Elon Musk Goes Nuclear: 'If This Isn't a Violation of the Constitution's First Amendment, What Is?'
As documents released on Twitter appear to indicate that Twitter became a tool of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election campaign, Elon Musk summed up his disgust with what was revealed.
On Friday, journalist Matt Taibbi shared a communication illustrating how complaints were received.
“One executive would write to another: ‘More to review from the Biden team.’ The reply would come back: ‘Handled,’” he posted on Twitter, leading Musk to reply.
“If this isn’t a violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment, what is?” Musk wrote.
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.” pic.twitter.com/mnv0YZI4af
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022
If this isn’t a violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment, what is?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 3, 2022
Musk on Friday opened up what he called the “Twitter Files” to illustrate how and why censorship decisions were made at Twitter, from routine emails that offended politicians to the wholesale blackout Twitter leveled against the initial reports of material found on Hunter Biden’s laptop, which surfaced in the closing days of the 2020 presidential election.
Taibbi shared a series of tweets illustrating what took place after the October 2020 release of the story. (For a summary of tweets prior to this one, refer to The Western Journal’s Friday report.)
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
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 re speech.” Khanna was the only Democratic official I could find in the files who expressed concern. pic.twitter.com/TSSYOs5vfy
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
32.Khanna tries to reroute the conversation to the First Amendment, mention of which is generally hard to find in the files: pic.twitter.com/Tq6l7VMuQL
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
Taibbi noted that most of what took place to muzzle the story happened without the knowledge of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
The problem with the “hacked materials” ruling, several sources said, was that this normally required an official/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. pic.twitter.com/aONKCROEOd
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
The chain of emails also includes what Taibbi said was a communication to Twitter from Chris Szabo of NetChoice that is supposedly a summary of Democratic views in which lawmakers wanted more restrictions.
36.Twitter files continued:
“THE FIRST AMENDMENT ISN’T ABSOLUTE”
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” pic.twitter.com/cWdNYIprp8— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
As the political world was digesting what was released Friday night, Musk said more was to come.
“Tune in for Episode 2 of The Twitter Files tomorrow!” Musk tweeted
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