The FBI and Twitter had “master-canine quality”, writes independent journalist Matt Taibbi in the sixth, and latest installment of the ‘Twitter Files.’.Taibbi said there was “constant and pervasive” contact between the FBI as well as other law enforcement agencies and Twitter, with the agencies treating Twitter as a “subsidiary,” flagging numerous accounts for purportedly harmful“misinformation” since January of 2020..“Between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth,” Taibbi wrote on Friday, referring to the executive who helped suppress The Post’s reporting on first son Hunter Biden’s extensive overseas business interests..Taibbi noted a “surprisingly high number” of the FBI’s missives were requests “for Twitter to take action on election misinformation,” even on accounts with low numbers that include obvious jokes..As recently as Nov. 22, the FBI’s San Francisco office sent an email flagging four accounts that “may potentially constitute violations of Twitter’s Terms of Service.”.One account on the list tweeted mostly jokes, but Twitter employees still rushed to “look for reasons to suspend” the account for “civic misinformation.” .It wasn’t just conservatives’ account that had Twitter’s enforcement actions have unfairly targeted on them, writes Taibbi, saying “the FBI also flagged left-wing accounts over obvious satire.”.Examples include the FBI noting a user with the name “ULTRA MAGA” who tweeted on Nov. 8, midterm election day: “Americans, Vote today. Democrats you vote Wednesday 9th.”.In another the agency flagged an account belonging to a user who Taibbi said “kids a lot,” and wrote: “I’m a ballot counter in my state. If you’re not wearing a mask, I’m not counting your vote,” and “For every negative comment on this post, I’m adding another vote for the Democrats.”.“Anyone who cannot discern obvious satire from reality has no place making decisions for others or working for the feds,” the user, @ClaireFosterPHD, told Taibbi when asked for comment about the flagging. .The FBI beefed up they’re activities on social media as the 2016 presidential election neared, according to Taibbi, with the agency’s social media-focused task force growing to 80 agents and the Department of Homeland Security partnering with outside security contractors and think tanks “to pressure Twitter to moderate content.”.Taibbi acknowledged he could not determine if the agencies themselves sought out specific posts to flag to Twitter or if they farmed out the work..“You have to prove to me that inside the f—ing government you can do any kind of massive data or AI search,” Taibbi quoted a former intelligence officer as saying.."State governments also flagged content," Taibbi reported. "Twitter for instance received reports via the Partner Support Portal, an outlet created by the Center for Internet Security, a partner organization to the DHS, as Twitter execs receiving an alert from California officials, by way of ‘our partner support portal’ debate whether to act on a Trump tweet, a video that was reported by the Election Integrity Project (EIP) at Stanford, apparently on the strength of information from the Center for Internet Security (CIS)."."If that’s confusing, it’s because the CIS is a DHS contractor, describing itself as "partners" with the Cyber and Internet Security Agency (CISA) at the DHS. 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," said Taibbi..Taibbi wrapped up his thread by writing "The takeaway (is) 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."
