Understanding the ‘Twitter Files’

Last week, a blue-check Twitter user took to the platform with a clickbait-level tease: the revelation of “what really happened” with Twitter’s suppression of the New York Post’s 2020 Hunter Biden story would be forthcoming.

The user was no clout-chasing journalist, but billionaire, entrepreneur, and Twitter owner Elon Musk. He soon retweeted a thread by independent journalist Matt Taibbi containing internal Twitter communications discussing Twitter’s censorship of the Post story. “Here we go!!” Musk crowed.

In the days since, Taibbi’s reporting became something of a Rorschash test: Some think it a bombshell revelation, while others say it’s much ado about nothing. It apparently got Twitter Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker fired Tuesday for “vetting the first batch of ‘Twitter Files’—without knowledge of new management,” Taibbi tweeted. Then he promised a new installment of the “Twitter Files”series would drop soon.

So what should we make of the new revelations?