{"id":49646,"date":"2022-12-08T14:02:53","date_gmt":"2022-12-08T14:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packetstormsecurity.com\/news\/view\/34122\/Jack-To-Elon-Can-We-Just-Get-The-Doxxing-Over-With.html"},"modified":"2022-12-08T14:02:53","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T14:02:53","slug":"jack-to-elon-can-we-just-get-the-doxxing-over-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/jack-to-elon-can-we-just-get-the-doxxing-over-with\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack To Elon: Can We Just Get The Doxxing Over With?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you haven\u2019t been following, Musk has been airing the platform\u2019s dirty laundry in public for the past week or so. Last Friday, the tech CEO hailed the release of the \u201cTwitter Files<\/a><\/span>,\u201d an expos\u00e9 by investigative journalist Matt Taibbi that involves internal documents about the company\u2019s decision-making related to the notorious New York Post story incident. <\/p>\n

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Don\u2019t remember the Post incident? Well, apologies for the multitude of digressions but this whole situation is sorta complicated. <\/p>\n

It all started with Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop. Yeah, remember the laptop? In 2019, the troubled younger Biden is alleged to have somehow lost a MacBook Pro that contained a whole bunch of pictures of him doing drugs and cavorting with hookers. Supposed emails from this laptop somehow ended up in the hands of New York Post reporters and, three weeks before the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, the newspaper published a story about them. Citing somewhat vague justifications about a violation of its \u201chacked materials\u201d policy, Twitter proceeded to suppress access to the story and subsequently suspended the New York Post\u2019s Twitter account for a period of some three weeks. Conservatives accused the tech company of playing politics and some alleged that, by suppressing the story, the company was attempting to help Joe Biden get elected.<\/p>\n

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Now, reporters Taibbi and Bari Weiss have been given access to emails and other company documents that reveal the platform\u2019s internal deliberations as they sought to suppress the Post story. Taibbi has characterized Twitter\u2019s suppression of the story as a disturbing infringement on free speech. <\/p>\n

Jack, Twitter\u2019s prophet-bearded former CEO, similarly seems to want to clear the air. His suggestion\u2014that Musk release the docs\u2014is definitely interesting. Dorsey himself isn\u2019t accused of any wrongdoing in connection to the \u201cFiles.\u201d That said, it\u2019s worth asking: just what the heck is Jack doing?<\/p>\n

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The former Twitter CEO has kept a fairly even posture when it comes to both his former workplace and Twitter\u2019s new supreme leader, Musk. Dorsey actually advocated for Musk to take over, going to bat for him when it became apparent that the tech scion wanted to commandeer the platform: \u201cElon is the singular solution I trust,\u201d he said<\/a><\/span> in April, not long after the wheels starting turning for the acquisition. At the same time, Dorsey has kept himself close to Twitter while also venturing somewhat afield. Lately, he\u2019s been piloting what some have called a Twitter competitor and\/or \u201calternative<\/a><\/span>,\u201d the social media initiative Bluesky. However, Bluesky was actually spawned by Twitter\u2019s parent company, so it\u2019s basically a spinoff of the company\u2014not a rival. In October, Bluesky announced that it would be accepting sign-ups for a new service, and made gestures at the idea that it was gearing up to launch a more useable product. As Twitter continues to waffle and Bluesky flutters its wings, it\u2019s somewhat unclear what Jack\u2019s longterm strategy is or what his hopes for both platforms are. <\/p>\n

Whatever happens with Bluesky, it seems like Dorsey\u2019s former home, Twitter, may not out of the woods yet when it comes to its current troubles. Jack\u2019s casual missive about releasing \u201ceverything\u201d came not long after news broke Tuesday that the company had fired (or, as Musk put it, \u201cexited\u201d) James Baker, the platform\u2019s former Deputy General Counsel. According to Musk, Baker was fired because, without Musk\u2019s knowledge, he had \u201cvetted\u201d the Twitter Files before they were officially \u201cleaked\u201d by Taibbi last week. This has disturbed some because of Baker\u2019s former job as FBI general counsel under James Comey and his apparent role in assisting with the probe into former President Donald Trump. Again, conservatives see evidence of political bias. In 2020, the FBI very publicly announced that it was investigating whether the Hunter Biden laptop story was \u201cdisinformation<\/a><\/span>,\u201d and a recent admission by Twitter\u2019s former head of site integrity shows that, during the time period, bureau officials also warned<\/a><\/span> Twitter executives about potential \u201chack-and-leak operations\u201d by \u201cstate actors\u201d that could involve information about Hunter. Taken together, Baker\u2019s association with the bureau and his apparent \u201cvetting\u201d of the Twitter Files has made him suspect to critics. However, it\u2019s not totally clear what reporters have meant when they say Baker \u201cvetted\u201d the files, nor is it totally clear why that would have been inappropriate, given the fact that he was one of the company\u2019s top lawyers.<\/p>\n

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Nevertheless, Baker is out now. \u201cIn light of concerns about Baker\u2019s possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue, he was exited from Twitter today,\u201d Musk wrote on Twitter Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The \u201cTwitter Files<\/a><\/span>\u201d episode has been unique for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that giant tech companies typically don\u2019t rat on themselves<\/em> when it comes to issues of corporate misconduct. Sure, there are plenty of whistleblower<\/em> scandals (see: the Facebook Papers<\/a><\/span>), in which a formerly loyal employee decides to spill the beans on the company\u2019s best kept secrets…but, in general, that whistleblower usually isn\u2019t the company\u2019s new CEO. <\/p>\n