Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, said today that the “Twitter Files” is just a distraction. The files have revealed the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story. Substack journalist Matt Taibbi published the details per Elon Musk.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday dismissed Elon Musk’s release of the so-called “Twitter Files” as a “distraction” at a time when she says the platform is facing a rise in hate speech.
The exchange came days after Musk, who acquired Twitter in late October, released bombshell revelations about what led the tech giant to suppress a New York Post story on Hunter Biden’s laptop in the final weeks of the 2020 election.
Musk outsourced his findings to Substack journalist Matt Taibbi who published a lengthy thread detailing the platform’s censorship and the internal decisions that were made. At the time, Twitter Safety alleged that the articles were in violation of its “hacked materials policy.”
Jean-Pierre raised questions on the timing of the release of the files:
“We see this as an interesting coincidence, if I may, that [Musk] would so haphazardly … push this distraction that is full of old news if you think about it,” she said. “And at the same time, Twitter is facing very real and very serious questions about the rising volume of anger, hate, and antisemitism on their platform and how they’re letting it happen.”
Some are saying that Musk owning Twitter has “led to a significant rise in hate speech.” Musk has said it has declined “despite significant user growth.”
“Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom of reach,” Musk said earlier this month. “Negativity should & will get less reach than positivity.”
Funny how they say it’s a distraction, how they question the timing, and how they bring up hate speech but not the findings. Why hasn’t the White House spoken out on the findings? Now, who is causing a distraction?
