Elon Musk and his allies have released the latest drop in what they have termed the “Twitter Files,” detailing the “constant and pervasive” communications between the Big Tech company and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The latest Twitter Files drop deals with the company’s relationship with the FBI, according to former Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi. The new release detail the communications between federal agencies and the social platform over election misinformation and offer insight into how often the two entities interacted and managed political content on the platform.
1. THREAD: The Twitter Files, Part Six
TWITTER, THE FBI SUBSIDIARY— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
“Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary,” Taibbi claimed. “Between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth.”
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While several emails between Roth and the FBI are mundane, a “surprisingly high” number consists of requests for Twitter to take action on election misinformation. This included the FBI reporting accounts on the Left and Right for what were jokes in some cases.
“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
The FBI also sent lists of accounts that “may warrant additional action due to the accounts being utilized to spread misinformation about the upcoming election.” Twitter took the list and later responded to the FBI, noting the specific actions involved.
20. Twitter then replied with its list of actions taken. Note mercy shown to actor Billy Baldwin: pic.twitter.com/zQzNGQMKmO
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
The lists of tweets sent by the FBI often involved joke-level content and had low engagement, according to Taibbi.
The FBI was not the only one to flag content. The Department of Homeland Security and several state governments notified Twitter of content they thought was problematic. Some of this was done through the Partner Support Portal, an outlet constructed by the Center for Internet Security, a partner organization with the DHS.
“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,” Taibbi concluded.
Previous Twitter Files dealt with Twitter’s handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop, the blacklisting of certain conservative accounts, and the decision-making process relating to the suspension of former President Donald Trump.
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Taibbi’s latest drop arrives a day after Musk banned multiple journalists from Twitter. The journalists, who worked for the New York Times, CNN, and other outlets, were banned for posting links to @elonjet, an online tracker that reported Musk’s private jet activity. They were suspended just after Musk pushed through an update to Twitter’s rules that banned accounts “dedicated to sharing someone’s live location.”
Fellow Twitter Files writers, including former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss, slammed the decision. “The old regime at Twitter governed by its whims and biases, and it sure looks like the new regime has the same problem,” Weiss tweeted. “I oppose it in both cases. And I think those journalists who were reporting on a story of public importance should be reinstated.”
