SUPER-SPECIAL: The Twitter Files: Twitter and the Federal Task Force, and original twitters files are in the below:
Twitter Files Supplemental:
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
TWITTER AND THE FEDERAL TASK FORCE https://t.co/IIzch3gqMX
1.THREAD: Twitter Files Supplemental
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
https://t.co/mz7AFoolHV July of 2020, San Francisco FBI agent Elvis Chan tells Twitter executive Yoel Roth to expect written questions from the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), the inter-agency group that deals with cyber threats. pic.twitter.com/V4zNYnF81W
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
3.The questionnaire authors seem displeased with Twitter for implying, in a July 20th “DHS/ODNI/FBI/Industry briefing,” that “you indicated you had not observed much recent activity from official propaganda actors on your platform.” pic.twitter.com/VR3DdkRyOr
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
https://t.co/0PiyFHVTrc would think that would be good news. The agencies seemed to feel otherwise.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
5.Chan underscored this: “There was quite a bit of discussion within the USIC to get clarifications from your company,” he wrote, referring to the United States Intelligence Community.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
6.The task force demanded to know how Twitter came to its unpopular conclusion. Oddly, it included a bibliography of public sources – including a Wall Street Journal article – attesting to the prevalence of foreign threats, as if to show Twitter they got it wrong.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
7.Roth, receiving the questions, circulated them with other company executives, and complained that he was “frankly perplexed by the requests here, which seem more like something we'd get from a congressional committee than the Bureau.” pic.twitter.com/SrLrdZLREa
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
8.He added he was not “comfortable with the Bureau (and by extension the IC) demanding written answers.” The idea of the FBI acting as conduit for the Intelligence Community is interesting, given that many agencies are barred from domestic operations.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
9.He then sent another note internally, saying the premise of the questions was “flawed,” because “we've been clear that official state propaganda is definitely a thing on Twitter.” Note the italics for emphasis. pic.twitter.com/cNzrjcMJfD
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
10.Roth suggested they “get on the phone with Elvis ASAP and try to straighten this out,” to disabuse the agencies of any notion that state propaganda is not a “thing” on Twitter.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
11.This exchange is odd among other things because some of the “bibliography” materials cited by the FITF are sourced to intelligence officials, who in turn cited the public sources.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
12.The FBI responded to Friday’s report by saying it “regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identified foreign malign influence actors’ subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities.” pic.twitter.com/fkJrLjPKlN
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
13.That may be true, but we haven’t seen that in the documents to date. Instead, we’ve mostly seen requests for moderation involving low-follower accounts belonging to ordinary Americans – and Billy Baldwin.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
https://t.co/p7t3Dnsk09 @BariWeiss and @ShellenbergerMD for more from the Twitter Files.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
Notes from the Twitter Files: Twitter and the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF)
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
Twitter didn't just take moderation requests from government, it made rapid attitude adjustments. More below:https://t.co/ojuxq0eboH
No. It should be driven by the FBI, DHS, and ODNI, right? https://t.co/jxt2S2ADeS
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
It is very odd that people (cough, @tedlieu) think the FBI/DHS relationship with Twitter and other platforms is a partisan story. It’s taken place and grown under both Republican and Democratic administrations. This concerns everyone.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
Note the language in this email by former Twitter executive: the company is dealing with “the Bureau (and by extension the IC).” Remember that some intelligence agencies have used the FBI as a legal end-around to pursue domestic missions: https://t.co/HzANaprTV6 https://t.co/8GUpW3tiMx
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022
“Starting to hear from partners.” pic.twitter.com/QGGWuZoUbR
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 19, 2022
The context: January 8th, 2021, a few hours before Trump was banned from the platform. https://t.co/SANoy4vkoT
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 19, 2022
Then hastily reassured them that they would agree. But then, reading comprehension skills aren’t a prerequisite for public office. https://t.co/X6JZnjzKrg
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 19, 2022
Once we had a standard in this country that the FBI had to at least have some indication of possible crime to initiate investigations. No longer. They can “pre-assess” at will, with no chargeable crime in sight, and people like you are fine with it. https://t.co/qhZMi1vutb
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 19, 2022