In 2021, the journalist Matt Taibbi publicized the Twitter Files, revelations about Twitter’s content moderation before its takeover by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Naturally, Taibbi established a report with Musk… but now the tech executive has turned on him.
“You are dead to me,” Musk told Taibbi, according to text messages revealed Thursday. “Please get off Twitter and just stay on Substack.”
Musk made the inflammatory remarks in April after some questions from Taibbi.
Specifically, Taibbi asked Musk about the possible effects of his new policies for moderation.
The gonzo reporter asked whether he was “being shadowbanned” for posting links to his page on Substack, a rival platform.
Musk admitted to temporarily throttling links to all Substack pages.
“We went on lockdown after discovering that Substack had stolen a massive amount of our data to prepopulate their Twitter rip-off,” Musk told Taibbi. “Looks like there is still a blanket search ban. Should be fixed by tomorrow.”
However, Musk later described the suppression as permanent.
“Going forward, tweets with Substack will not appear in [the algorithmically generated feed] unless it is paid advertising, just like FB/Insta/etc,” Musk said.
Taibbi accused Musk of punishing Substack users instead of Substack leadership.
“Elon, I’ve repeatedly declined to criticize you and have nothing to do with your beef with Substack,” Taibbi said.
“Is there a reason why I’m being put in the middle of things? This really seems crazy.”
Musk responded by declaring Taibbi “dead to me.”
Taibbi posted the old messages on Thursday.
“Since @elonmusk published parts of these conversations, I might as well include others,” Taibbi tweeted Thursday. “I was under a ‘blanket search ban’ at one point and a lot of my 1.9 million followers still don’t see my content.”
In a blow to the thin-skinned Musk, Taibbi described Twitter as “worse than ever,” and he announced his plan to leave the platform for good.
“Supposed free speech champion @ElonMusk has decided to suppress this account forever, instead of just talking to me,” Taibbi tweeted.
“@ElonMusk is uncomfortable around people who aren’t afraid of him, and wants to prove he can hurt my business instead of just talking to me, even if it means suppressing access to news he thinks is important.”
Take a look —
Since @elonmusk published parts of these conversations, I might as well include others. I was under a “blanket search ban” at one point and a lot of my 1.9 million followers still don’t see my content. https://t.co/vFRtJFierF pic.twitter.com/k29MFxLUTC
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) February 15, 2024
The Horn editorial team