Elon Musk announced this afternoon that he would release information about the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story today at 5pm:

What really happened with the Hunter Biden story suppression by Twitter will be published on Twitter at 5pm ET!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022

Will include live Q&A

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022

This comes after Musk said last week that releasing information on the story was necessary to restore trust in the platform.

This is necessary to restore public trust

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2022

Musk is pretty clearly tipping his hand on this. He’s not suggesting that releasing whatever he has will clear this up for the media:

Oh you mean the same MSM that all colluded to suppress the story? That MSM?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022

In case you’ve been living under a rock, the NY Post published a story about Hunter Biden’s laptop back in October 2020 and Facebook and Twitter both responded by throttling the ability to share it. Here was Facebook’s response:

This is part of our standard process to reduce the spread of misinformation. We temporarily reduce distribution pending fact-checker review. https://t.co/vf3CBvLmjj

— Andy Stone (@andymstone) October 14, 2020

And then Twitter jumped on it as well:

BREAKING: Twitter has blocked the NY Post article about Hunter Biden. If you attempt to share the story, you will see this message:

"We can't complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful." pic.twitter.com/TWaTKzvtQP

— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) October 14, 2020

Twitter has blocked users from tweeting the New York Post story link and from sending the link via direct message to other users.

— Yashar Ali 🐘 یاشار (@yashar) October 14, 2020

Even Politifact found this unconvincing:

Who are these partners they speak of? Has Twitter partnered with fact-checkers without telling anyone? It would be news to me. https://t.co/xqprI5dnIC

— Angie Drobnic Holan (@AngieHolan) October 14, 2020

Twitter also claimed it was blocking the story under its policy against sharing hacked materials.

From Twitter re blocking the NY Post link. https://t.co/k908Xf1ODV pic.twitter.com/sOMS29lTfB

— Yashar Ali 🐘 یاشار (@yashar) October 14, 2020

A few hours later Jack Dorsey was saying Twitter’s actions were unacceptable.

Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable. https://t.co/v55vDVVlgt

— jack (@jack) October 14, 2020

But Twitter still seemed to be claiming the material had been hacked:

The images contained in the articles include personal and private information — like email addresses and phone numbers — which violate our rules.https://t.co/plPa5SZ3we

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 14, 2020

The Biden administration used Twitter’s response to claim the NY Post story was false, even though Twitter had never said that and sort of implied the opposite.

Biden campaign National Press Secretary @JTOBrown responds to Twitter’s decision to block a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.

“Twitter’s response to the actual article itself makes clear that these purported allegations are false.” #CheddarLive pic.twitter.com/PdPEkMZ85p

— Cheddar News (@cheddar) October 15, 2020

Notorious liar Rep. Adam Schiff also went out to say that the story looked like Russian disinformation to him. But within days both the DOJ and the FBI he said there was no proof that was true. Finally at the end of October, the NY Post was allowed to tweet from its own account again.

We’re baaaaaaack https://t.co/D39qdLGMdV pic.twitter.com/SkVtp4o9ew

— New York Post (@nypost) October 30, 2020

And of course the big payoff came when major media outlets admitted nearly 18 months later that the material on the laptop was real and the story about how it had been left behind by Hunter himself at a small computer repair shop was true. In other words, nothing was hacked and no Russian disinformation was involved. There was never any basis to throttle this story prior to the election.

And while I’ve been recapping this, Musk has tweeted this update (2nd tweet):

We’re double-checking some facts, so probably start live tweeting in about 40 mins

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022

It has has been almost 90 minutes since that tweet saying it would be 40 minutes. I’m starting to wonder if this is going to happen at all tonight. Also, if there’s something to this, why put it out on a Friday night. The Friday night news dump is where you bury things not give them maximum attention. Anyway, if there’s an update, I’ll update below.

And here we go. Musk has two buckets of popcorn and he’s apparently handed the files over to journalist Matt Taibbi:

Here we go!! 🍿🍿 https://t.co/eILK9f3bAm

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022

This starts with an introduction about how Twitter worked behind the scenes:

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

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022

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.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022

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 the likes of spam and financial fraudsters.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022

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

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:

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022

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.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022

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

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022

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

20.This led public policy executive Caroline Strom to send out a polite WTF query. Several employees noted that there was tension between the comms/policy teams, who had little/less control over moderation, and the safety/trust teams: pic.twitter.com/0IFnVPCOgY

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022

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…

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022

Enter Vijaya Gadde.

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

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

They don’t sound confident (this is the exchange in the tweet above):

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

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

I’m trying not to interject here but that response from Vijaya Gadde is really something. They’ve admitted they don’t know if the material is hacked but even so Twitter is demanding the White House press secretary delete a tweet about it in order to regain control of her account.

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.” pic.twitter.com/2EE1NlWQ5k

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022

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

Here’s the letter excerpt so you can read it. Democrats are arguing that “If the companies moderated more, conservatives wouldn’t even think to use social media for disinformation.” And that leads them to the conclusion that “the First Amendment isn’t absolute.” Yikes.

I have to say I was a little worried this was going to be a disappointment but right now it’s not feeling that way. The exchange with Rep. Ro Khanna and the excerpt above are worth having in the open.

While reviewing Gadde's emails, I saw a familiar name – my own. Dorsey sent her a copy of my Substack article blasting the incident pic.twitter.com/4EYVKdVdNF

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022

Anyway, this seems to be winding down for now. I’ll try to update later if there’s more.

Update: Looks like that tweet above was deleted because someone forgot to block Jack Dorsey’s email address. But there’s a bit more to the thread.

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

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

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022

Much more to come. I look forward to seeing it.