by Sharon Rondeau
(Apr. 7, 2023) — On Friday afternoon, independent journalist Matt Taibbi, editor of the new Substack publication “Racket News” and a member of the team publishing the “Twitter Files” beginning late last year, announced he will soon be “leaving Twitter” after an unnamed authority at the platform frowned upon his simultaneous use of a new Substack feature, “Notes,” designed for writers to post snapshots of content to further engage readers.
Taibbi researched and produced the first of the Twitter Files, published December 2, 2022, after the company’s new CEO, Elon Musk, invited him and a handful of other journalists to expose discoveries Musk had made after assuming control of the company in late October. In their releases, Taibbi and journalists Bari Weiss, Michael Shellenberger, David Zweig and others revealed clear evidence of government coordination with Twitter dating back to at least 2018 in regard to alleged election security concerns and what amounted to strident requests for censorship of certain accounts and suppression of news which in particular could have affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and decisions for or against taking the COVID-19 vaccines.
Taibbi was the most frequent reporter on the Twitter Files and issued his last release on March 17, titled, “The Great Covid-19 Lie Machine Stanford, the Virality Project, and the Censorship of ‘True Stories'” which Taibbi wrote was “a sweeping, cross-platform effort to monitor billons [sic] of social media posts by Stanford University, federal agencies, and a slew of (often state-funded) NGOs” targeting discussions on “natural immunity” or the possibility that the coronavirus could have “leaked from a lab,” among others.
Taibbi has been stridently attacked for revealing the content of the Twitter Files as well as criticizing the mainstream press for its role in the censorship schemes, with a sitting congressman going as far as to accuse him of “lying.”
During his March 9 testimony with Shellenberger to the House Judiciary Committee, Taibbi was deemed a “so-called journalist” by Democrat U.S. Virgin Islands Rep. Stacey Plaskett, to which Taibbi responded, “Ranking Member Plaskett, I’m not a ‘so-called journalist.’ I’ve won the National Magazine Award, the I.F. Stone Award for Independent Journalism, and I’ve written ten books, including four New York Times bestsellers.”
Without naming the Twitter authority responsible, Taibbi wrote at Racket Friday, “Earlier this afternoon, I learned Substack links were being blocked on Twitter. Since being able to share my articles is a primary reason I use Twitter, I was alarmed and asked what was going on.”
Similarly, The New York Times reported Twitter’s reaction to the new Substack “Notes” on Friday.
“It turns out Twitter is upset about the new Substack Notes feature, which they see as a hostile rival,” Taibbi explained. “When I asked how I was supposed to market my work, I was given the option of posting my articles on Twitter instead of Substack.”
Since purchasing Twitter, Musk, an entrepreneur on many fronts, stressed that he believes in free speech with rare exceptions and reopened the platform to thousands, if not millions, of former users whose accounts had been closed or who simply left the platform due to the censorship which had been ongoing for some time by former Twitter managers. Consequently, discussions on topics such as the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 injections and the world’s response to the declared pandemic of 2020 have flourished and even dominated trends on any given day, as have contrary views and political discussions from all points of the spectrum.
His approach to managing the company was both criticized and praised.
Musk did, however, indicate he would not allow Twitter users to post links promoting competing social-media platforms.
According to The Huffington Post on December 18, 2022, the “controversial new policy” was removed from Twitter. “Accounts that are used for the main purpose of promoting content on another social platform may be suspended,” the page stated. The “Twitter Support” thread containing the new policy was archived on December 19, HuffPo demonstrated.
In a search of @Twitter Support Friday evening, The Post & Email was unable to locate a replacement policy for that which was removed in December.
Taibbi’s short column goes on to say that he harbors no desire to leave Substack and will begin next week posting links to his articles on “Notes” instead of Twitter.
“Notes” posts, Taibbi said, will be available to all subscribers, including those on the free level. His decision to use Substack, he said, “apparently will come with a price as far as any future Twitter Files reports are concerned.”
“It was absolutely worth it and I’ll always be grateful to those who gave me the chance to work on that story, but man is this a crazy planet,” Taibbi added.
As of this writing, Taibbi’s Twitter account remains intact, albeit with users aware he plans to vacate the platform soon.