‘Twitter Files’ Journalist Matt Taibbi Says Elon Musk ‘Proved to be Very Disappointing on the Free Speech Issue’
Matt Taibbi, who worked on the “Twitter Files” with Elon Musk, has said that the X owner “proved to be very disappointing on the free speech issue.”
Musk has repeatedly claimed to be a “free speech absolutist,” while shadowbans, unexplained suspensions, and unevenly enforced rules have continued.
Taibbi discussed the issue during an appearance on NewsNation’s “Cuomo” Friday.
“I do believe that Elon proved to be very disappointing on the free speech issue,” Taibbi said. “All of us who worked on the Twitter Files felt the same way. We went in feeling tremendously optimistic that he actually meant a lot of the things that he said about being in favor of all legal speech and, being a free speech absolutist and all these other things.”
“That proved not to be the case. He’s currently disenfranchising thousands of Substack writers, including including me. And no one seems to care in the press,” Taibbi continued.
In February, Taibbi posted bizarre text messages from Musk in which he appeared upset that the journalist was continuing to write on Substack.
“Elon, am I being shadowbanned?” the conversation begins.
Since @elonmusk published parts of these conversations, I might as well include others. I was under a “blanket search ban” at one point and a lot of my 1.9 million followers still don’t see my content. https://t.co/vFRtJFierF pic.twitter.com/k29MFxLUTC
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) February 15, 2024
“We went on lockdown after discovering that Substack had stolen a massive amount of our data to prepopulate their Twitter rip-off,” Musk replied.
“Looks like there is still a blanket search ban. Should be fixed by tomorrow,” Musk continued. “Going forward, tweets with Substack will not appear in For You unless it is paid advertising, just like FB/Insta/etc. They will appear in ‘Following.’”
“Elon, I’ve repeatedly declined to criticize you and have nothing to do with your beef with Substack,” Taibbi wrote. “Is there a reason why I’m being put in the middle of things? This really seems crazy.”
“You are dead to me,” Musk replied. “Please get off Twitter and just stay on Substack.”
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