Sifting Through the Twitter Files: Live With Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller

Join Reason on YouTube and Facebook at 1 p.m. Eastern for a live analysis of the internal Twitter documents recently published by Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and Michael Shellenberger.

Zach Weissmueller and Nick Gillespie | 12.15.2022 12:04 PM

Independent journalist Matt Taibbi dropped the first version of the Twitter Files as a thread on the social media site on December 2.

1. Thread: THE TWITTER FILES

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022

Since then, Taibbi and his collaborators Bari Weiss and Michael Shellenberger have published several more threads on topics ranging from Twitter's suspension of former President Donald Trump's account to the systematic, secret suppression of topics and accounts like those of Stanford University economist and medical school professor Jay Bhattacharya, conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, and Libs of TikTok.

Join Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller at 1 p.m. Eastern time for a live discussion of the Twitter Files, Elon Musk's reboot of Twitter, the cozy relationship between social media companies and federal law enforcement, and what it all means for the future of online speech.

Ask questions or leave comments ahead of or during the stream on the YouTube video above or at Reason's Facebook page here.

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InsaneTrollLogic 1 year ago

What it means is that a supposedly libertarian publication such as this one should be up in arms about the collusion, demanding that heads roll from both the former Twitter management and from the federal agencies involved for violating the First Amendment. It should be 24/7 condemnation of this collusion.

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1. Dillinger 1 year ago
  
  pretty jacked to hear all the outrage @noon.
  
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  1. KimberlyMiller 1 year ago (edited)
    
    I get paid over 190$ per hour working from home with 2 kids at home. I never thought I’d be able to do it but my best friend earns over 10k a month doing this and she convinced me to try. The potential with this is endless. Heres what I’ve been doing..
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2. Super Scary 1 year ago
  
  I think you misunderstand. See, it was democrats that were largely the ones doing it, so it’s fine.
  
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3. Liberty Lover 1 year ago
  
  It has been a long time since Reason was libertarian. They are part of the media problem, a mouthpiece for the left that ignores any leftist transgression while ignoring libertarians and highlighting any lie about a conservative.
  Yet there could be hope for Reason, unlike other sites like this, they still let people comment and criticize them. Although I am beginning to believe they just quit reading the comments is why!
  
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  1. bogibiw 1 year ago (edited)
    
    I have even managed $20,000 per calendar month by simply working some easy tasks from my apartment. As I had lost my office career, I was very disturbed but luckily I’ve discovered this best on-line career that’s why I’m capable of earning a thousand USD just from home. Each person can avail this best offer & collect more greenbacks online
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Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2 1 year ago

Why should a libertarian care about Hunter Biden’s Penis?

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1. InsaneTrollLogic 1 year ago
  
  So you admit you’re just jealous of Hunter Biden’s penis?
  
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  1. Dillinger 1 year ago
    
    every fucking day.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. PeterPatao 1 year ago (edited)
      
      Cash generating easy and fast method to work in part time and earn extra $15,000 or even more than this online. by working in 1ce85 my spare time. I made $17250 in my previous (ste-03) month and i am very happy now because of this job. you can try this now by follow
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  2. I, Woodchipper 1 year ago
    
    Too old for him
    
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2. Bill Dalasio 1 year ago
  
  You know, Hunter Biden’s laptop has indications of influence peddling and government rigging international affairs to benefit their cronies. It’s pretty telling that the only thing you think of any import is Mr. Biden’s penis. Then again, didn’t you traffic in kiddie porn? –
  
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  1. Sarah Palin's Buttplug 2 1 year ago
    
    Indications?
    Big Guy 10% is absolutely meaningless.
    It looks like a bar tab.
    
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    1. InsaneTrollLogic 1 year ago
      
      It looks more like a pimp or a mob boss.
      
      Log in to Reply
    2. Super Scary 1 year ago
      
      “It looks like a bar tab.”
      Hahaha, he said it again. What an absolute joke.
      
      Log in to Reply
3. I, Woodchipper 1 year ago
  
  You’ve tried this one a hundred times. Is it working yet?
  
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  1. Mother's Lament 1 year ago
    
    No, but he’s paid to redirect, so here we all are.
    
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4. Mother's Lament 1 year ago
  
  InB4 Sarcasmic, Jeff and White Mike join Shrike on the “It was only about sex, bribery? what bribery?” narrative.
  
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5. Sevo 1 year ago
  
  turd lies; it’s all he ever does. turd is a kiddie diddler, a TDS-addled shit-pile, and a pathological liar, entirely too stupid to remember which lies he posted even minutes ago, and also too stupid to understand we all know he’s a liar.
  If anything he posts isn’t a lie, it’s totally accidental.
  turd lies; it’s what he does. turd is a lying pile of lefty shit.
  
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6. DesigNate 1 year ago
  
  Good dog. I’m sure your masters are pleased with your attempt to deflect.
  
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7. Liberty Lover 1 year ago
  
  Because STD’s are terrible and communicable. Harming others is against libertarian principles.
  
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JesseAz 1 year ago

Is the commentary just why it was a good thing now? Or did they skip to it was a one time thing felt necessary, they had good intentions?
Basically I’m not going to bother listening to it.

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windycityattorney 1 year ago

Maybe in the effort of transparency Musk can release the internal emails and slack conversations that led to the banning of the @elonjet Twitter user. The one he specifically said he would not ban because of his ‘free speech absolutism.’ [his words].
Perhaps he does not understand what free speech absolutism is or… and this is a wild take… maybe he was always full of shit? He keeps making exceptions for this or that (citing safety concerns) and before you know it, the ‘new’ free speech Elon Musk twitter starts looking just like the old twitter where you replace government censors with Elon’s personal sensibilities. SUPER MOD MODE ENABLED

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1. windycityattorney 1 year ago (edited)
  
  To be clear; I don’t dispute his right to do with his property as he sees fit. He can ban whoever the f he wants. I am interested in his hypocrisy. And this is quite hypocritical of him whatever his fanboys say otherwise.
  
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  1. JesseAz 1 year ago
    
    To be clear, this is the obvious line of attack all the left blue checkmarks are currently using. So not shocked.
    I mean he was pretty clear about the policy he has now implemented. Real time location updates. He said delays in the information are fine. What are you exactly confused about?
    
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    1. windycityattorney 1 year ago
      
      I am not confused about anything. He is the one that claims to be the free speech absolutist. He is the one who used the example of the same exact account @elonjet as proof of his free speech bona fides (as he promised NOT to ban it). He is also the one that made up a new rule (an exception to the free speech absolutism) and applied it to @elonjet first. After trying unsuccessfully to buy the account to silence it prior to his acquisition of Twitter.
      If we follow his logic for why the rule exists [its dangerous] then there is going to be a whole lot more moderation and exceptions to the free speech absolutism since there are plenty of accounts he let back on twitter (or refuses to moderate or fires all the people who actively do the moderation) that stoke potential danger to real people.
      He is a hypocrite.
      
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      1. Mother's Lament 1 year ago
        
        He’s not a hypocrite. He just got scared when crazy-ass leftist extremists started tailing him using the doxxing account.
        But he is wrong, Shrike sock #876624. If he actually said he wouldn’t ban it, he should have hired more bodyguards and kept to his word.
        
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        windycityattorney 1 year ago
        
        I don’t know if the event with his child actually happened or not. I will assume it did happen. Setting aside how the @elonjet account tracking his plane’s movements is connected to the car incident (was it leaving the airport where the plane just landed?) how the fuck does the world’s 2nd richest man not have armed security preventing that sort of thing? Celebrities get stalkers all the time. Trivial expense to have some hired/armed muscle driving his kids around. Nothing about it makes a lot of sense.
        
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        Sevo 1 year ago
        
        Stuff your TDS up your ass, fuck off and die.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        JesseAz 1 year ago
        
        I mean the video exists…
        
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    2. windycityattorney 1 year ago
      
      As to the real time updates: I look forward to him banning all the accounts where someone tweets at another user about meeting them for lunch/dinner/drinks at some specific location. Real time updates of location? Yes. Will they get banned? Not likely.
      Exceptions for the exception ad infinitum for a million other possible scenarios (tweeting your upcoming softball game, picnic, fishing location, etc…etc….) Perhaps moderating one of the world’s largest social media sites takes some actual work.
      
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      1. DesigNate 1 year ago
        
        One of these things is not like the other. One of these things is not quite the same.
        
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  2. Dillinger 1 year ago
    
    >> I am interested in his hypocrisy.
    seems quite limited here.
    
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  3. I, Woodchipper 1 year ago
    
    I’m much more bothered by his banning of Ye and his unwillingness to let Alex Jones return.
    The private jet tracker is reasonable tbh and in line with existing Twitter policies. It’s one of the few things that the platform should probably moderate to avoid liability and pissing off advertisers.
    Slurs and rude jokes and questioning vaccines or elections , those should not be censored.
    
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    1. windycityattorney 1 year ago
      
      The Twitter policy at issue here was created after Elon’s purchase. It didn’t exist before, which is why Elon didn’t ban the account immediately after his purchase. They had to create the policy to then apply it and ban the account (and the guy’s personal account mind you.)
      
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      1. Mother's Lament 1 year ago
        
        What policy is that, Shrike. When was it implemented and what does it say?
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        windycityattorney 1 year ago
        
        I don’t know who you think I am, but I am not shrike. I used to have an account on volokh back when OrinKerr was posting 4th amendment stuff regularly – an area of law I practice in frequently and appreciated his expertise on. I re-found the volokh conspiracy after some years away and it had been subsumed by Reason in the interim. Hence me commenting on this board and finding it overrun with MAGA retards.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Sevo 1 year ago
        
        You’re a TDS-addled pile of shit; that’s all anyone needs to know.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        windycityattorney 1 year ago
        
        Don’t you have some $99 lame photoshops of Donald Trump nft’s to jerk off to or something? The one’s with his shirt off with fake muscles might be right up your alley.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        JesseAz 1 year ago
        
        You sound like every other deluded leftist here.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        JasonT20 1 year ago (edited)
        
        Yep. All those deluded leftists that offer criticism of your heroes.
        
        Log in to Reply
  4. ThomasD 1 year ago
    
    To be clear you are full of shit.
    Musk was entirely clear that posting real time location info was a bannable offense.
    The people banned were posting links to a site called ElonJet, which tracks Musk’s jet despite the fact that the FAA has an ADSB privacy ban on it. You normally can’t search his tail number – ElonJets got around that by knowing where the planes were last and revealing their otherwise anonymous flight paths.
    They all knew what they were doing and did it anyway.
    
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  5. happy american 1 year ago
    
    Fanboys. Is that how you see people on the other side of a issue you take interest in ? The hypocrisy goes much deeper than anyone could have imagined. Politicians on both sides , but mostly Democrat routinely contacted twitter and had people banned. While publicly denying that it was even happening. Your ok with that because your side is doing most of the banning. People that think like you are dangerous to a free society. Since males can be girls lighten up Karen.
    
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2. I, Woodchipper 1 year ago
  
  You’re doing great. Keep it up.
  
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JasonT20 1 year ago

Breaking news: Twitter suspends the accounts of journalists pointing talking about the other bans. Oh, and the ability to link to Mastodon.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/twitter-suspends-journalists-covering-elon-musk-company-rcna62032

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1. InsaneTrollLogic 1 year ago
  
  Serves some of the fuckers right. They went and doxxed his kid yet again, in violation of the policies. Of course, now they’re all about “free speech”. Before, it was all “ban the conservative”.
  
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2. DesigNate 1 year ago
  
  Private business. Sorry.
  Hahahahahahahaha
  
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3. Truthfulness 1 year ago (edited)
  
  How DARE someone ban defenders of harassment! We should be allowed to dox anyone we disagree with!
  
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AmyMcconnell 1 year ago (edited)

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ThomasD 1 year ago

Shame on Musk for failing to live up to the lefty perfection “ideals” that they never were willing to impose upon anyone else in charge of Twitter.
Rather than questioning Musk running Twitter perhaps Reason should spend some time looking at the ongoing practices of Google and Facebook.

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