GETTING PERSONAL

Elon Musk Publishes DMs From Matt Taibbi in Substack-Twitter Row

It looks like their Twitter Files bromance is well and truly over.

It’s all gone wrong between Twitter CEO Elon Musk and reporter Matt Taibbi. Things started to go south last week when Substack writer Taibbi—who was chosen by Musk to report on his “Twitter Files” information—announced he was leaving Twitter over the platform’s blocking of Substack links. The restriction, which has reportedly ended, came in after Substack announced a Twitter-like feed called Substack Notes, which Taibbi said he would start using instead of Twitter. On Monday evening, Musk then published screenshots of messages he’d received from Taibbi. “You’re taking down all of my Twitter Files threads because you’re mad at me personally for not leaving the company where I was already employed? Really?” Taibbi asked in a message. Musk apparently replied to say that he would “fix” the issue and asked if Taibbi is “employed” at Substack. “My subscribers there employ me, and I have a great thing going there,” Taibbi allegedly replied, adding: “If I moved to Twitter it would have been a major optics issue for us both.” Musk later deleted the screenshots.