https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1604378503369019394
The latest batch of Twitter Files shows the government demanding that Twitter shut down freedom of speech on the platform.
This is totally illegal, and yet there is zero chance anyone will ever be punished for it.
1. THREAD: The Twitter Files, Part Six
TWITTER, THE FBI SUBSIDIARY— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
3. Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
Haha.
5. Some are mundane, like San Francisco agent Elvis Chan wishing Roth a Happy New Year along with a reminder to attend “our quarterly call next week.” Others are requests for information into Twitter users related to active investigations.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
7. The FBI’s social media-focused task force, known as FTIF, created in the wake of the 2016 election, swelled to 80 agents and corresponded with Twitter to identify alleged foreign influence and election tampering of all kinds.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
“Foreign interference” is such a hoax. I know that for a fact because they accused me of being a Russian agent.
9. It’s no secret the government analyzes bulk data for all sorts of purposes, everything from tracking terror suspects to making economic forecasts.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
11. What stands out is the sheer quantity of reports from the government. Some are aggregated from public hotlines: pic.twitter.com/cm9JjEXUSm
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
“HELLO TWITTER CONTACTS”: The master-canine quality of the FBI’s relationship to Twitter comes through in this November 2022 email, in which “FBI San Francisco is notifying you” it wants action on four accounts: pic.twitter.com/LjgB6fxENo
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
It’s amazing that they don’t just do keywords or search terms but actually go through and find specific accounts they want banned.
I always knew I was seriously targeted by the FBI for censorship, but imagine that they are just targeting rando Twitter accounts.
15. Just to show the FBI can be hyper-intrusive in both directions, they also asked Twitter to review a blue-leaning account for a different joke, except here it was even more obvious that @clairefosterPHD, who kids a lot, was kidding: pic.twitter.com/uLxHayY11C
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
17.Of the six accounts mentioned in the previous two emails, all but two – @ClaireFosterPHD and @FromMa – were suspended.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
19.Agent Chan passed the list on to his "Twitter folks": pic.twitter.com/eXaZnC3I7y
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
21.Many of the above accounts were satirical in nature, nearly all (with the exceptions of Baldwin and @RSBNetwork) were relatively low engagement, and some were suspended, most with a generic, “Thanks, Twitter” letter: pic.twitter.com/0S0XoqhwYD
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
I’m not remotely surprised to hear they were especially concerned about jokes.
I’m the most banned person, and when I was banned, the majority of this site’s content was jokes.
23.“I can't believe the FBI is policing jokes on Twitter. That's crazy,” said @Tiberius444.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
25.The Twitter exec writes she explicitly asked if there were “impediments” to the sharing of classified information “with industry.” The answer? “FBI was adamant no impediments to sharing exist.”
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857640530284544
Oh jeez, he included a link to the .at and it even gave the thumbnail for the domain retailer.
That’s really embarrassing, Matt.
Come on.
Nice photo of the Vienna opera house though. When I was browsing the thread before reading it, I wondered if there was a secret FBI/Twitter meeting there. Secret Agents met up there in Mission Impossible 5.
That definitely would have been a bit too romantic for this kind of clandestine operation.
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857649153413120
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857661644136450
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857673665011718
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857686986121223
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857700257173504
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857706514755584
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857718850240513
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857728836960261
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857734725931009
Well, that’s actually how I already perceived the “deep state.”
None of this is remotely surprising.