Elon Musk Releases Hunter Biden Files From Twitter

Elon Musk is stirring up controversy in a new way, this time by disclosing private internal Twitter discussions with Hunter Biden’s computer files in the fall of 2020. The platform’s new owner, a software billionaire, continued to steer it in a path more favored to conservatives and libertarians on Friday night by promoting a leak of papers on his own account. Earlier this year, Musk urged his supporters to support Republicans in the midterm elections.

After conducting an informal online referendum last month, he restored former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account. The internal company conversations, which predate Musk’s ownership, shed light on the discord and confusion that existed within Twitter during the last weeks of the previous presidential campaign as it dealt with the New York Post’s revelation on Hunter Biden’s files.

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The messages, which were provided to Matt Taibbi, a writer for Substack and a longtime opponent of media outlets and online censorship, have not been independently authenticated by POLITICO. Parts of the leak were revealed by Taibbi in a lengthy Twitter thread on Friday night. Hours before the incident broke out, Musk previewed it in Taibbi’s tweets, saying, “This will be fantastic,” and implying he was intimately involved in its planning.

As users awaited the anticipated discoveries, Musk tweeted, “We’re double-checking certain details, so probably start live tweeting in about 40 mins.” Prior to the fallout from his previous contentious action, in which Musk blocked Ye’s account after the rapper tweeted, “I like Hitler,” his most recent controversial move was made.

The right has assumed the mantle of free speech within the current cultural wars, while the center and left have used worries about misinformation and hate speech to argue for tighter restrictions on online expression. With his lax attitude to moderation since taking over Twitter in October, Musk has won over the right while enraging the left. The businessman tweeted last week, “This is vital to restore public trust,” indicating that he would reveal information concerning Twitter’s participation in stifling the New York Post’s reports.

For the past two years, there has been considerable debate over the release of Hunter Biden‘s computer files, which revealed his turbulent personal life and international business dealings. First citing its policy on hacked and stolen information, Twitter initially restricted links to the New York Post’s article and even forbade users from sharing them in private conversations. However, days later, it overturned its decision.

The Post’s account was suspended by Twitter after it refused to remove a tweet regarding the story. The ban lasted more than two weeks before it was lifted on October 30, 2020, long after Twitter had removed all other limitations on the story. In the wake of the incident, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s former CEO, expressed sorrow over the company’s choice to censor the report.

Then-candidate Joe Biden referred to the news as a “Russian plant” at a debate after the Post’s initial publication, citing a letter from retired intelligence officials who said that the leak “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” John Ratcliffe, Trump’s former director of national intelligence, claimed there was no proof the reports were the product of a Russian disinformation effort. Hunter Biden stated that although he was unsure whether the equipment was his in a post-campaign interview with ABC News, it “absolutely” might have been.

Large portions of the cache have been confirmed by journalists using both conventional reporting methods and technical assessments in the two years after the New York Post stories, however, it is still possible that fake or doctored material has been added to it. A POLITICO reporter wrote in September 2021 that the batch of documents was “at least largely authentic.”

According to a March New York Times article, emails from the trove pertaining to Hunter Biden’s international business operations had been verified by those who were familiar with them. Later that month, the Washington Post claimed that the 22,000 emails contained in the cache were genuine, according to the findings of the two computer security specialists it hired to evaluate the files.

Last month, CBS News stated that the files’ forensic examination, which it had commissioned, revealed no signs of alteration. A criminal investigation by the Justice Department into Hunter Biden’s tax troubles is still ongoing. He has asserted his innocence. When they assume control of the House next month, House Republicans, who tweeted a tribute to Elon Musk in October, intend to look into Hunter Biden’s financial transactions.