40 minutes,” Musk tweeted as users awaited the promised revelations. The latest controversial move from him came before the dust settled on his last one, in which Musk blocked Ye’s account after the rapper tweeted: “I like Hitler.”
Twitter in October
Within the current contours of the culture wars, the right has taken up the mantle of free speech, while the center and left have cited concerns about misinformation and hate speech to advocate for greater limits on expression online. . Since he took the reins at Twitter in October, Musk has endeared himself to the right and infuriated the left with his laissez-faire approach to moderation.
New York Post
Last week, the mogul hinted that he would release information about Twitter’s role in suppressing New York Post reporting, tweeting: “This is necessary to restore public trust.”
Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden’s leaked computer files, which shed light on his chaotic personal life and business dealings abroad, as well as Twitter’s handling of the leak, have been the subject of controversy for the past two years.
New York Post
Twitter initially blocked links to New York Post reports, even going so far as to prevent users from sharing them in private messages, initially citing its policy on hacked and stolen materials, but it was reversed days later.
When the Post refused to remove a tweet about the story, Twitter suspended the outlet’s account for more than two weeks, before reversing the suspension on October 30, 2020, long after it had lifted other restrictions on the story.
Jack Dorsey
Subsequently, then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said he regretted the platform’s decision to censor the story.
Joe Biden
In a discussion following the Post’s initial publication, then-candidate Joe Biden called the report a “Russian plant,” citing a letter from former intelligence officials that said the disclosure “has all the classic hallmarks of a Russian information operation.” ”.
John Ratcliffe
Trump’s then-director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, said there was no evidence to indicate the stories were the result of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Hunter Biden
In a post-campaign interview with ABC News, Hunter Biden said he didn’t know if the team was his, but it “certainly” could have been.
New York Post
In the two years since the New York Post stories, much of the cache has been verified by journalists relying on both traditional reporting techniques and technical analysis, though it remains possible that forged or altered material may have been inserted.
A September 2021 book by a POLITICO reporter concluded that the file cache was “at least largely genuine.”
New York Times
In March, the New York Times reported that cached emails related to Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings had been authenticated by people familiar with them. Later that month, the Washington Post reported that two computer security experts it commissioned to examine the files concluded that 22,000 emails contained in the cache were genuine.
CBS News reported last month that a forensic analysis it had commissioned of the files found no evidence of tampering.
Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden remains the subject of a Justice Department criminal investigation that has focused on his tax affairs. He has denied wrongdoing.
House Republicans
House Republicans, who tweeted a tribute to Musk in October, plan to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings when they take office next month.
