This is a great point.

Not to mention it is THE platform where ALL politicians, journalists and public reside. In that respect it has de facto become the public square for discussing politics.

All the public does not reside on Twitter. Now I will grant you that 90% of my techie coworkers are heavy Twitter users, almost no one else I know in real life is on Twitter. I'm seeing stats online like "22% of US adults" and "38% of adults 18-29"

I meant (and should have written) 'political public'

They are influenced by people on Twitter.

Additionally, why would advertisers buy ads on an uninfluential platform?

influence and reputation are orthogonal

Indeed, but reputation is taking a hit based on the nature of what they are censoring.

Doesn't add up.

And frankly, I'm not taking a political side as much as I am pointing out their actions don't add up either way.

They don't want to be known as the platform where hackers dump their leaks without repercussions. Not everything has to be about the US presidential election...

There is whether those leaks are factual, or not too.

Where it comes from isn't the same thing as what it is.

If I factually published some random website's password database and posted the link on Twitter, I'd expect them to take it down.

On the other hand, Twitter changed their rules now, so other people will be able to link to the data? I wouldn't be surprised if they have to add another epicycle soon when they don't suppress something the majority agrees they should.

Good bye Watergate.

Or, it comes out on the Rogan show...