X Corp—X released internal Twitter Files revealing prior government content moderation requests
Starting December 2, 2022, X under Musk released a series of internal documents known as the 'Twitter Files' through selected journalists. The releases detailed how Twitter had received and sometimes complied with content moderation requests from U.S. government agencies. While Musk framed these as exposing government censorship, Twitter's own attorneys stated in a June 2023 court filing that the files did not show government coercion, and media analysts noted the documents largely showed typical content moderation challenges. Former employees noted Republican officials also made frequent takedown requests.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Transparency | +toward | primary | +1.00 |
| Press Freedom | +toward | secondary | +0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | +0.664 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
X published internal Twitter Files through selected journalists beginning December 2022
Starting December 2, 2022, X released internal documents through journalists including Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss, detailing prior Twitter content moderation decisions and government interactions. Ten installments were published through late December 2022. While Musk framed these as exposing censorship, media analysts and Twitter's own attorneys disputed this characterization.