The FBI and other law enforcement organizations treated Twitter as a “subsidiary,” flagging numerous accounts for purportedly harmful “misinformation” since January of 2020, according to the sixth installment of the “Twitter Files” released Friday.
Independent journalist Matt Taibbi described the FBI’s relationship with Twitter as having a “master-canine quality” with “constant and pervasive” contact between the bureau and the social media giant.
“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, referring to the executive who helped suppress The Post’s reporting on first son Hunter Biden’s extensive overseas business interests.
Taibbi also found that a “surprisingly high number” of the FBI’s missives were requests “for Twitter to take action on election misinformation,” including obvious jokes from accounts with low number of followers.
As recently as Nov. 22 of this year, for example 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 satire, but Twitter employees still rushed to “look for reasons to suspend” the account for “civic misinformation.”
While conservatives have suggested that Twitter’s enforcement actions have unfairly targeted them, Taibbi said the FBI also flagged left-wing accounts in fits of overzealous speech policing.
In one case, the FBI noted 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 instance, the bureau 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.
Federal authorities ramped up their focus on social media in the wake of the 2016 election, Taibbi notes, with the FBI’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 admitted he could not determine if the agencies themselves sought out 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.
Friday’s Twitter Files also revealed that the company participated in monthly meetings with not only the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, but also with the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
In a letter to recently fired Twitter Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker from Sept. 16, Twitter legal executive Stacia Cardille shared her notes from one of the meetings, which she said were “soon to be weekly.”
