The ‘Twitter Files’ are a distraction

Billionaire Elon Musk’s purchase of Twittera> was one of the top stories across the news media in 2022. The takeover has been an unmitigated disaster, leading to the firing of over half its workforce, massive cuts to its content moderation teams, increased employee exploitation, unprecedented surges in hate speech, censorship of dissidents and journalists, and technical glitches, among other ills. In a whirlwind of chaos, harm, and dysfunction, a distraction was needed.

Enter the “Twitter Files”. In November, Musk announced that information was going to be released regarding “free speech suppression” at Twitter before his takeover. In December, several journalists and writers started publishing Twitter threads and articles based on files they were given access to, exposing pressure from governments and corporations to suppress certain stories or opinions.

While the revelations do point to some disturbing practices, the way they have been handled and released is quite problematic. Worse still, they serve the agenda of a “digital dictator” who has no interest in upending the profit-driven digital colonial model that allows governments and corporations to arbitrarily restrict freedom of speech on social media platforms.