The sixth installment of #Twitterfiles shared by journalist Matt Taibbi, on behalf of new Twitter owner Elon Musk late Friday claimed that the social media platform acted as the Federal Bureau Of Investigation’s subsidiary.
Constant, Pervasive Interaction: Musk shared Taibbi’s tweet thread with the caption “KABOOM.”
The disclosures, made through 45 threaded tweets, showed that Twitter’s contact with the FBI was “constant and pervasive” as if it were the federal agency's subsidiary.
A “surprisingly” high number of requests from the FBI to Twitter involved taking action on election misinformation and asking the platform to identify alleged foreign influence and election tampering of all kinds.
“Federal intelligence and law enforcement reach into Twitter included the Department of Homeland Security, which partnered with security contractors and think tanks to pressure Twitter to moderate content,” Taibbi claimed.
Agencies like the FBI and DHS regularly sent social media content to Twitter through multiple entry points, pre-flagged for moderation, he added.
Taibbi shared an email from FBI San Francisco, flagging Twitter of some accounts that “may potentially constitute violations of Twitter’s Terms of Service.” He noted that Twitter then went on to suspend all four accounts.
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The latest Twitter Files also included a letter to Jim Baker, Twitter’s former Deputy General Counsel and former top FBI lawyer, from Twitter legal executive Stacia Cardille on Sept. 16, 2020, in which she outlined results from one of her meetings with the DHS, DOJ, FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Cardille wrote in the letter that she explicitly asked if there were “impediments” to sharing classified information "with industry," to which the FBI seems to have responded, “no impediments to sharing exist.”
“This passage underscores the unique one-big-happy-family vibe between Twitter and the FBI,” Taibbi said.
Multiple Entry Points: Taibbi claims that government-flagged reports have multiple points of entry into Twitter. He shared a letter from FBI agent Elvis Chan to Twitter’s former Head of Trust & Safety Yoel Roth, in which Teleporter, a platform through which Twitter could receive FBI reports, was mentioned.
A screenshot of a message shared by an employee recommended bouncing content based on evidence from DHS. State governments also flagged content, Taibbi said in the tweet thread.
“What most people think of as the 'deep state' is really a tangled collaboration of state agencies, private contractors, and (sometimes state-funded) NGOs. The lines become so blurred as to be meaningless,” he said.
Reacting to the disclosure, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) tweeted that the FBI has a lot to answer for after the latest drop of Twitter files. Tagging Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), he said, along with them, he will ask questions.
Read Next: Elon Musk Lets Loose Another Batch Of Twitter Files That Point To Existence Of 'Secret Blacklists'
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