We’ve subpoenaed Twitter, asking it to turn over what it knows about the government and private efforts to censor me in 2021. Will Elon help us get to the truth?

A year ago, Elon Musk opened Twitter’s records so journalists could report on the extreme censorship pressure Twitter (now X) had faced under its old regime.

The Twitter Files, as they were called, were a key reason Musk spent $44 billion to buy Twitter. He and the project’s reporters (including me) hoped to show how governments and powerful third parties had twisted what Twitter users saw.

Instead, the Twitter Files petered out quickly. One reason was that the mainstream media insisted on viewing its revelations in partisan terms – somehow, being anti-censorship is now a conservative position.

But another was that Musk seemed leery of opening Twitter’s kimono too far, possibly because he feared lawsuits over privacy violations. The Files never reached the “C-suite,” the top executives who set Twitter policies. They contain complaints about tweets from mid-level bureaucrats, but not the contacts between the White House and Twitter executives like Jack Dorsey – or how those executives responded.

Now Musk has a chance for a do-over.