The Twitter Files should disturb liberal critics of Elon Musk – and here’s why | Kenan Malik

Leaked messages show an unhealthy link between social media and state security

Half the room is jumping up and down, screaming Gotcha!". The other half shrugs its shoulders, muttering So what's new?". Welcome to the war over the so-called Twitter Files.

Over the past month, Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, has made available to a handpicked group of journalists internal documents and conversations that took place before his takeover. They are mainly discussions about who and what should be moderated or banned, ranging from the Hunter Biden laptop story to the question of whether to remove Donald Trump from the platform. The journalists have made public selected slices of the data through a drip feed of Twitter threads.

Kenan Malik is an Observer columnist

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