Elon Musk reveals details on Twitter censorship of Hunter Biden scandal

Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, has disclosed documents which show that the former management of the company censored news about Biden's son Hunter Biden, at the request of US President Joe Biden's team, before the 2020 presidential election.

Musk retweeted a thread on Friday, from the account of independent author and journalist Matt Taibbi, who published a series of tweets outlining the thinking behind the decision to censor the news concerning Hunter Biden's laptop.

A 2020 headline in the New York Post said, "Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad," referring to Joe Biden, who was the country’s vice president at the time.

But the story never gained traction in the mainstream media, possibly in part to Twitter filtering the story and putting a stranglehold on its dissemination to the public.

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Requests to delete tweets were 'routine'

The released records, which seem to be censored emails from Twitter staff members, explain why the tech giant decided to bury the story in the final days of the 2020 presidential campaign.

"Some of the first tools for controlling speech were designed to combat the likes of spam and financial fraudsters. Slowly, over time, Twitter staff and executives began to find more and more uses for these tools. Outsiders began petitioning the company to manipulate speech as well: first a little, then more often, then constantly," Taibbi tweeted.

"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."

The journalist posted the tweets along with a screenshot of an internal email that contained links to tweets that were supposed to be deleted.

Taibbi also made another revelation, tweeting that "White House spokeswoman Kaleigh McEnany was locked out of her account for tweeting about the story, prompting a furious letter from Trump campaign staffer Mike Hahn.

According to information provided by Elon Musk, Vijaya Gadde, the former Chief Legal Officer at Twitter, had a "significant role" in the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020.

Musk also posted an additional tweet saying "Tune in for Episode 2 of The Twitter Files tomorrow," which suggests that the CEO will continue to reveal further controversies from Twitter's past.

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