'Twitter Files' Show Social Site Suspended 250K Accounts on Behalf of US Gov't
Newly released internal Twitter documents confirm that U.S. government agencies used the social media giant to do its dirty work and suspend nearly 250,000 accounts on its behalf because they simply "didn't like them."
"US govt agency demanded suspension of 250K accounts, including journalists and Canadian officials!" Twitter CEO Elon Musk confirmed Tuesday evening.
US govt agency demanded suspension of 250k accounts, including journalists & Canadian officials! https://t.co/kcEMMCzF7d
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 3, 2023
He was responding to journalist Matt Taibbi's 40-tweet thread titled "Twitter and the FBI 'Belly Button'."
It is the latest installment of the popularly named "The Twitter Files", which so far have confirmed that the site scrubbed information critical of Joe Biden and his son Hunter and shadow-banned conservatives who didn't violate any rules or policies.
In his thread, Taibbi explains that what began as an effort to curtail Russian disinformation transformed into a coordinated effort to target 250,000 accounts including journalists and Canadian officials.
READ FBI Treated Twitter Like Its Partisan Pawn, Aiding Biden Through Government-Sponsored Censorship
"In the first week of May, 2020, at the peak of Covid-19 panic, Twitter senior legal executive Stacia Cardille received a communication from the Global Engagement Center (GEC), the would-be operational/analytical arm of the U.S. State Department. Founded in the Obama years under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the GEC was like the State Department's wannabe version of the NSA or the Defense Intelligence Agency," explained Taibbi on TK News.
10.When the State Department/GEC – remember this was 2020, during the Trump administration – wanted to publicize a list of 5,500 accounts it claimed would "amplify Chinese propaganda and disinformation" about COVID, Twitter analysts were beside themselves.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
11.The GEC report appeared based on DHS data circulated earlier that week, and included accounts that followed "two or more" Chinese diplomatic accounts. They reportedly ended up with a list "nearly 250,000" names long, and included Canadian officials and a CNN account: pic.twitter.com/GYi4YuPdyu
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
The organization initially requested that 5,500 accounts be suspended for meeting criteria such as "describing the coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon,' 'blaming research conducted at the Wuhan institute,' and 'attributing the appearance of the virus to the CIA'."
Taibbi adds that Yoel Roth, Twitter's former head of Trust & Safety, saw GEC's move as an attempt to use intel from other agencies to "insert themselves into the content moderation club that included Twitter, Facebook, the FBI, DHS, and others."
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But, the U.S. government continued to pressure Twitter to the point that the social media site was "taking requests from every conceivable government body."
26.Requests arrived and were escalated from all over: from Treasury, the NSA, virtually every state, the HHS, from the FBI and DHS, and more: pic.twitter.com/QYJBjPEJZW
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
Documents indicate a top House Democrat - Intel Committee chief Rep. Adam Schiff - requested that Twitter suspend certain accounts, like journalist Paul Sperry.
27.They also received an astonishing variety of requests from officials asking for individuals they didn't like to be banned. Here, the office for Democrat and House Intel Committee chief Adam Schiff asks Twitter to ban journalist Paul Sperry: pic.twitter.com/SXI1ekqi13
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
Talk about cyberbullying! @AdamSchiff used his power as head of House Intel to muscle Twitter into banning a journalist--muzzling the reporter who outed his impeachment "whistleblower" as an anti-Trump partisan Democrat, exposing Schiff's impeachment proceeding as a political ops
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) January 4, 2023
https://t.co/fYBi87heLK the weeks before the election in 2020, Twitter was so confused by the various streams of incoming requests, staffers had to ask the FBI which was which: pic.twitter.com/YtioUpzVw8
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
In the end, the hunt for Russian influence on the platform displayed "no coordinated" efforts, but resulted in thousands of suspensions and millions of dollars spent.
https://t.co/08M51rg2BM all led to the situation described by @ShellenbergerMD two weeks ago, in which Twitter was paid $3,415,323, essentially for being an overwhelmed subcontractor.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023
Twitter wasn't just paid. For the amount of work they did for government, they were underpaid.
"Twitter wasn't just paid. For the amount of work they did for government, they were underpaid," Taibbi's report concludes.
As CBN News has reported, Twitter's new owner Elon Musk has been steadily releasing internal documents from former Twitter executives for select reporters to analyze and reveal to the public.
In response to the latest revelation of government monitoring and manipulation of American lives, Musk tweeted this image, showing he believes we're living in dystopian times:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 3, 2023
