Elon Musk’s Twitter Files have made headlines in recent weeks, exposing, through several journalists, different employees’ involvement with the censoring of information pertaining to Hunter Biden’s laptop and the banning of Donald Trump’s official account. Musk has promised more editions to the Twitter Files that will investigate the suppression and censorship of opinions on the COVID-19 pandemic that were counter to the Left’s agenda. 

While many on the Left on Twitter and other media outlets have tried to claim that what Musk is doing is irrelevant and insignificant, the opposite is true. Twitter is one of, if not the most influential public squares for political discussion. People from all over the political spectrum can simply speak their minds, exercising their First Amendment right to free speech. Therefore, when this social media giant suppresses and censors one side of the political spectrum, it is a big deal. 

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, was banned from Twitter, and for what? Did he call for violence and for the deranged assault on the Capitol on January 6th? No. In fact, he posted several tweets in defense of the Capitol Police and called for the people at the January 6th protest to keep it peaceful, “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!” Yet, after pressure from outside figures such as Michelle Obama and many anti-Trump Twitter employees, the platform decided to ban him.  

The ironic thing about Trump being banned for incitement of violence is that Twitter has not enforced this rule on many people in the past who actually incited violence through their speech. As Bari Weiss, one of the journalists aiding Musk with the Twitter Files, pointed out, in 2018, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, tweeted “#Israel is a malignant cancerous tumor in the West Asian region that has to be removed and eradicated: it is possible and it will happen. 7/31/19.” (emphasis added). Twitter did not ban Khamenei and didn’t even delete his tweet. But somehow Donald Trump claiming that the people who voted for him “will not be disrespected” was a dangerous tweet that needed to be deleted. Weiss provided three other examples of world leaders (former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed) who actually encouraged and called for violence, but were not banned. This blatant hypocrisy of Twitter is not insignificant and has led to the censorship of many right-wing people. Jack Doresy, the founder and former CEO of Twitter even admitted, “Twitter is so liberal that its conservative employees don’t feel safe to express their opinions.” 

What do I hope happens with the Twitter Files? I hope for one thing: justice. I want justice for Donald Trump, who was defamed and banned for no good reason by the hypocritical Twitter staff. The first step to fix this has been taken by Elon Musk who unbanned Trump’s account several weeks ago. It will be interesting in the near future to see what Musk sheds light on next on the Twitter Files.