The Twitter Files Part VIII Unrolled
How Twitter quitely aided the Pentagon's covert online PsyOp campaign.
You can find the master post of all Twitter Files unrolled, here.
Lee Fang@lhfang
1. TWITTER FILES PART 8
*How Twitter Quietly Aided the Pentagon’s Covert Online PsyOp Campaign*
Despite promises to shut down covert state-run propaganda networks, Twitter docs show that the social media giant directly assisted the U.S. military’s influence operations.
8:02 PM · Dec 20, 2022
2.13K Reposts · 3.83K Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
2. Twitter has claimed for years that they make concerted efforts to detect & thwart gov-backed platform manipulation. Here is Twitter testifying to Congress about its pledge to rapidly identify and shut down all state-backed covert information operations & deceptive propaganda.
8:05 PM · Dec 20, 2022
319 Reposts · 1.09K Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
3. But behind the scenes, Twitter gave approval & special protection to the U.S. military’s online psychological influence ops. Despite knowledge that Pentagon propaganda accounts used covert identities, Twitter did not suspend many for around 2 years or more. Some remain active.
8:08 PM · Dec 20, 2022
212 Reposts · 647 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
4. In 2017, a U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) official sent Twitter a list of 52 Arab language accounts “we use to amplify certain messages.” The official asked for priority service for six accounts, verification for one & “whitelist” abilities for the others.
8:11 PM · Dec 20, 2022
165 Reposts · 434 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
5. The same day CENTCOM sent the list, Twitter officials used a tool to grant a special “whitelist” tag that essentially provides verification status to the accounts w/o the blue check, meaning they are exempt from spam/abuse flags, more visible/likely to trend on hashtags.
8:12 PM · Dec 20, 2022
86 Reposts · 321 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
6. The CENTCOM accounts on the list tweeted frequently about U.S. military priorities in the Middle East, including promoting anti-Iran messages, promotion of the Saudi Arabia-U.S. backed war in Yemen, and “accurate” U.S. drone strikes that claimed to only hit terrorists.
8:15 PM · Dec 20, 2022
65 Reposts · 159 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
8. One Twitter official who spoke to me said he feels deceived by the covert shift. Still, many emails from throughout 2020 show that high-level Twitter executives were well aware of DoD’s vast network of fake accounts & covert propaganda and did not suspend the accounts.
8:19 PM · Dec 20, 2022
48 Reposts · 155 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
9. For example, Twitter lawyer Jim Baker mused in a July 2020 email, about an upcoming DoD meeting, that the Pentagon used "poor tradecraft" in setting up its network, and were seeking strategies for not exposing the accounts that are “linked to each other or to DoD or the USG.”
8:21 PM · Dec 20, 2022
48 Reposts · 146 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
10. Stacia Cardille, another Twitter attorney, replied that the Pentagon wanted a SCIF & may want to retroactively classify its social media activities “to obfuscate their activity in this space, and that this may represent an overclassification to avoid embarrassment.”
8:25 PM · Dec 20, 2022
43 Reposts · 103 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
11. In several other 2020 emails, high-level Twitter executives/lawyers discussed the covert network and even recirculated the 2017 list from CENTCOM and shared another list of 157 undisclosed Pentagon accounts, again mostly focused on Middle East military issues.
8:28 PM · Dec 20, 2022
120 Reposts · 433 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
12. In a May 2020 email, Twitter’s Lisa Roman emailed the DoD w/two lists. One list was accounts “previously provided to us” & another list Twitter detected. The accounts tweeted in Russian & Arabic on US military issues in Syria/ISIS & many also did not disclose Pentagon ties.
8:30 PM · Dec 20, 2022
138 Reposts · 510 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
13. Many of these secretive U.S. military propaganda accounts, despite detection by Twitter as late as 2020 (but potentially earlier) continued tweeting through this year, some not suspended until May 2022 or later, according to records I reviewed.
8:31 PM · Dec 20, 2022
135 Reposts · 441 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
14. In August 2022, a Stanford Internet Observatory report exposed a U.S. military covert propaganda network on Facebook, Telegram, Twitter & other apps using fake news portals and deep fake images and memes against U.S. foreign adversaries.
public-assets.graphika.com
8:33 PM · Dec 20, 2022
93 Reposts · 277 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
15. The U.S. propaganda network relentlessly pushed narratives against Russia, China, and other foreign countries. They accused Iran of "threatening Iraq’s water security and flooding the country with crystal meth," and of harvesting the organs of Afghan refugees.
8:34 PM · Dec 20, 2022
82 Reposts · 280 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
16. The Stanford report did not identify all of the accounts in the network but one they did name was the exact same Twitter account CENTCOM asked for whitelist privileges in its 2017 email. I verified via Twitter’s internal tools. The account used an AI-created deep fake image.
8:37 PM · Dec 20, 2022
55 Reposts · 147 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
17. In subsequent reporting, Twitter was cast as an unbiased hero for removing “a network of fake user accounts promoting pro-Western policy positions.” Media covering the story described Twitter as evenly applying its policies & proactive in suspending the DoD network.
8:41 PM · Dec 20, 2022
188 Reposts · 665 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
18. The reality is much more murky. Twitter actively assisted CENTCOM’s network going back to 2017 and as late as 2020 knew these accounts were covert/designed to deceive to manipulate the discourse, a violation of Twitter’s policies & promises. They waited years to suspend.
8:42 PM · Dec 20, 2022
385 Reposts · 1.3K Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
19. Twitter’s comms team was closely in touch with reporters, working to minimize Twitter’s role. When the WashPost reported on the scandal, Twitter officials congratulated each other because the story didn’t mention any Twitter employees & focused largely on the Pentagon.
8:46 PM · Dec 20, 2022
231 Reposts · 692 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
20. The conduct with the U.S. military’s covert network stands in stark contrast with how Twitter has boasted about rapidly identifying and taking down covert accounts tied to state-backed influence operations, including Thailand, Russia, Venezuela, and others since 2016.
8:48 PM · Dec 20, 2022
161 Reposts · 548 Likes
Lee Fang@lhfang
21. Here is my reported piece w/more detail. I was given access to Twitter for a few days. I signed/agreed to nothing, Twitter had no input into anything I did or wrote. The searches were carried out by a Twitter attorney, so what I saw could be limited.
theintercept.com
Twitter Aided the Pentagon in its Covert Online Propaganda Campaign
8:51 PM · Dec 20, 2022
207 Reposts · 552 Likes
Given the adversarial relationship between the Pentagon and Trump and between Twitter and Trump, it's probably safe to say that all of this covert activity was kept hidden from POTUS during 2020.
In 1983 I created the military's doctrine for channels used to disseminate propaganda. Channels primarily consumed by U.S. citizens were prohibited from use for that purpose. It was acceptable to use other channels, even some that might eventually result in an American citizen accessing the information. However, that was specifically fenced off against use to skirt the basic prohibition. Likewise, representing information as originating with or verified by U.S. educational or research institutions was prohibited. The objective was to support freedom of speech by not muddying the waters in the relationship between the U.S. government and the voters.
I am sorry to say that this appears quaint in light of the Mainstream Media's lockstep support of anything the Biden Administration says.