What really happened with the Hunter Biden story suppression by Twitter

Thread by @mtaibbi on Thread Reader App
/7–9
What really happened with the Hunter Biden story suppression by Twitter

Thread by @mtaibbi on Thread Reader App
7–9 minutes
75,946 views

1. Thread: THE TWITTER FILES

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

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 story about a human-made mechanism that has grown beyond the control of its creator.

4. Twitter, in its conception, was a brilliant tool for enabling instant mass communication, making a true real-time global conversation possible for the first time.

5. In an early conception, Twitter more than lived up to its mission statement, giving people "the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers."

6. As time progressed, however, the company was slowly forced to add those barriers. Some of the first tools for controlling speech were designed to combat spam and financial fraudsters.

7. Slowly, over time, Twitter staff and executives began to find more and more uses for these tools. Outsiders began petitioning the company to manipulate speech as well—first a little, then more often, then constantly.

8. By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: "More to review from the Biden team." The reply would come back, "Handled." [Imag 1]

9. Celebrities and unknowns alike could be removed or reviewed at the behest of a political party: [Imag 2]

10. Both parties had access to these tools. For instance, in 2020, requests from both the Trump White House and the Biden campaign were received and honored. However:

11. This system wasn't balanced. It was based on contacts. Because Twitter was and is overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation, the left (well, Democrats) had more channels, more ways to complain, than the
right. opensecrets [Imag 3]



12. The resulting slant in content moderation decisions is visible in the documents you’re about to read. However, it’s also the assessment of multiple current and former high-level executives.

Okay, there was more throat-clearing about the process, but screw it, let's jump forward.

16. The Twitter Files, Part One: How and Why Twitter Blocked the Hunter Biden Laptop Story

17. On October 14, 2020, the New York Post published "BIDEN SECRET EMAILS," an expose based on the contents of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop: nypost




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.

19. White House spokeswoman Kaleigh McEnany was locked out of her account for tweeting about the story, prompting a furious letter from Trump campaign staffer Mike Hahn, who seethed: "At least pretend to care for the next 20 days." [Imag 4]

20. This led public policy executive Caroline Strom to send out a polite "WTF?" query. Several employees observed conflict between the communications and policy teams, which had little or no control over moderation, and the safety and trust teams: [Imag 5]

21. Strom’s note returned the answer that the laptop story had been removed for violation of the company’s "hacked materials" policy: archive [Imag 6]

22. Although several sources recalled hearing about a "general" warning from federal law enforcement that summer about possible foreign hacks, there’s no evidence that I've seen of any government involvement in the laptop story. In fact, that might have been the problem.

23. 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 characterised the decision. "Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realised that wasn’t going to hold." But no one had the guts to reverse it.

25. You can see the confusion in the following lengthy exchange, which ends up including Gadde and former Trust and safety chief Yoel Roth. Comms official Trenton Kennedy writes, "I'm struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this as unsafe." [Imag 7]

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. [Imag 8]

27. Former VP of Global Comms Brandon Borrman asks, "Can we truthfully claim that this is part of the policy?" [Imag 9]

28. To which former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker again seems to advise staying the course because "caution is warranted": [Imag 10]

29. A fundamental problem with tech companies and content moderation is that many people in charge of speech know little or care little about speech and have to be told the basics by outsiders. To wit:

30. In one humorous exchange on day 1, Democratic congressman Ro Khanna reaches out to Gadde to gently suggest she hop on the phone to talk about the "backlash over the speech." Khanna was the only Democratic official I could find in the files who expressed concern. [Imag 11]

Gadde responds quickly, delving into the weeds of Twitter policy, unaware that Khanna is more concerned with the Bill of Rights: [Imag 12]

32. Khanna tries to reroute the conversation to the First Amendment, mention of which is generally hard to find in the files: [Imag 13]

33. Within a day, head of public policy Lauren Culbertson receives a ghastly letter or report from Carl Szabo of the research firm NetChoice, which had already polled 12 members of congress—9 Republicans and 3 Democrats—from "the House Judiciary Committee to Rep. Judy Chu’s office." [Imag 14]

34. NetChoice lets Twitter know a "blood bath" awaits in upcoming Hill hearings, with members saying it's a "tipping point," complaining tech has "grown so big that they can’t even regulate themselves, so government may need to intervene." [Imag 15]

35. Szabo reports to Twitter that some Hill figures are characterising the laptop story as "tech’s Access Hollywood moment": [Imag 16]

36. Twitter files, continued:
"THE FIRST AMENDMENT IS NOT SUFFICIENT"
Szabo’s letter contains chilling passages relaying Democratic lawmakers’ attitudes. They want "more" moderation, and as for the Bill of Rights, it's "not absolute." [Imag 17]

An amazing subplot of the Twitter/Hunter Biden laptop affair was how much was done without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey and how long it took for the situation to get "unfucked" (as one ex-employee put it) even after Dorsey jumped in.

While reviewing Gadde's emails, I saw a familiar name: mine. Dorsey sent her a copy of my Substack article blasting the incident. [Imag 18]

There are multiple instances in the files of Dorsey intervening to question suspensions and other moderation actions for accounts across the political spectrum.

The problem with the "hacked materials" ruling, several sources said, was that this normally required an official or law enforcement finding of a hack. But such a finding never appears throughout what one executive describes as a "whirlwind," 24-hour, company-wide mess. [Imag 19]

It's been a whirlwind 96 hours for me, too. There is much more to come, including answers to questions about issues like shadow-banning, boosting, follower counts, the fate of various individual accounts, and more. These issues are not limited to the political right.

Good night, everyone. Thanks to all those who picked up the phone in the last few days.
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