OWNERSHIP / THE STARTING POINT

The $44 billion takeover

A contested acquisition opened a private archive to selected reporters.

Elon Musk at the Royal Society in London, July 13, 2018.
Duncan Hull (Duncan.Hull) · Source & image context ↗

RECORD / AT A GLANCE

Purchase completed; disclosures followed

Musk’s acquisition gave him control of Twitter and access to its records. It did not itself establish that any specific censorship allegation was true.

THE EVENTS / THE INVESTIGATION / THE STORY

The chronology.

READ THE FILE

Evidence & assessment.

Open an article for its evidence, labeled AI assessment and numbered sources. Read the complete static edition ↗

OPEN THE RECORD

Sources & limits.

Numbered citations in each article identify the relevant sources. These records have different purposes and evidentiary weight.

  1. Twitter announces acquisition agreement, April 25, 2022 (SEC exhibit) ↗

    Company announcement filed with the SEC; records price and agreement, not a finding about content moderation.

  2. Musk attempts to terminate acquisition, July 8, 2022 (ABC) ↗

    Contemporaneous reporting on an attempted termination; the acquisition subsequently closed.

  3. Musk visits Twitter before closing deadline, October 26, 2022 (TIME) ↗

    Contemporaneous report, published the day before closing. Statements about future plans were prospective.

  4. Musk Schedule 13D amendment: transaction closed October 27, 2022 ↗

    Contemporaneous securities filing. Confirms closing date, share consideration and control.

  5. March 9, 2023 House hearing: full transcript, testimony and competing questions ↗

    Public hearing with witness accounts and partisan questioning. Testimony is evidence of what witnesses said, not a judicial determination.

  6. Taibbi: Note to Readers, December 2, 2022 ↗

    The reporter’s own explanation of initial publication conditions; not an independent audit of access.

  7. Twitter Files: original articles and authors directory ↗

    An entry point to the participating writers’ publications; neither a neutral index nor a complete public mirror of Twitter’s internal systems.