The so-called Twitter Files, which started being released at the start of December, have so far generated a lot more discussion of the metacontroversies surrounding their release than of what’s actually in the “files” themselves: controversies about who released the files, who reported on them, the way they were reported, the wrong-headed political beliefs of some of those involved in the reporting. That’s too bad, because for all its very real faults, the Twitter Files story is an important and consequential piece of reporting that everyone — particularly on the Left — should be paying attention to.

Make no mistake: while some criticisms of the project coming from left of center certainly have merit, that doesn’t mean the disclosures aren’t important, or that the accuracy of the information contained in the files is somehow undermined by the political slant of some of those reporting on it. The Twitter Files give us an unprecedented peek behind the curtain at the workings of Twitter’s opaque censorship regime, and expose in greater detail the secret and ongoing merger of social media companies and the US national security state. And while Bari Weiss may not be interested in them, there are major implications for the Left.