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Elon Musk Slams New York Times Over Twitter Censorship
On Friday, Substack journalist Matt Taibbi revealed over Twitter a series of documents and emails revealing internal Twitter staff communications debating whether to censor the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story on their platform ahead of the 2020 presidential election, which they ultimately did.
Several emails revealed that Twitter staff engaged in emergency censorship of the story, despite high-level employees clearly being concerned about the move.
According to one email, then-Twitter Global Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth acknowledged the dubiousness of their reasons for suppressing the story, but encouraged it anyway, citing “lessons of 2016.”
Other documents posted in the thread by Matt Taibbi reveal “that Twitter staff had open channels with powerful third parties, including members of both political parties, so that they could flag tweets they deemed problematic and have them ‘handled.'”
Taibbi claimed that because of the liberal bias of the majority of Twitter staff, requests to censor posts from liberals and Democrats were more frequently granted.
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
Despite the importance of exposing this liberal bias in Twitter censorship, mainstream media outlets did not cover the story. According to Alex Christy of the Media Research Center, all three major news networks – ABC, CBS, and NBC – ignored the story Friday evening.
Clay Travis, the founder of Outkick.com, also pointed out that The New York Times’ website was silent on the story the morning after the “Twitter Files” were published. “There is not a single article about @elonmusk or the @twitter email release last night on the @nytimes app this morning,” Travis tweeted.
There is not one single article about @elonmusk or the @twitter email release last night on @nytimes app this morning.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) December 3, 2022
Travis’ tweet piqued the interest of the CEO, who quickly condemned the paper in response.
Elon Musk blasted the New York Times on Saturday for failing to cover the ongoing controversy over political censorship, branding the publication a “lobbying firm for far-left politicians.”
The criticism came in response to a tweet from conservative radio host Clay Travis, who stated that “not a single article about @elonmusk or the @twitter email release” published on Friday had appeared in the Gray Lady’s pages or on its website.
That is because The New York Times has become, for all intents and purposes, an unregistered lobbying firm for far left politicians
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 3, 2022
“That’s because The New York Times has effectively become an unregistered lobbying firm for far-left politicians,” Musk responded.
The bombshell report documenting Democratic pressure that led Twitter censors to silence The Post and its coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 presidential election remained unavailable on the Times’ and Washington Post’s websites Saturday afternoon.
“Whatever your politics are,” Travis continued, “if you’re in the media and don’t think new revelations about the most severe censorship of a newspaper’s story in big tech history isn’t a story worth covering, you’re a propagandist, not a journalist.”
Twitter Comes Alive Slamming Coverup
BOMBSHELL: Elon Musk just exposed how politicians have been exploiting social media companies to manipulate and mislead people. Should never have been allowed to happen!
— Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) December 3, 2022
BOMBSHELL: Elon Musk just exposed how politicians have been exploiting social media companies to manipulate and mislead people. Should never have been allowed to happen!
— Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) December 3, 2022
Evidence of one of the biggest political scandals in modern American history was revealed yesterday by .@elonmusk and 99% of the media is silent.
— Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) December 3, 2022
To my friends in the Democratic Party:
This now documented attack by the DNC is a troubling issue that transcends politics. If the shoe were on the other foot, you would rightfully be enraged. Please join us as Americans on this one. It’s too important to do otherwise. #Twitter
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) December 3, 2022
Looking forward to going through all the tweets complaining about “PR for the richest man on earth,” and seeing how many of them have run stories for anonymous sources at the FBI, CIA, the Pentagon, White House, etc. https://t.co/l0uzwofqPT
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 4, 2022
