The fourth release of the "Twitter Files" came over the weekend and somewhat honored a request from former President Donald Trump in that he asked Elon Musk to expose the discussions at Twitter that led to his suspension.
The resulting information is nothing short of mind-blowing, and downright frightening.
Independent journalist Michael Shellenberger was tasked with pouring through the latest trove of internal documents released by Musk, continuing what appears to be a blatant trend by Big Tech and the Democratic Party to censor opposing viewpoints.
Just prior to the release, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, "ELON: The Twitter releases are a revelation in that they show, in a very powerful fashion, the FBI and ‘Justice’ illegally colluding."
Trump added, "What everyone is REALLY waiting to see, however, is the Twitter information and thought process leading up to the time of the so-called ‘Election,’ and ultimately the ‘Deplatforming’ of the President of the United States. Big moment in history. Thank you!"
Musk and Schellenberger definitely delivered on that, as the documents that were revealed in the latest tranche were rife with proof that Twitter employees at the time, including some of the top players at the company, went out of their way to literally create new rules and policies to justify Trump's permanent suspension after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
Schellenberger announced part four of the file dump by emphasizing the unprecedented actions taken by Twitter to ban the sitting U.S. president from having a voice.
On Jan 7, senior Twitter execs:
- create justifications to ban Trump
- seek a change of policy for Trump alone, distinct from other political leaders
- express no concern for the free speech or democracy implications of a ban
This #TwitterFiles is reported with @lwoodhouse
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 10, 2022
Even high-profile figures like former first lady Michelle Obama leaned on Twitter to take action against the 45th president. This all happened after Facebook had already pulled the plug on the former president's account.
But after the events of Jan 6, the internal and external pressure on Twitter CEO @jack grows.
Former First Lady @michelleobama , tech journalist @karaswisher , @ADL , high-tech VC @ChrisSacca , and many others, publicly call on Twitter to permanently ban Trump. pic.twitter.com/RzNj7WJReg
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 10, 2022
Eventually, as Schellenberger told in his summary of the documents, Twitter came to the decision to announce the permanent suspension of Trump.
"After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them—specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter—we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," Twitter said at the time.
Trump, and his supporters, were ridiculed by the left for claiming that companies like Twitter conspired against him and conservatives in general, possibly even to affect the outcome of an election.
But here we are, and according to Musk, there are thousands of more documents to be revealed. There's no telling what the world will find out next.