The latest round of the Twitter Files show how Twitter executives tried to put the boots to the Democrats delusion of Russian collusion..Independent journalist Matt Taibbi, who filed the first version of the Twitter files when Elon Musk gave him access to internal documents, has been given the task of searching for the truth about RussiaGate..Taibbi reports about a fake news story from early 2018..“Remember this one?” he writes. “Russian bots and trolls were blamed by virtually every major news organization in the country for amplifying the hashtag #ReleaseTheMemo. The files contain a mass of emails from executives blowing up this ridiculous story, once and for all.”.“The #ReleaseTheMemo scandal was one of the more shameful episodes in the recent history of our media, but taken seriously by all but one or two mainstream editors at the time.”.The editors, says Taibbi, all cited the same “dubious source”, the Hamilton 68 “dashboard” which was pushed and promoted by former FBI counterintelligence official and current MSNBC contributor Clint Watts..“They insisted Russians deployed Twitter bot-armies to whip up cyber-support for Republican congressman Devin Nunes,” says Taibbi. “Nunes had just released a classified memo alleging Democrats and the FBI used the infamous paid oppositional research dossier of ex-spy Christopher Steele to obtain secret FISA surveillance authority on Trump-connected figures like Carter Page, amid other improprieties.”.After an internal review, Twitter’s Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth found no evidence Russians were anywhere near the story..“I just reviewed the accounts that posted the first 50 tweets with #releasethememo,” wrote Roth, in all other respects as loyal a Democratic partisan as can be imagined (says Taibbi). “None of them show any signs of affiliation to Russia.”.“These hashtags are organic,” said a second..“Not seeing it,” said a third..“This is a constant theme in the files,” says Taibbi. “In addition to revelations about FBI censorship, shadow-banning, Pentagon use of fake accounts, and suppression of true information about issues like COVID-19, the Twitter emails regularly expose the wide delta between what we were told about foreign threats, and what a major platform seeing the raw data knew.”.Taibbi points out in one case, the #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag reportedly originated with @TracyBeanz, the clearly American editor of UncoverDC). .“Even within the heavily partisan culture at Twitter, the regular “Russia, Russia, Russia” claims by politicians and media in self-serving pursuit of headlines caused eyes to roll,” he says..One Twitter executive wrote, “Members look foolish if they cry ‘Russia’ every time something happens on social media.”.America, perhaps the entire world, needs truth and reconciliation on Russiagate and it starts with the media, says Taibbi..“We have a lot of problems in this country, and there are serious arguments to be had between blue and red about all sorts of issues, from immigration to the wealth gap to abortion and race," he says. “But the country is currently paralyzed by distrust of media that runs so deep it prevents real dialogue, and that situation can’t be resolved until the corporate press swallows its pride and admits the clock has finally run out on its seven years of loony Russia conspiracies.”.“It’s over, you nitwits. It’s time to stow the Mueller votive candles, cop to the coverage pileup created by years of errors and start the reconciliation process.”.“You’ll be tempted to shout, ‘But Trump, Stop the Steal, QAnon — Derp!’ .“Don’t do it. Don’t be the Japanese soldier still clutching a bayonet to defend the forgotten atoll in 1960. Forget Trump; you need to clean your own house first. Expunging the years of absurd deceptions has to happen if media companies ever want wide audiences to trust them again, and that starts with admitting the obvious screw-ups, like this case.”
