Elon Musk, who bought the publicly traded social media company and took it private in October, was sharply criticized by employees he fired, and others, for his decision to change content moderation policies. He responded on Twitter by writing, “Twitter has failed in trust & safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections.” He pledged that that the new Twitter “will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed.
Historians call this type of material “primary sources.” These are the original documents that recorded events as they happened, written by the participants themselves. The documents show that the U.S. government engaged in a secret and wide-ranging pressure campaign to censor and suppress speech in America, something that is forbidden by the First Amendment.