Didn't they have anything better to do?! Latest Twitter Files show how FBI inundated social media network with so many requests to tackle obscure accounts posting 'misinformation' that staffers had to triage Bureau's emails
The publication of Twitter Files kicked off on December 2 after a pledge by the social platform's chief executive Elon Musk to release the company's internal dialogue on the suppression of the New York Post's exclusive Hunter Biden laptop story.
The recently released sixth and seventh batches of the Twitter Files claimed that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had issued instructions to censor specific tweets and accounts for "violating" the company's terms of service.
Taibbi also revealed some emails that cite cases in which FBI executives had gone to extreme lengths to “validate theories of foreign influence” to justify the requests.
The writer accused the bureau of acting as "doorman to a vast program of social media surveillance and censorship."
"Encompassing agencies across the federal government – from the State Department to the Pentagon to the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency]. The operation is far bigger than the reported 80 members of the [FBI's] Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), which also facilitates requests from a wide array of smaller actors - from local cops to media to state governments," he tweeted.
Taibbi went on to argue that Twitter "had so much contact with so many agencies that executives lost track; is today the DOD [Department of Defense], and tomorrow the FBI? Is it the weekly call, or the monthly meeting? It was dizzying."
He claimed that "a chief end result was that thousands of official 'reports' flowed to Twitter from all over, through the FITF and the FBI's San Francisco field office."
When asked whether the FBI used back channel communications with Twitter employees to suppress or spike the laptop saga, the FBI officials said, "We did no request anything of the sort."
Taibbi has been releasing the Twitter Files in coordination with the platform’s new CEO Elon Musk and other journalists, including Bari Weiss and Michael Shellenberger. The disclosures have so far revealed information about suppression of reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop story and efforts to remove former US President Donald Trump from the platform following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
The remarks come after the FBI responded the Twitter Files disclosures by arguing in an interview with a US media outlet that it didn't request "any action" on specific tweets. According to the bureau, it didn't give Twitter employees "specific instructions or details regarding the Hunter Biden laptop story."
The content of the laptop, including the First Son’s naked photos and 18+ videos, is part of a federal probe into whether Hunter Biden violated US laws when he engaged in financial and business dealings in foreign countries during his father’s vice presidency between 2009 and 2017. President Joe Biden has repeatedly dismissed any knowledge of his son’s shady business activities, with most US news outlets and social media companies successfully shielding him from the laptop-related revelations ahead of the 2020 presidential election campaign.
Earlier this year, however, a number of big newspapers made a U-turn, confirming that the laptop was authentic and that the damning information contained within the device was genuine.
Independent journalist Matt Taibbi, who published the latest installment, tweeted that the FBI appear to have inundated Twitter with so many requests to grapple with obscure accounts posting "misinformation" that the platform's employees "had to improvise a system for prioritizing/triaging them."
In the latest instalment of the Twitter Files the FBI appear to have inundated the social media network with so many requests to tackle obscure accounts posting 'misinformation' that staffers had to triage the bureau's emails.
In some emails revealed by Substack writer Matt Taibbi, there are also cases in which executives have gone to extreme lengths to 'validate theories of foreign influence' to justify the requests.
The Twitter Files began on December 2 after CEO Elon Musk promised to release the company's internal dialogue regarding the suppression of the New York Post's Hunter Biden laptop story.
Musk released unvetted documents to Taibbi as well as fellow journalists, Bari Weiss and Michael Shellenberger.
Taibbi posted the latest stream of emails on Christmas Eve starting with a Bureau-issued statement from Wednesday - which doesn't refute allegations but instead criticized the files release.
'The men and women of the FBI work every day to protect the American public… It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency,' the statement read.
Taibbi took a swipe at the agency noting that they must think those who helped release the files as 'unambitious' if their 'sole aim' is to discredit the FBI.
'After all, a whole range of government agencies discredit themselves in the #TwitterFiles. Why stop with one?' he said.
The Substack writer went on to say that the FBI had been acting as 'doorman to a vast program of social media surveillance and censorship.'
'Encompassing agencies across the federal government – from the State Department to the Pentagon to the CIA,' he wrote.
'The operation is far bigger than the reported 80 members of the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), which also facilitates requests from a wide array of smaller actors - from local cops to media to state governments.
'Twitter had so much contact with so many agencies that executives lost track. Is today the DOD, and tomorrow the FBI? Is it the weekly call, or the monthly meeting? It was dizzying.
'A chief end result was that thousands of official 'reports' flowed to Twitter from all over, through the FITF and the FBI's San Francisco field office.'
Taibbi reveals regular Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) meetings with executives, FBI personnel and at least two OGA or 'Other Government Agency' a term Taibbi said was regularly used to describe retired CIA.
'The government was in constant contact not just with Twitter but with virtually every major tech firm,' he wrote.
'The FITF meeting agendas virtually always included, at or near the beginning, an 'OGA briefing,' usually about foreign matters.
'Despite its official remit being 'Foreign Influence,' the FITF and the SF FBI office became conduit for mountains of domestic moderation requests, from state governments, even local police.'
In an email from San Francisco FBI agent Elvis Chan on Nov 5, 2020, the special agent is seen providing 'recent activities' on Twitter and putting a Minneapolis police Lieutenant in touch with the Twitter staffer.
Some 'threat' intel was also delivered by a one-way platform on which many communications were timed to vanish, known as Teleporter.
Taibbi makes note that in approaching the 2020 election, the FITF/FBI 'overwhelmed' Twitter with requests sending hundreds of problem accounts, some adorned with Excel attachments.
'Hi Stacia, FBI Baltimore identified these Twitter handles and tweets which appear to provide misleading information on time, place, or manner of voting in the upcoming elections,' an email from Chan read.
'We believe these may violate your terms of service and wanted to bring them to your attention. We would appreciate any feedback you have regarding this matter. Thanks, Regards Elvis.'
There were so many government requests, Twitter employees had to improvise a system for prioritizing and triaging them.
Twitter legal executive Stacia Cardille who is mentioned in several of the emails is seen trying to find a way to 'prioritize the reports they escalate' in an email Oct 28, 2020.
'We are having some issues with the backlog impacting our elections efforts,' she wrote.
'Although every #Tweep is valued, I believe it is likely that our reports are the most credible and most urgent – at least for the next week.'
FBI complaints in the newly released files were almost always depicted somewhere as a 'possible terms of service violation,' with the subject line tagged '(SF) (FBI).'
The New York FBI office even sent requests for the 'user IDs and handles' of a long list of accounts named in a Daily Beast article. Senior executives saying that they are 'supportive' and 'completely comfortable' doing so.
'It seemed to strike no one as strange that a 'Foreign Influence' task force was forwarding thousands of mostly domestic reports, along with the DHS, about the fringiest material,' Taibbi commented.
'Foreign meddling' had been the ostensible justification for expanded moderation since platforms like Twitter were dragged to the Hill by the Senate in 2017.'
However, executives were 'under pressure' to validate theories of foreign influence.
'After I reviewed the accounts, and found no links to Russia, I asked [redacted] on this ticket [redacted] and this was the answer: Thanks for tagging in the workflow. From my checks I could not find any indicators to suggest that the account [redacted] is Russian,' an internal Twitter email stated.
'Even the other phone linked accounts [redacted] does not have indicators to suggest it is a Russian proxy.'
The email goes on to say several other checks were made and that the company could 'find a stronger connection.'
'Going by the content and narrative coming out from the account it is definitely pro-Russian, and/or could be a Russian proxy,' the email states.
'I can brainstorm with [redacted] and see if we can dig even deeper and try to find a stronger connection.'
In a key email, news that the State Department was making a shaky public assertion of Russian influence led an executive, the same one with the 'OGA' past, to make a damning admission, Taibbi said.
'Due to a lack of technical evidence on our end, I've generally left it be, waiting for more evidence,' the executive said.
'Our window on that is closing, given that government partners are becoming more aggressive on attribution and reporting on it.
'I'm going to go ahead with suspension and marking the domain as UNSAFE.'
Translation: 'more aggressive' 'government partners' had closed Twitter's 'window' of independence' Taibbi quipped.
'Intel about the shady origin of these accounts might be true. But so might at least some of the information in them – about neo-Nazis, rights abuses in Donbas, even about our own government. Should we block such material?' he said.
'Many people wonder if Internet platforms receive direction from intelligence agencies about moderation of foreign policy news stories. It appears Twitter did, in some cases by way of the FITF/FBI.
'Often intelligence came in the form of brief reports, followed by long lists of accounts simply deemed to be pro-Maduro, pro-Cuba, pro-Russia, etc. … one batch had over 1000 accounts marked for digital execution.'
While the accounts may have shady origins, Taibbi begs the question, whether such material should be blocked from the public.
'The line between 'misinformation' and 'distorting propaganda' is thin. Are we comfortable with so many companies receiving so many reports from a 'more aggressive' government?'
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