‘THE FBI SUBSIDIARY’: Latest ‘Twitter Files’ Thread Claims Platform Worked with Feds, State Officials to Moderate Content
Constanza Hevia/AFP via Getty Images)
Independent journalist Matt Taibbi dropped another thread of the “Twitter Files” Friday afternoon in which he claimed to have uncovered proof the platform had been acting as an FBI “subsidiary.”
Taibbi began the thread by saying drops of data from inside the company before it was purchased by Elon Musk are “revealing more every day about how the government collects, analyzes, and flags your social media content.”
He added, “Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary. Between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth.”
Taibbi then reported an FBI task force charged with scouring social media after the 2016 presidential election was in constant contact with Twitter to take down content that spread election misinformation. He claimed 80 FBI agents were responsible for flagging content that was reported to Twitter for moderation.
The Department of Homeland Security, private contractors, and “think tanks” were also involved in reporting content that included jokes, Taibbi reported.
The thread continues with screenshots, many of which are purported to be conversations between law enforcement officials and Twitter employees:
Taibbi also wrote state governments were in contact with Twitter to flag content for moderation. One example shown was a tweet from then-President Donald Trump that was critical of ballot harvesting weeks before the 2020 election and months before Trump was banned. Taibbi reported officials in California demanded action be taken on a tweet, but none was.
Taibbi wrapped the thread by saying the “deep state” commonly referenced by Trump and other conservatives is merely a “tangled collaboration of state agencies, private contractors, and (sometimes state-funded) NGOs.”
Taibbi concluded by noting reporter Bari Weiss will continue to be part of future “Twitter Files” drops. Weiss called out Musk after he banned numerous journalists Thursday, and the Twitter owner responded by insulting her.
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