Elon Musk, Twitter’s head of communications, had more to say about Tuesday’s reach of government censorship.
With the release of the latest Twitter files, we saw the pressure the Biden administration put on Twitter to de-platform people for things like COVID.
11. A December 2022 summary of meetings with the White House by Lauren Culbertson, Twitter’s Head of U.S. Public Policy, adds new evidence of the White House’s pressure campaign, and cements that it repeatedly attempted to directly influence the platform.
— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022
This is of course a constitutional problem when speech is being suppressed by the government. Twitter is no longer a private company. They are acting under the pressure of the government.
We reported that it wasn’t Twitter the government was pressuring.
Glenn Greenwald, a journalist, was pointing out that the left had been going after Matt Taibbi for exposing the censorship and labeling him mentally ill because he said he was disturbed by the whole thing.
For the crime of reporting that the US Security State agencies are heavily involved in Big Tech’s censorship regime, and for confessing that he found this deeply disturbing, liberals have spent a full week saying that @mtaibbi has mental health problems and needs therapy. pic.twitter.com/N0P1Qmv0Z6
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 27, 2022
The left prefers to attack the messenger than deflect from the message. They don’t want Americans to see how widespread censorship is and how much the government has been involved.
Musk responded that the government was in constant communication with Twitter and virtually all major tech companies.
Most people don’t appreciate the significance of the point Matt was making:
*Every* social media company is engaged in heavy censorship, with significant involvement of and, at times, explicit direction of the government.
Google frequently makes links disappear, for example.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 27, 2022
Musk stated that most people don’t understand the importance of Matt’s point. Musk stated that “*Every* social media platform is involved in heavy censorship with substantial involvement and, at times explicit direction, by the government. Google makes it a habit to make links disappear, for example.
Greenwald pointed out that it wasn’t that they accepted the Democratic narrative, but that the tech companies were pushed into agreeing — or else they would be subject to the penalties of non-compliance. The DHS/FBI/CIA was involved in the pressure.
When Dems controlled both houses of Congress and the WH (and Exec Branch), they repeatedly summoned Big Tech CEOs and openly and explicitly threatened them: if you don’t *censor more*, you will be punished. And DHS/FBI/CIA applied immense pressure:https://t.co/KBMZpFiSzL
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 27, 2022
Now that the curtain is being pulled back, it’s time to take action to stop this from happening again. With the Musk takeover on Twitter, we see how you can bring about change if your heart is set on it. This shouldn’t be a political issue (although it is). Everyone should be against such censorship. There are many questions about constitutional violations. It won’t be enough to have another empty Congressional investigation. If the GOP finally makes an investigation count and takes action, it could gain a lot more credibility with the base.
