The latest episode of Twitter’s internal files on content crackdowns paints a picture of a censorship machine that not only worked hand-in-glove with the FBI but also received content-related flags and action requests from a tangled web of state agencies, private contractors, and government-affiliated NGOs, shedding new light on the depths of the “deep state.”
The files were released Friday by journalist Matt Taibbi with Elon Musk’s endorsement, and serve to bolster claims that Big Tech colluded with a network of entities—including government agencies—to suppress Americans’ free speech.
Included in the thread are screenshots of FBI requests for Twitter to censor posts on the platform, as well as ones showing Twitter complying in a dynamic Taibbi described as a “master-canine” relationship.
“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,“ Taibbi wrote, sharing a screenshot of an email from the FBI asking for ”any action or inaction deemed appropriate within Twitter policy“ with respect to accounts that ”may potentially constitute violations.”
Twitter did not return a request for comment while an FBI spokesperson said the agency regularly notifies private sector entities about “foreign malign influence” but any actions are taken independently by the companies.
Executives at Twitter for years insisted that no censorship or shadow banning of conservatives took place on the social media platform, a claim that the Twitter Files disclosures has shattered.
‘As If It Were a Subsidiary’
Like the prior disclosures, Twitter Files 6 offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Big Tech censorship.Some of the reports sent to Twitter by government agencies were aggregated from public hotlines, like from the National Election Command Post that assessed election-related threats.
‘Hyper-Intrusive’
“The #TwitterFiles are revealing more every day about how the government collects, analyzes, and flags your social media content. Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary,” Taibbi said at the top of the thread that kicked off episode six of the disclosures.The FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth exchanged over 150 emails between January 2020 and November 2022, the files showed.
Some of the FBI’s communications with Roth were fairly mundane, like reminders to attend regular FBI-Twitter calls.
But others asked Twitter for information on users related to active investigations or requested action on election-related content.
Requests to act on “election misinformation,” in particular, were noted in the disclosures to have been “surprisingly high” in number, even extending to low-follower accounts and joke tweets.
But of the half dozen accounts flagged for action in several messages, neither of the blue-leaning ones—@fromMA nor @clairefosterPHD—were suspended.
Other messages reinforced the view of a cozy relationship between Twitter and the FBI.
‘Deep State’ Goes Deeper
In what is perhaps one of the more intriguing takeaways from Twitter Files 6 is just how broad the network of entities was that engaged with Twitter on content crackdowns.The files also show an instance where a video was flagged by the Election Integrity Project (EIP) at Stanford, “apparently on the strength of information” from the CIS.
“If that’s confusing, it’s because the CIS is a DHS contractor, describes itself as ‘partners’ with the Cyber and [Infrastructure] Security Agency (CISA) at the DHS,” Taibbi wrote, adding that the EIP is “one of a series of government-affiliated think tanks that mass-review content, a list that also includes the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Laboratory, and the University of Washington’s Center for Informed Policy.”
Taibbi wrapped up his thread by characterizing the so-called “deep state” as a far more extensive web of ties than many people think, and one that goes beyond just government bureaucrats.
“The takeaway: 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.
Republicans React to Twitter Files 6
Republican lawmakers have vowed to take action following the release of the latest disclosures on content crackdowns.Texas state Rep. Troy Nehls, a Republican and former sheriff, took to Twitter to say that the FBI would face a probe when the GOP assumes control of the House in several weeks.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) suggested that other Big Tech companies were similarly used by the FBI to take action on users’ content.
“If Facebook censored TNM at the direction of the FBI, we are going to find out,” he added.
The Epoch Times has reached out to Google and Facebook parent Meta with a request for comment.