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The Patriot Pony Bonus Section
Monday, December 5, 2022
Bombshell Twitter files suggest censorship driven by politics and connections, not facts "This is a battle for the future of civilization," Musk says in explaining why he released the files. "If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead."
EDITOR’S NOTE—This section is reserved as an editorial and may not necessarily reflect the policy of this publication.
From the 45th President of the United States— Donald Trump on Truth Social Dec. 2, 2022
I am glad that everyone is now seeing the light on what I have been saying loud and clear for the last two years, that the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged and stolen by a combination of Democrats, Big Tech, “law enforcement,” and other bad actors. Sadly, we have become a corrupt Country, perhaps one of the most corrupt anywhere in the world. We MUST right this horrible wrong, and take our Country back! ***** Dec. 2, 2022 Wow! That’s a really big story about Twitter and various forms of government Fraud including, specifically, Election Fraud. The same level of Fraud took place with the other Big Tech companies, if not even worse (if that’s possible?). We are living in a VERY CORRUPT COUNTRY &, AS THEY ARE SAYING ALL OVER THE INTERNET, “NOTHING WILL BE DONE ABOUT IT BECAUSE THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT & FBI ARE TOTALLY CORRUPT.” But they’ll keep investigating “boxes” that were legally & openly taken from the W.H. ***** December 3, 2022 Does anybody notice that the LameStream Media is REFUSING to report about, even a simple mention, the biggest Election Integrity and Interference Scandal in our Country’s History. Watch closely, you will (Continued on page 16)
By John Solomon Elon Musk allowed Americans a glimpse inside his explosive "Twitter files" in a process certain to take many more days. But the first release of memos gave a sobering look suggesting censorship on the platform during the 2020 election was driven by politics and political connections more than facts. Twitter's new owner used independent journalist Matt Taibbi to release a small first batch of internal documents Friday night, detailing how efforts to censor thought on the platform began, then accelerated during the last presidential election, building to a crescendo with the momentous October 2020 decision by the platform to block dissemination of a New York Post story about alleged corruption detailed on Hunter Biden's laptop. Though fragmentary and framed by Taibbi's personal narrative, screenshots of the first memos made a compelling case that Twitter's executives censored the Hunter Biden laptop story in the final days of the 2020 campaign even though they lacked substantiation for the justification that the materials were derived from hacking and therefore in violation of the platform's rules of conduct. "Can we truthfully claim that this is part of the policy?" Twitter's former VP of Global Comms Brandon Borrman wrote in one such memo.
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Twitter docs released by Musk and journalist suggest Democrats could manipulate speech on platform Taibbi posted a lengthy series of threads, which Musk retweeted, detailing the censorship.
"This seems a violation of the 1st amendment principles," Khanna wrote a top By Ben Whedon Twitter executive. Twitter owner Elon Taibbi augmented the Musk, through alternascreenshots of memos tive journalist Matt with commentary he said Taibbi, released a series he got from current and of internal documents on former Twitter employFriday suggesting that the ees. "Hacking was the Biden campaign and excuse, but within a few Democratic National hours, pretty much every- Commitone realized that wasn't tee were going to hold. But no one able to Taibbi wrote he saw "no had the guts to reverse it," manipuTaibbi wrote, quoting one late evidence ... of any govex-employee. speech ernment involvement in on the the laptop story." Musk has cast the release platform The memos, according to of the files as part of larg- through er battle to fight censortools that Taibbi's narrative, also ship in America, and he Twitter make clear that thenvowed Friday night that made Twitter CEO Jack more of Twitter's internal available. Dorsey was left out of files would be released the initial decisionSaturday along with his That manipulation inmaking. Dorsey would hosting of a question and cluded the censorship of later repudiate the cenanswer session. the Hunter Biden laptop sorship decision, calling story first reported by the it a mistake. "This is a battle for the New York Post. The future of civilization," emails appear to cite reAs Twitter scrambled Musk tweeted Monday quests from "the Biden and failed to find eviahead of the release of the team" and "DNC" and dence to back its initial hacking claims, one of its files. "If free speech is lost include confirmations even in America, tyranny that Twitter "handled" research firms took a is all that lies ahead." their requests to delete quick sounding of conposts. gressional reaction and Some of the documents gave an ominous warnhe and Taibbi released Taibbi said that the cening. Friday night suggested sorship machine impactThe NetChoice firm sur- that the Biden campaign ed both "celebrities and and Democratic National unknowns alike" and that veyed nine Republicans and three Democrats and Committee were able to while both Republicans warned the social media manipulate speech on the and Democrats had access to it, the censorship giant a "blood bath" was platform through tools that Twitter made availa- was skewed by a liberal brewing in the nation's ble. bias among the Twitter capital, suggesting the workforce. censorship episode was The emails cited requests poised to become Big from "the Biden team" "It is a Frankensteinian Tech's "Access Hollyand "DNC" and include tale of a human-built wood moment." confirmations that Twitter mechanism grown out "handled" their requests the control of its designCalifornia Democratic er," Taibbi wrote, as he Rep. Rho Khanna wrote to delete posts. slowly narrated the rethe company asking to Taibbi said that the cenlease of the documents discuss the backlash to the censorship of the sto- sorship machine impacted with individual tweets. both "celebrities and unry, making clear he beTaibbi posted a lengthy lieved Twitter had made knowns alike" and that series of threats, which an error of constitutional while both Republicans (Continued on page 16) Musk retweeted, detailproportions. ing the operation, which included screenshots showing that Democratic operatives could submit requests to the platform to remove tweets and that these requests were honored. Former FBI General Counsel Jim Baker, thenTwitter deputy counsel, laid out the lack of evidence even more clearly. "I support the conclusion that we need more facts to assess whether the materials were hacked," he wrote. "At this stage, however, it is reasonable for us to assume that they may have been and that caution is warranted."
One tweet showed a screenshot of Democratic
operatives doing exactly that. "By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine," Taibbi wrote. "One executive would write to another: 'More to review from the Biden team.' The reply would come back: 'Handled.'" A second post, showed screenshots with
takedown requests from the Democratic National Committee. The thread went on to address the Hunter Biden laptop story, with Taibbi saying he saw ""no evidence... of any government involvement in the laptop story." He further asserted that the company's decision to throttle the story was made at the highest levels, but was done without the knowledge of then-CEO Jack Dorsey. He then posted a series of tweets showing email correspondence between Twitter employees, with some expressing concern that the decision was made in error. Among them was former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker, who advocated that the company assume the story came from hacked materials, but also asserted that "we need more facts." Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Rho Khanna wrote in to the company asking to discuss the backlash to the censorship of the story. He received a quick reply detailing Twitter policy, to which Khanna responded by expressing concerns that suppressing the story was violating the First Amendment.
