Musk’s busy weekend: Twitter Files, Fauci prosecution, and Chappelle booing
Christopher Hutton
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Billionaire Elon Musk was extremely busy over the weekend.
He released details about Twitter’s decision-making process in controversial instances of content moderation in what he and his allies have termed the “Twitter Files.” He also got into several conflicts online with former Twitter executives, called for the prosecution of top government epidemiologist Anthony Fauci, and suffered a bad reception in a public appearance.
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Here’s what Musk was up to over the weekend.
Twitter Files on Trump Ban
The third and fourth entries in the Twitter Files, a series of threads documenting the social platform’s internal communications, were released over the weekend and provided more details about how executives chose to ban former President Donald Trump from the platform after the Jan. 6 protests.
The decision to remove Trump from Twitter was made by a “high-speed Supreme Court of moderation,” according to independent journalist Matt Taibbi. This “court” included former Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth; former Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust Vijaya Gadde; and former legal counsel Jim Baker.
The executives had to quickly adapt to create justifications for how to handle Trump’s removal from the platform, according to screenshots released by California-based writer Michael Shellenberger. Roth had been pushing for “greater restrictions” around election misinformation, including adding a new five-strike system that would lead to permanent suspension. Twitter’s leadership also decided to make an exception in Trump’s case to its policy for content from politicians, which is to leave up tweets with misinformation due to “public interest” in the content.
A third drop handled by former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss was scheduled to release on Sunday about how Twitter finalized the decision on Jan. 8 but did not appear. It is unclear when the release will come out.
Taibbi and Shellenberger’s releases offered additional insights into Twitter’s internal discussions about content moderation and how its leadership discussed the process, and arrived after Weiss published details about Twitter’s “blacklist” policy on Thursday and Taibbi provided information on the website’s ban on a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Musk feuds with Twitter executives and Fauci
Musk, meanwhile, got into online spats with an assortment of figures. The billionaire feuded with former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey over the company’s past handling of sexual content involving children on Friday.
Musk also posted several tweets attacking Yoel Roth on Saturday, including suggestions that he advocated child sexualization. “Looks like Yoel is arguing in favor of children being able to access adult Internet services in his Ph.D. thesis,” Musk tweeted alongside a screenshot from Roth’s Ph.D. dissertation, titled “Gay Data,” which discussed data used by the gay dating app Grindr.
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The billionaire tweeted “Pronouns: Prosecute/Fauci” on Sunday, a jab at liberals who ask people what their preferred pronouns are. Musk elaborated on the tweet, claiming that the National Institute of Health official Anthony Fauci should be prosecuted for his role in the research connected to COVID-19. He also claimed that he would release a version of the Twitter Files covering the company’s handling of COVID-19 misinformation.
Booed on stage
Musk made an appearance at an event hosted by comedian Dave Chappelle on Sunday, where the crowd booed him. “Technically, it was 90% cheers & 10% boos (except during quiet periods),” Musk added on Twitter. “but, still, that’s a lot of boos, which is a first for me in real life (frequent on Twitter). It’s almost as if I’ve offended SF’s unhinged leftists … but nahhh.”