JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ, CNN EN ESPANOL: In October of 2014, the tabloid New York Post published information relating to a laptop that Hunter Biden, son of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, had dropped off for repairs at a shop in Delaware, and never reclaimed. Twitter decided to restrict (both) the article and dissemination of materials included therein. Elon Musk, owner of Twitter, announced on Friday the publication of (Twitter's) internal communications, but did so in a selective manner and without revealing anything that wasn't already known.
For example, that there was an internal deliberation at Twitter over existing doubts regarding the
origins of the material, that the government suspected that there could be Russian influence in the publication of the files on Hunter Biden's laptop, and that although publication of the article was not allowed on Twitter, it was available on several other sites, including (that of) the New York Post.
In Republican circles, among those closest to Trump, there is talk of alleged censorship, and violation of the First Amendment. But that amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech, bans the government from censoring. Digital platforms are not bound by that amendment. By law, they have the power to moderate user content.
Another allegation is that the government, through the FBI, threatened Twitter against publishing
information on the Bidens. But the government at that time was presided by... Donald Trump.
The emails released selectively by Elon Musk show that this did not happen. They also show that both the Trump White House and the Biden campaign had a direct line to Twitter for requests to remove inappropriate content. In the case of Hunter Biden, (the Twitter Files) reveal that the content that they asked to be removed were intimate photos of Hunter Biden, the publication of which violated Twitter's policy on inappropriate content.
The inappropriate content which led to this dispute are intimate photos of intimate parts of the son of the then-presidential candidate who then became president- of Joe Biden.