*Note that Taibbi accidentally skips/mixes up some of his numbers, but all the tweets in this post are laid out as they were presented. Also, given the length, the easiest way to jump to a new “part” is to search using CTRL+F. Use roman numerals (i.e. “Part XV”)
Part I
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
2. What you’re about to read is the first installment in a series, based upon thousands of internal documents obtained by sources at Twitter.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
3. The “Twitter Files” tell an incredible story from inside one of the world’s largest and most influential social media platforms. It is a Frankensteinian tale of a human-built mechanism grown out the control of its designer.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
4. Twitter in its conception was a brilliant tool for enabling instant mass communication, making a true real-time global conversation possible for the first time.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
5. In an early conception, Twitter more than lived up to its mission statement, giving people “the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
6. As time progressed, however, the company was slowly forced to add those barriers. Some of the first tools for controlling speech were designed to combat the likes of spam and financial fraudsters.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
7. Slowly, over time, Twitter staff and executives began to find more and more uses for these tools. Outsiders began petitioning the company to manipulate speech as well: first a little, then more often, then constantly.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
8. By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: “More to review from the Biden team.” The reply would come back: “Handled.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjAtMntXkAM-CZC.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
10.Both parties had access to these tools. For instance, in 2020, requests from both the Trump White House and the Biden campaign were received and honored. However:
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
11. This system wasn't balanced. It was based on contacts. Because Twitter was and is overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation, there were more channels, more ways to complain, open to the left (well, Democrats) than the right. opensecrets.org/orgs/twitter/s…
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjAuzYgWQAIspZ0.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
12. The resulting slant in content moderation decisions is visible in the documents you’re about to read. However, it’s also the assessment of multiple current and former high-level executives.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
17. On October 14, 2020, the New York Post published BIDEN SECRET EMAILS, an expose based on the contents of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop:
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff7d23137-ae27-420e-8c45-4c2c9746d09a_1024x682.jpeg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
18. Twitter took extraordinary steps to suppress the story, removing links and posting warnings that it may be “unsafe.” They even blocked its transmission via direct message, a tool hitherto reserved for extreme cases, e.g. child pornography.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
19. White House spokeswoman Kaleigh McEnany was locked out of her account for tweeting about the story, prompting a furious letter from Trump campaign staffer Mike Hahn, who seethed: “At least pretend to care for the next 20 days.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjAw9WoWAAEOMVU.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
20.This led public policy executive Caroline Strom to send out a polite WTF query. Several employees noted that there was tension between the comms/policy teams, who had little/less control over moderation, and the safety/trust teams:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjAxiOUXwAAwbNt.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
21. Strom’s note returned the answer that the laptop story had been removed for violation of the company’s “hacked materials” policy: https://t.co/EdTa2xbXn1
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjAx0y2XwAAQ7cC.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
22. Although several sources recalled hearing about a “general” warning from federal law enforcement that summer about possible foreign hacks, there’s no evidence - that I've seen - of any government involvement in the laptop story. In fact, that might have been the problem...
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
23. The decision was made at the highest levels of the company, but without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, with former head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde playing a key role.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
24. “They just freelanced it,” is how one former employee characterized the decision. “Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that wasn’t going to hold. But no one had the guts to reverse it.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
25.You can see the confusion in the following lengthy exchange, which ends up including Gadde and former Trust and safety chief Yoel Roth. Comms official Trenton Kennedy writes, “I'm struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this as unsafe”:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjAzyaeX0AIsYd2.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
26. By this point “everyone knew this was fucked,” said one former employee, but the response was essentially to err on the side of… continuing to err.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjA0R6cWIAgdwlk.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
27. Former VP of Global Comms Brandon Borrman asks, “Can we truthfully claim that this is part of the policy?”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjA02YIWQAElTqy.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
28. To which former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker again seems to advise staying the non-course, because “caution is warranted”:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjA1NY3WAAEcV-5.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
29. A fundamental problem with tech companies and content moderation: many people in charge of speech know/care little about speech, and have to be told the basics by outsiders. To wit:
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
30. In one humorous exchange on day 1, Democratic congressman Ro Khanna reaches out to Gadde to gently suggest she hop on the phone to talk about the “backlash re speech.” Khanna was the only Democratic official I could find in the files who expressed concern.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjA2C14XEAQv2-G.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
Gadde replies quickly, immediately diving into the weeds of Twitter policy, unaware Khanna is more worried about the Bill of Rights:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjA2VaAXwAAlEBg.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
32.Khanna tries to reroute the conversation to the First Amendment, mention of which is generally hard to find in the files:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjA2s0gXEAE7vAr.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
33.Within a day, head of Public Policy Lauren Culbertson receives a ghastly letter/report from Carl Szabo of the research firm NetChoice, which had already polled 12 members of congress – 9 Rs and 3 Democrats, from “the House Judiciary Committee to Rep. Judy Chu’s office.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjA3ZkOXgAAAhk0.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
34.NetChoice lets Twitter know a “blood bath” awaits in upcoming Hill hearings, with members saying it's a "tipping point," complaining tech has “grown so big that they can’t even regulate themselves, so government may need to intervene.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjA4T3UXoAAmlLK.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
35.Szabo reports to Twitter that some Hill figures are characterizing the laptop story as “tech’s Access Hollywood moment”:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjA4u00XgAA2969.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
36.Twitter files continued:
"THE FIRST AMENDMENT ISN’T ABSOLUTE”
Szabo’s letter contains chilling passages relaying Democratic lawmakers’ attitudes. They want “more” moderation, and as for the Bill of Rights, it's "not absolute"
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjA5SvhX0AI9uFJ.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
An amazing subplot of the Twitter/Hunter Biden laptop affair was how much was done without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, and how long it took for the situation to get "unfucked" (as one ex-employee put it) even after Dorsey jumped in.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
There are multiple instances in the files of Dorsey intervening to question suspensions and other moderation actions, for accounts across the political spectrum
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
The problem with the "hacked materials" ruling, several sources said, was that this normally required an official/law enforcement finding of a hack. But such a finding never appears throughout what one executive describes as a "whirlwind" 24-hour, company-wide mess.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjBDehFWAAAJT5S.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
It's been a whirlwind 96 hours for me, too. There is much more to come, including answers to questions about issues like shadow-banning, boosting, follower counts, the fate of various individual accounts, and more. These issues are not limited to the political right.
Part II
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
1. A new #TwitterFiles investigation reveals that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics—all in secret, without informing users.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
2. Twitter once had a mission “to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.” Along the way, barriers nevertheless were erected.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
3. Take, for example, Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) who argued that Covid lockdowns would harm children. Twitter secretly placed him on a “Trends Blacklist,” which prevented his tweets from trending.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjfvHVFVsAAydKR.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
4. Or consider the popular right-wing talk show host, Dan Bongino (@dbongino), who at one point was slapped with a “Search Blacklist.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjfvoMhVQAE6ho5.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
5. Twitter set the account of conservative activist Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) to “Do Not Amplify.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjfwWDEVEAAqIBA.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
6. Twitter denied that it does such things. In 2018, Twitter's Vijaya Gadde (then Head of Legal Policy and Trust) and Kayvon Beykpour (Head of Product) said: “We do not shadow ban.” They added: “And we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.”
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
7. What many people call “shadow banning,” Twitter executives and employees call “Visibility Filtering” or “VF.” Multiple high-level sources confirmed its meaning.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
8. “Think about visibility filtering as being a way for us to suppress what people see to different levels. It’s a very powerful tool,” one senior Twitter employee told us.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
9. “VF” refers to Twitter’s control over user visibility. It used VF to block searches of individual users; to limit the scope of a particular tweet’s discoverability; to block select users’ posts from ever appearing on the “trending” page; and from inclusion in hashtag searches.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
11. “We control visibility quite a bit. And we control the amplification of your content quite a bit. And normal people do not know how much we do,” one Twitter engineer told us. Two additional Twitter employees confirmed.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
12. The group that decided whether to limit the reach of certain users was the Strategic Response Team - Global Escalation Team, or SRT-GET. It often handled up to 200 "cases" a day.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
13. But there existed a level beyond official ticketing, beyond the rank-and-file moderators following the company’s policy on paper. That is the “Site Integrity Policy, Policy Escalation Support,” known as “SIP-PES.”
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
14. This secret group included Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust (Vijaya Gadde), the Global Head of Trust & Safety (Yoel Roth), subsequent CEOs Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal, and others.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
15. This is where the biggest, most politically sensitive decisions got made. “Think high follower account, controversial,” another Twitter employee told us. For these “there would be no ticket or anything.”
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
16. One of the accounts that rose to this level of scrutiny was @libsoftiktok—an account that was on the “Trends Blacklist” and was designated as “Do Not Take Action on User Without Consulting With SIP-PES.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjf1naFVEAA0Q6_.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
17. The account—which Chaya Raichik began in November 2020 and now boasts over 1.4 million followers—was subjected to six suspensions in 2022 alone, Raichik says. Each time, Raichik was blocked from posting for as long as a week.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
18. Twitter repeatedly informed Raichik that she had been suspended for violating Twitter’s policy against “hateful conduct.”
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
19. But in an internal SIP-PES memo from October 2022, after her seventh suspension, the committee acknowledged that “LTT has not directly engaged in behavior violative of the Hateful Conduct policy." See here:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjf3q4hUoAAI1P5.png)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
20. The committee justified her suspensions internally by claiming her posts encouraged online harassment of “hospitals and medical providers” by insinuating “that gender-affirming healthcare is equivalent to child abuse or grooming.”
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
21. Compare this to what happened when Raichik herself was doxxed on November 21, 2022. A photo of her home with her address was posted in a tweet that has garnered more than 10,000 likes.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
22. When Raichik told Twitter that her address had been disseminated she says Twitter Support responded with this message: "We reviewed the reported content, and didn't find it to be in violation of the Twitter rules." No action was taken. The doxxing tweet is still up.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjf4zqqVEAEsIdd.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
23. In internal Slack messages, Twitter employees spoke of using technicalities to restrict the visibility of tweets and subjects. Here’s Yoel Roth, Twitter’s then Global Head of Trust & Safety, in a direct message to a colleague in early 2021:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjf6MmxUoAEBr1B.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
24. Six days later, in a direct message with an employee on the Health, Misinformation, Privacy, and Identity research team, Roth requested more research to support expanding “non-removal policy interventions like disabling engagements and deamplification/visibility filtering.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjf6iguUoAE925r.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
25. Roth wrote: “The hypothesis underlying much of what we’ve implemented is that if exposure to, e.g., misinformation directly causes harm, we should use remediations that reduce exposure, and limiting the spread/virality of content is a good way to do that.”
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
26. He added: “We got Jack on board with implementing this for civic integrity in the near term, but we’re going to need to make a more robust case to get this into our repertoire of policy remediations – especially for other policy domains.”
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
27. There is more to come on this story, which was reported by @AbigailShrier @ShellenbergerMD @NellieBowles @IsaacGrafstein and the team The Free Press @TheFP.
Keep up with this unfolding story here and at our brand new website: thefp.com.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
28. The authors have broad and expanding access to Twitter’s files. The only condition we agreed to was that the material would first be published on Twitter.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
29. We're just getting started on our reporting. Documents cannot tell the whole story here. A big thank you to everyone who has spoken to us so far. If you are a current or former Twitter employee, we'd love to hear from you. Please write to: tips@thefp.com
Part III
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
2. The world knows much of the story of what happened between riots at the Capitol on January 6th, and the removal of President Donald Trump from Twitter on January 8th...
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
3. We’ll show you what hasn’t been revealed: the erosion of standards within the company in months before J6, decisions by high-ranking executives to violate their own policies, and more, against the backdrop of ongoing, documented interaction with federal agencies.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
4. This first installment covers the period before the election through January 6th. Tomorrow, @ShellenbergerMD will detail the chaos inside Twitter on January 7th. On Sunday, @bariweiss will reveal the secret internal communications from the key date of January 8th.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 5. Whatever your opinion on the decision to remove Trump that day, the internal communications at Twitter between January 6th-January 8th have clear historical import. Even Twitter’s employees understood in the moment it was a landmark moment in the annals of speech.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjkncVmWYAE0APz.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 6. As soon as they finished banning Trump, Twitter execs started processing new power. They prepared to ban future presidents and White Houses – perhaps even Joe Biden. The “new administration,” says one exec, “will not be suspended by Twitter unless absolutely necessary.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjkoi-MWIAE1c08.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 7. Twitter executives removed Trump in part over what one executive called the “context surrounding”: actions by Trump and supporters “over the course of the election and frankly last 4+ years.” In the end, they looked at a broad picture. But that approach can cut both ways.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjkphAoXwAEyOgS.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 8. The bulk of the internal debate leading to Trump’s ban took place in those three January days. However, the intellectual framework was laid in the months preceding the Capitol riots.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 9. Before J6, Twitter was a unique mix of automated, rules-based enforcement, and more subjective moderation by senior executives. As @bariweiss reported, the firm had a vast array of tools for manipulating visibility, most all of which were thrown at Trump (and others) pre-J6.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 10. As the election approached, senior executives – perhaps under pressure from federal agencies, with whom they met more as time progressed – increasingly struggled with rules, and began to speak of “vios” as pretexts to do what they’d likely have done anyway.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 11. After J6, internal Slacks show Twitter executives getting a kick out of intensified relationships with federal agencies. Here’s Trust and Safety head Yoel Roth, lamenting a lack of “generic enough” calendar descriptions to concealing his “very interesting” meeting partners.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjksTPLWIAUv9Jp.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 12. These initial reports are based on searches for docs linked to prominent executives, whose names are already public. They include Roth, former trust and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, and recently plank-walked Deputy General Counsel (and former top FBI lawyer) Jim Baker.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 13. One particular slack channel offers an unique window into the evolving thinking of top officials in late 2020 and early 2021.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 14. On October 8th, 2020, executives opened a channel called “us2020_xfn_enforcement.” Through J6, this would be home for discussions about election-related removals, especially ones that involved “high-profile” accounts (often called “VITs” or “Very Important Tweeters”).
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjktcCtXwAMyhUG.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 15. There was at least some tension between Safety Operations – a larger department whose staffers used a more rules-based process for addressing issues like porn, scams, and threats – and a smaller, more powerful cadre of senior policy execs like Roth and Gadde.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 16. The latter group were a high-speed Supreme Court of moderation, issuing content rulings on the fly, often in minutes and based on guesses, gut calls, even Google searches, even in cases involving the President.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjku1umXgAEBzml.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 17. During this time, executives were also clearly liaising with federal enforcement and intelligence agencies about moderation of election-related content. While we’re still at the start of reviewing the #TwitterFiles, we’re finding out more about these interactions every day.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 18. Policy Director Nick Pickles is asked if they should say Twitter detects “misinfo” through “ML, human review, and **partnerships with outside experts?*” The employee asks, “I know that’s been a slippery process… not sure if you want our public explanation to hang on that.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjkv5KWXgAQJbcg.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjkv6z9XoAIj3JU.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 19. Pickles quickly asks if they could “just say “partnerships.” After a pause, he says, “e.g. not sure we’d describe the FBI/DHS as experts.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjkwGpLXoAA7xxw.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 20. This post about the Hunter Biden laptop situation shows that Roth not only met weekly with the FBI and DHS, but with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI):
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjkwxD_WAAAgiG3.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 21. Roth’s report to FBI/DHS/DNI is almost farcical in its self-flagellating tone:
“We blocked the NYP story, then unblocked it (but said the opposite)… comms is angry, reporters think we’re idiots… in short, FML” (fuck my life).
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjkxOGBWIAEN8oF.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 23. Some of Roth’s later Slacks indicate his weekly confabs with federal law enforcement involved separate meetings. Here, he ghosts the FBI and DHS, respectively, to go first to an “Aspen Institute thing,” then take a call with Apple.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjkxniGXkAMk9YQ.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 24. Here, the FBI sends reports about a pair of tweets, the second of which involves a former Tippecanoe County, Indiana Councilor and Republican named @JohnBasham claiming “Between 2% and 25% of Ballots by Mail are Being Rejected for Errors.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjkx9_nXgAEpEP5.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham The FBI's second report concerned this tweet by @JohnBasham:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjkyfx3WQAA1w07.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham 25. The FBI-flagged tweet then got circulated in the enforcement Slack. Twitter cited Politifact to say the first story was “proven to be false,” then noted the second was already deemed “no vio on numerous occasions.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjkyrijWYAEkJw5.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham 26. The group then decides to apply a “Learn how voting is safe and secure” label because one commenter says, “it’s totally normal to have a 2% error rate.” Roth then gives the final go-ahead to the process initiated by the FBI:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjky9lJXkAEbO6n.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham 27. Examining the entire election enforcement Slack, we didn’t see one reference to moderation requests from the Trump campaign, the Trump White House, or Republicans generally. We looked. They may exist: we were told they do. However, they were absent here.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham 31. In one case, former Arizona governor Mike Huckabee joke-tweets about mailing in ballots for his “deceased parents and grandparents.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjkzm5QWQAU4A9b.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham 32. This inspires a long Slack that reads like an @TitaniaMcGrath parody. “I agree it’s a joke,” concedes a Twitter employee, “but he’s also literally admitting in a tweet a crime.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath The group declares Huck’s an “edge case,” and though one notes, “we don’t make exceptions for jokes or satire,” they ultimately decide to leave him be, because “we’ve poked enough bears.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath 33. "Could still mislead people... could still mislead people," the humor-averse group declares, before moving on from Huckabee
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk0sWqWAAEhk8P.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath 33. Roth suggests moderation even in this absurd case could depend on whether or not the joke results in “confusion.” This seemingly silly case actually foreshadows serious later issues:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk1TVfWAAEZgVD.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath 34. In the docs, execs often expand criteria to subjective issues like intent (yes, a video is authentic, but why was it shown?), orientation (was a banned tweet shown to condemn, or support?), or reception (did a joke cause “confusion”?). This reflex will become key in J6.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath 35. In another example, Twitter employees prepare to slap a “mail-in voting is safe” warning label on a Trump tweet about a postal screwup in Ohio, before realizing “the events took place,” which meant the tweet was “factually accurate”:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk2LKaXgAElsat.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk2M-SWQAQDxMO.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath 36. “VERY WELL DONE ON SPEED” Trump was being “visibility filtered” as late as a week before the election. Here, senior execs didn’t appear to have a particular violation, but still worked fast to make sure a fairly anodyne Trump tweet couldn’t be “replied to, shared, or liked”:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk2qoXWAAMC0XQ.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk2sieXwAgDHH9.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath "VERY WELL DONE ON SPEED": the group is pleased the Trump tweet is dealt with quickly
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk3MLkWQAAMwPs.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath 37. A seemingly innocuous follow-up involved a tweet from actor @RealJamesWoods, whose ubiquitous presence in argued-over Twitter data sets is already a #TwitterFiles in-joke.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk3ogxWIAQ_n9k.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 38. After Woods angrily quote-tweeted about Trump’s warning label, Twitter staff – in a preview of what ended up happening after J6 – despaired of a reason for action, but resolved to “hit him hard on future vio.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk4Ni8XkAAd9ve.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 39. Here a label is applied to Georgia Republican congresswoman Jody Hice for saying, “Say NO to big tech censorship!” and, “Mailed ballots are more prone to fraud than in-person balloting… It’s just common sense.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk4cK8X0AI9ftR.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 40. Twitter teams went easy on Hice, only applying “soft intervention,” with Roth worrying about a “wah wah censorship” optics backlash:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk4vLrX0AMu5Se.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 41. Meanwhile, there are multiple instances of involving pro-Biden tweets warning Trump “may try to steal the election” that got surfaced, only to be approved by senior executives. This one, they decide, just “expresses concern that mailed ballots might not make it on time.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk5NHbWYAEu8Tq.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk5dIJWIAAaL3e.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 42. “THAT’S UNDERSTANDABLE”: Even the hashtag #StealOurVotes – referencing a theory that a combo of Amy Coney Barrett and Trump will steal the election – is approved by Twitter brass, because it’s “understandable” and a “reference to… a US Supreme Court decision.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk6P4AXEAMxEpX.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk6TR0XwAAyvI1.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 43. In this exchange, again unintentionally humorous, former Attorney General Eric Holder claimed the U.S. Postal Service was “deliberately crippled,”ostensibly by the Trump administration. He was initially hit with a generic warning label, but it was quickly taken off by Roth:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk60vuX0AEHbjC.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk62rJWAAED9PM.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 44. Later in November 2020, Roth asked if staff had a “debunk moment” on the “SCYTL/Smartmantic vote-counting” stories, which his DHS contacts told him were a combination of “about 47” conspiracy theories:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk7Y8uWAAAmd0j.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 45. On December 10th, as Trump was in the middle of firing off 25 tweets saying things like, “A coup is taking place in front of our eyes,” Twitter executives announced a new “L3 deamplification” tool. This step meant a warning label now could also come with deamplification:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk7zrpWAAIlgmv.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 46. Some executives wanted to use the new deamplification tool to silently limit Trump’s reach more right away, beginning with the following tweet:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk8O_vXoAEroOH.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 47. However, in the end, the team had to use older, less aggressive labeling tools at least for that day, until the “L3 entities” went live the following morning.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk8nu2WQAA9e08.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk8phBXkAEwk6c.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 48. The significance is that it shows that Twitter, in 2020 at least, was deploying a vast range of visible and invisible tools to rein in Trump’s engagement, long before J6. The ban will come after other avenues are exhausted
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 49. In Twitter docs execs frequently refer to “bots,” e.g. “let’s put a bot on that.” A bot is just any automated heuristic moderation rule. It can be anything: every time a person in Brazil uses “green” and “blob” in the same sentence, action might be taken.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk9Y78WIAUYes2.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 50. In this instance, it appears moderators added a bot for a Trump claim made on Breitbart. The bot ends up becoming an automated tool invisibly watching both Trump and, apparently, Breitbart (“will add media ID to bot”). Trump by J6 was quickly covered in bots.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk-aSiWQAEsi1N.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk-crrXgAAOStI.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 51. There is no way to follow the frenzied exchanges among Twitter personnel from between January 6thand 8th without knowing the basics of the company’s vast lexicon of acronyms and Orwellian unwords.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 52. To “bounce” an account is to put it in timeout, usually for a 12-hour review/cool-off:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk-w-jWIAErlDw.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 53. “Interstitial,” one of many nouns used as a verb in Twitterspeak (“denylist” is another), means placing a physical label atop a tweet, so it can’t be seen.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 54. PII has multiple meanings, one being “Public Interest Interstitial,” i.e. a covering label applied for “public interest” reasons. The post below also references “proactive V,” i.e. proactive visibility filtering.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjk_dy3WIAA4K_l.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 55. This is all necessary background to J6. Before the riots, the company was engaged in an inherently insane/impossible project, trying to create an ever-expanding, ostensibly rational set of rules to regulate every conceivable speech situation that might arise between humans.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods This project was preposterous yet its leaders were unable to see this, having become infected with groupthing, coming to believe – sincerely – that it was Twitter's responsibility to control, as much as possible, what people could talk about, how often, and with whom.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 57. The firm’s executives on day 1 of the January 6th crisis at least tried to pay lip service to its dizzying array of rules. By day 2, they began wavering. By day 3, a million rules were reduced to one: what we say, goes
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 56. When panic first breaks out on J6 there’s a fair share of WTF-type posts, mixed in with frantic calls for Twitter to start deploying its full arsenal of moderation tools. “What is the right remediation? Do we interstitial the video?” asks one employee, in despair:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjlAbgRWYAAXeda.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 57. This “Freedom or Death” tweet from #StopTheSteal gadfly Mike Coudrey elicits heated reactions:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjlAxQmXEAAQyMZ.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 58. Roth groans about Coudrey: “THIS asshole,” but still seems determined to stick at least superficially to rules, itching to act “if” this “constitutes incitement.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjlBDgeXwAE9Dhy.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 59. At 2:39 p.m. PST, a comms official asked Roth to confirm or deny a story that they’d restricted Trump’s ability to tweet. Roth says, “We have not.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjlBcZvX0AM1qym.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 60. Minutes later, Roth executed the historic act of “bouncing” Trump, i.e. putting him in timeout. “I hope you… are appropriately CorpSec’d,” says a colleague.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjlBzfDWQAAul4c.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods This theme of Policy perhaps being stressed by queries from Communications executives – who themselves have to answer the public’s questions – occasionally appears. Two days later, you see chatter about pulling Comms out of the loop:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjlCUX4WIAcsBjt.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 61. The first company-wide email from Gadde on January 6th announced that 3 Trump tweets had been bounced, but more importantly signaled a determination to use legit “violations” as a guide for any possible permanent suspension:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjlCsaNWQAEpLnU.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 62. “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?” Safe to say Trump’s “Go home with love & in peace” tweet mid-riot didn’t go over well at Twitter HQ:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjlDHgtWIAAivhU.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjlDJeNWYAEuNQd.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 63. A few last notes about January 6th. Roth at one point looked and found Trump had a slew of duplicate bot applications:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjlFO4kWIAAcwwU.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 64. By the end of the first day, the top execs are still trying to apply rules. By the next day, they will contemplate a major change in approach. Watch @ShellenbergerMD this weekend for the play-by-play of how all that went down.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 65. By January 8th, which @bariweiss will describe Sunday, Twitter will be receiving plaudits from “our partners” in Washington, and the sitting U.S. president will no longer be heard on the platform.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 66. Lastly, people on the left, right, and in between want to know what else is in the #TwitterFiles, from suppression/shadow-banning of leftists to lab-leak theorists, or amplification of military propaganda or conservative accounts. We know everyone has questions.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham @TitaniaMcGrath @RealJamesWoods 67. And while we’ve stumbled on tidbits here and there about topics ranging from COVID to foreign policy, the reality is the data sets are enormous and we’re still working through them.
More is coming. Good night, all.
Part IV
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
1. TWITTER FILES, PART 4
The Removal of Donald Trump: January 7
As the pressure builds, Twitter executives build the case for a permanent ban
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
On Jan 7, senior Twitter execs:
- create justifications to ban Trump
- seek a change of policy for Trump alone, distinct from other political leaders
- express no concern for the free speech or democracy implications of a ban
This #TwitterFiles is reported with @lwoodhouse
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
For those catching up, please see:
Part 1, where @mtaibbi documents how senior Twitter executives violated their own policies to prevent the spread of accurate information about Hunter Biden’s laptop;
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_40/mtaibbi.jpg)
Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Part 2, where @bariweiss shows how senior Twitter execs created secret blacklists to “de-amplify” disfavored Twitter users, not just specific tweets;
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_40/bariweiss.jpg)
Bari Weiss @bariweiss
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
And Part 3, where @mtaibbi documents how senior Twitter execs censored tweets by Trump in the run-up to the Nov 2020 election while regularly engaging with representatives of U.S. government law enforcement agencies.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_40/mtaibbi.jpg)
Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
For years, Twitter had resisted calls to ban Trump.
“Blocking a world leader from Twitter,” it wrote in 2018, “would hide important info... [and] hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.”
![Twitter avatar for @Policy](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_40/Policy.jpg)
Twitter Public Policy @Policy
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
But after the events of Jan 6, the internal and external pressure on Twitter CEO @jack grows.
Former First Lady @MichelleObama , tech journalist @karaswisher , @ADL , high-tech VC @ChrisSacca , and many others, publicly call on Twitter to permanently ban Trump.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjp35BDUYAAO6GA.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjp36_IUoAAz4mS.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjp36-kUAAAX--x.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjp36_RUAAES-Qy.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Dorsey was on vacation in French Polynesia the week of January 4-8, 2021. He phoned into meetings but also delegated much of the handling of the situation to senior execs @yoyoel , Twitter’s Global Head of Trust and Safety, and @vijaya Head of Legal, Policy, & Trust.
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
As context, it's important to understand that Twitter’s staff & senior execs were overwhelmingly progressive.
In 2018, 2020, and 2022, 96%, 98%, & 99% of Twitter staff's political donations went to Democrats.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_40/mtaibbi.jpg)
Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
In 2017, Roth tweeted that there were “ACTUAL NAZIS IN THE WHITE HOUSE.”
In April 2022, Roth told a colleague that his goal “is to drive change in the world,” which is why he decided not to become an academic.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjp6C06VsAAh6XB.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjp6IM5UUAA7DO1.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
On January 7, @jack emails employees saying Twitter needs to remain consistent in its policies, including the right of users to return to Twitter after a temporary suspension
After, Roth reassures an employee that "people who care about this... aren't happy with where we are"
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjp7CcRUUAAxW1M.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Around 11:30 am PT, Roth DMs his colleagues with news that he is excited to share.
“GUESS WHAT,” he writes. “Jack just approved repeat offender for civic integrity.”
The new approach would create a system where five violations ("strikes") would result in permanent suspension.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjp9GbyVUAA1-fx.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
“Progress!” exclaims a member of Roth’s Trust and Safety Team.
The exchange between Roth and his colleagues makes clear that they had been pushing @jack for greater restrictions on the speech Twitter allows around elections.
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
The colleague wants to know if the decision means Trump can finally be banned. The person asks, "does the incitement to violence aspect change that calculus?”
Roth says it doesn't. "Trump continues to just have his one strike" (remaining).
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjp--A3UUAAOTp_.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Roth's colleague's query about "incitement to violence" heavily foreshadows what will happen the following day.
On January 8, Twitter announces a permanent ban on Trump due to the "risk of further incitement of violence."
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqBCh0VsAAb70G.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
On J8, Twitter says its ban is based on "specifically how [Trump's tweets] are being received & interpreted."
But in 2019, Twitter said it did "not attempt to determine all potential interpretations of the content or its intent.”
https://t.co/2jW1s5pH4W
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqCQmyUAAARr-5.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqCQmvUoAAygtr.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
The *only* serious concern we found expressed within Twitter over the implications for free speech and democracy of banning Trump came from a junior person in the organization. It was tucked away in a lower-level Slack channel known as “site-integrity-auto."
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqENRFUAAEleiE.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
"This might be an unpopular opinion but one off ad hoc decisions like this that don’t appear rooted in policy are imho a slippery slope... This now appears to be a fiat by an online platform CEO with a global presence that can gatekeep speech for the entire world..."
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqEe2dUcAEH67y.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Twitter employees use the term "one off" frequently in their Slack discussions. Its frequent use reveals significant employee discretion over when and whether to apply warning labels on tweets and "strikes" on users. Here are typical examples.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqFMdgUoAAfjZh.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqFXMOUcAAFI0f.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Recall from #TwitterFiles2 by @bariweiss that, according to Twitter staff, "We control visibility quite a bit. And we control the amplification of your content quite a bit. And normal people do not know how much we do."
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_40/bariweiss.jpg)
Bari Weiss @bariweiss
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Twitter employees recognize the difference between their own politics & Twitter's Terms of Service (TOS), but they also engage in complex interpretations of content in order to stamp out prohibited tweets, as a series of exchanges over the "#stopthesteal" hashtag reveal.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqLixqUYAAuRCh.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqLixqUAAA5sZf.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Roth immediately DMs a colleague to ask that they add "stopthesteal" & [QAnon conspiracy term] "kraken" to a blacklist of terms to be deamplified.
Roth's colleague objects that blacklisting "stopthesteal" risks "deamplifying counterspeech" that validates the election.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqNsD4UUAASaye.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Indeed, notes Roth's colleague, "a quick search of top stop the steal tweets and they’re counterspeech"
But they quickly come up with a solution: "deamplify accounts with stopthesteal in the name/profile" since "those are not affiliated with counterspeech"
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqRIGPUAAAmna3.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
But it turns out that even blacklisting "kraken" is less straightforward than they thought. That's because kraken, in addition to being a QAnon conspiracy theory based on the mythical Norwegian sea monster, is also the name of a cryptocurrency exchange, and was thus "allowlisted"
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqTTwtVEAEDpu4.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Employees struggle with whether to punish users who share screenshots of Trump's deleted J6 tweets
"we should bounce these tweets with a strike given the screen shot violates the policy"
"they are criticising Trump, so I am bit hesitant with applying strike to this user"
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqXtNdVQAA2CfM.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
What if a user dislikes Trump *and* objects to Twitter's censorship? The tweet still gets deleted. But since the *intention* is not to deny the election result, no punishing strike is applied.
"if there are instances where the intent is unclear please feel free to raise"
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqaqBqUUAAUoLg.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Around noon, a confused senior executive in advertising sales sends a DM to Roth.
Sales exec: "jack says: 'we will permanently suspend [Trump] if our policies are violated after a 12 hour account lock'… what policies is jack talking about?"
Roth: "*ANY* policy violation"
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqcwxDVQAAnwYh.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
What happens next is essential to understanding how Twitter justified banning Trump.
Sales exec: "are we dropping the public interest [policy] now..."
Roth, six hours later: "In this specific case, we're changing our public interest approach for his account..."
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqeXNQVUAAtbZv.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
The ad exec is referring to Twitter’s policy of “Public-interest exceptions," which allows the content of elected officials, even if it violates Twitter rules, “if it directly contributes to understanding or discussion of a matter of public concern”
https://t.co/xTs14fD8V9
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqf8HBVsAAvhER.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Roth pushes for a permanent suspension of Rep. Matt Gaetz even though it “doesn’t quite fit anywhere (duh)”
It's a kind of test case for the rationale for banning Trump.
“I’m trying to talk [Twitter’s] safety [team] into... removal as a conspiracy that incites violence.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqi3MuUUAAE3Hx.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Around 2:30, comms execs DM Roth to say they don't want to make a big deal of the QAnon ban to the media because they fear "if we push this it looks we’re trying to offer up something in place of the thing everyone wants," meaning a Trump ban.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqkOZIUUAM1k4w.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
That evening, a Twitter engineer DMs to Roth to say, "I feel a lot of debates around exceptions stem from the fact that Trump’s account is not technically different from anybody else’ and yet treated differently due to his personal status, without corresponding _Twitter rules_.."
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqkz7QUoAAphkr.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Roth's response hints at how Twitter would justify deviating from its longstanding policy. "To put a different spin on it: policy is one part of the system of how Twitter works... we ran into the world changing faster than we were able to either adapt the product or the policy."
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqlTEkUcAAOGLV.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
The evening of January 7, the same junior employee who expressed an "unpopular opinion" about "ad hoc decisions... that don’t appear rooted in policy," speaks up one last time before the end of the day.
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_40/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Michael Shellenberger @ShellenbergerMD
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Earlier that day, the employee wrote, "My concern is specifically surrounding the unarticulated logic of the decision by FB. That space fills with the idea (conspiracy theory?) that all... internet moguls... sit around like kings casually deciding what people can and cannot see."
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjqnid-UYAEqjSd.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
The employee notes, later in the day, "And Will Oremus noticed the inconsistency too...," linking to an article for OneZero at Medium called, "Facebook Chucked Its Own Rulebook to Ban Trump."
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F53e6d3fc-2b1a-4b31-88d0-307b50af2e29_1200x632.jpeg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
"The underlying problem," writes @WillOremus , is that “the dominant platforms have always been loath to own up to their subjectivity, because it highlights the extraordinary, unfettered power they wield over the global public square...
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
"... and places the responsibility for that power on their own shoulders… So they hide behind an ever-changing rulebook, alternately pointing to it when it’s convenient and shoving it under the nearest rug when it isn’t.”
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0bb0a19a-22dd-4177-89e6-ddbd03a55d1b_1200x632.jpeg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
“Facebook’s suspension of Trump now puts Twitter in an awkward position. If Trump does indeed return to Twitter, the pressure on Twitter will ramp up to find a pretext on which to ban him as well.”
Indeed. And as @bariweiss will show tomorrow, that’s exactly what happened.
/END
Part V
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
1. On the morning of January 8, President Donald Trump, with one remaining strike before being at risk of permanent suspension from Twitter, tweets twice.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
2. 6:46 am: “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjy-F_tUcAAZaPq.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
3. 7:44 am: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjy-SXUVUAY2EHB.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
4. For years, Twitter had resisted calls both internal and external to ban Trump on the grounds that blocking a world leader from the platform or removing their controversial tweets would hide important information that people should be able to see and debate.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
5. “Our mission is to provide a forum that enables people to be informed and to engage their leaders directly,” the company wrote in 2019. Twitter’s aim was to “protect the public’s right to hear from their leaders and to hold them to account.”
https://t.co/rtQjkQQxSs
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
6. But after January 6, as @mtaibbi and @ShellenbergerMD have documented, pressure grew, both inside and outside of Twitter, to ban Trump.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
7. There were dissenters inside Twitter.
“Maybe because I am from China,” said one employee on January 7, “I deeply understand how censorship can destroy the public conversation.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjy--axUoAE0nGn.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
8. But voices like that one appear to have been a distinct minority within the company. Across Slack channels, many Twitter employees were upset that Trump hadn’t been banned earlier.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
9. After January 6, Twitter employees organized to demand their employer ban Trump. “There is a lot of employee advocacy happening,” said one Twitter employee.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjy_U1vUcAAvgJ2.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
10. “We have to do the right thing and ban this account,” said one staffer.
It’s “pretty obvious he’s going to try to thread the needle of incitement without violating the rules,” said another.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjy_6GAUcAEP8IH.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
11. In the early afternoon of January 8, The Washington Post published an open letter signed by over 300 Twitter employees to CEO Jack Dorsey demanding Trump’s ban. “We must examine Twitter’s complicity in what President-Elect Biden has rightly termed insurrection.”
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
12. But the Twitter staff assigned to evaluate tweets quickly concluded that Trump had *not* violated Twitter’s policies.“I think we’d have a hard time saying this is incitement,” wrote one staffer.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
13. “It's pretty clear he's saying the ‘American Patriots’ are the ones who voted for him and not the terrorists (we can call them that, right?) from Wednesday.”
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
15. “I also am not seeing clear or coded incitement in the DJT tweet,” wrote Anika Navaroli, a Twitter policy official. “I’ll respond in the elections channel and say that our team has assessed and found no vios”—or violations—“for the DJT one.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzA0k2VUAENDj2.png)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
16. She does just that: “as an fyi, Safety has assessed the DJT Tweet above and determined that there is no violation of our policies at this time.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzBCItUAAAttyj.png)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
17. (Later, Navaroli would testify to the House Jan. 6 committee:“For months I had been begging and anticipating and attempting to raise the reality that if nothing—if we made no intervention into what I saw occuring, people were going to die.”)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
18. Next, Twitter’s safety team decides that Trump’s 7:44 am ET tweet is also not in violation. They are unequivocal: “it’s a clear no vio. It’s just to say he’s not attending the inauguration”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzBhwiVQAAZb8t.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
19. To understand Twitter’s decision to ban Trump, we must consider how Twitter deals with other heads of state and political leaders, including in Iran, Nigeria, and Ethiopia.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
20. In June 2018, Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted, “#Israel is a malignant cancerous tumor in the West Asian region that has to be removed and eradicated: it is possible and it will happen.”
Twitter neither deleted the tweet nor banned the Ayatollah.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzCAYyUoAA_TIR.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
21. In October 2020, the former Malaysian Prime Minister said it was “a right” for Muslims to “kill millions of French people.”
Twitter deleted his tweet for “glorifying violence,” but he remains on the platform. The tweet below was taken from the Wayback Machine:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzDr6kUYAAt6z-.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
22. Muhammadu Buhari, the President of Nigeria, incited violence against pro-Biafra groups.“Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war,” he wrote, “will treat them in the language they understand.”
Twitter deleted the tweet but didn't ban Buhari.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
23. In October 2021, Twitter allowed Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to call on citizens to take up arms against the Tigray region.
Twitter allowed the tweet to remain up, and did not ban the prime minister.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzEo25VEAA1M-5.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
24. In early February 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government threatened to arrest Twitter employees in India, and to incarcerate them for up to seven years after they restored hundreds of accounts that had been critical of him.
Twitter did not ban Modi.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzE3uCUUAEKnFs.png)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
25. But Twitter executives did ban Trump, even though key staffers said that Trump had not incited violence—not even in a “coded” way.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
26. Less than 90 minutes after Twitter employees had determined that Trump’s tweets were not in violation of Twitter policy, Vijaya Gadde—Twitter’s Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust—asked whether it could, in fact, be “coded incitement to further violence.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzFb5QVUAA-JxQ.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
27. A few minutes later, Twitter employees on the “scaled enforcement team” suggest that Trump’s tweet may have violated Twitter’s Glorification of Violence policy—if you interpreted the phrase “American Patriots” to refer to the rioters.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzFp1zUAAAt31D.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
28. Things escalate from there.
Members of that team came to “view him as the leader of a terrorist group responsible for violence/deaths comparable to Christchurch shooter or Hitler and on that basis and on the totality of his Tweets, he should be de-platformed.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzF4seVQAU8wnv.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
29. Two hours later, Twitter executives host a 30-minute all-staff meeting.
Jack Dorsey and Vijaya Gadde answer staff questions as to why Trump wasn’t banned yet.
But they make some employees angrier.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
30. “Multiple tweeps [Twitter employees] have quoted the Banality of Evil suggesting that people implementing our policies are like Nazis following orders,” relays Yoel Roth to a colleague.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzGfcVVsAAo3bF.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
31. Dorsey requested simpler language to explain Trump’s suspension.
Roth wrote, “god help us [this] makes me think he wants to share it publicly”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzGrnDVUAAC-zB.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
32. One hour later, Twitter announces Trump’s permanent suspension “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
34. And congratulatory: “big props to whoever in trust and safety is sitting there whack-a-mole-ing these trump accounts”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzH4dqVEAAYeL1.png)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
35. By the next day, employees expressed eagerness to tackle “medical misinformation” as soon as possible:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzIBPmVIAANRvW.png)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
36. “For the longest time, Twitter’s stance was that we aren’t the arbiter of truth,” wrote another employee, “which I respected but never gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzIMqpUcAANGXS.png)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
37. But Twitter’s COO Parag Agrawal—who would later succeed Dorsey as CEO—told Head of Security Mudge Zatko: “I think a few of us should brainstorm the ripple effects” of Trump's ban. Agrawal added: “centralized content moderation IMO has reached a breaking point now.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzIcIjVIAE_6S0.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFjzIorKUoAEHlI6.png)
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
38. Outside the United States, Twitter’s decision to ban Trump raised alarms, including with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, and Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
39. Macron told an audience he didn’t “want to live in a democracy where the key decisions” were made by private players. “I want it to be decided by a law voted by your representative, or by regulation, governance, democratically discussed and approved by democratic leaders.”
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
40. Merkel’s spokesperson called Twitter’s decision to ban Trump from its platform “problematic” and added that the freedom of opinion is of “elementary significance.”
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny criticized the ban as “an unacceptable act of censorship.”
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
41. Whether you agree with Navalny and Macron or the executives at Twitter, we hope this latest installment of #TheTwitterFiles gave you insight into that unprecedented decision.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
42. From the outset, our goal in investigating this story was to discover and document the steps leading up to the banning of Trump and to put that choice into context.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
43. Ultimately, the concerns about Twitter’s efforts to censor news about Hunter Biden’s laptop, blacklist disfavored views, and ban a president aren’t about the past choices of executives in a social media company.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
44. They’re about the power of a handful of people at a private company to influence the public discourse and democracy.
![Twitter avatar for @bariweiss](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/bariweiss.jpg)
45. This was reported by @ShellenbergerMD, @IsaacGrafstein, @SnoozyWeiss, @Olivia_Reingold, @petersavodnik, @NellieBowles. Follow all of our work at The Free Press: @TheFP
Part VI
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
2. The #TwitterFiles are revealing more every day about how the government collects, analyzes, and flags your social media content.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
4. Between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
5. Some are mundane, like San Francisco agent Elvis Chan wishing Roth a Happy New Year along with a reminder to attend “our quarterly call next week.” Others are requests for information into Twitter users related to active investigations.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
6. But a surprisingly high number are requests by the FBI for Twitter to take action on election misinformation, even involving joke tweets from low-follower accounts.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
7. The FBI’s social media-focused task force, known as FTIF, created in the wake of the 2016 election, swelled to 80 agents and corresponded with Twitter to identify alleged foreign influence and election tampering of all kinds.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
8. Federal intelligence and law enforcement reach into Twitter included the Department of Homeland Security, which partnered with security contractors and think tanks to pressure Twitter to moderate content.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
9. It’s no secret the government analyzes bulk data for all sorts of purposes, everything from tracking terror suspects to making economic forecasts.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
10. The #TwitterFiles show something new: agencies like the FBI and DHS regularly sending social media content to Twitter through multiple entry points, pre-flagged for moderation.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
11. What stands out is the sheer quantity of reports from the government. Some are aggregated from public hotlines:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIA_OaXEAQbJhz.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
12.An unanswered question: do agencies like FBI and DHS do in-house flagging work themselves, or farm it out? “You have to prove to me that inside the fucking government you can do any kind of massive data or AI search,” says one former intelligence officer.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
“HELLO TWITTER CONTACTS”: The master-canine quality of the FBI’s relationship to Twitter comes through in this November 2022 email, in which “FBI San Francisco is notifying you” it wants action on four accounts:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIBObgXEAAdh6H.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
14.Twitter personnel in that case went on to look for reasons to suspend all four accounts, including @fromMA, whose tweets are almost all jokes (see sample below), including his “civic misinformation” of Nov. 8:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIBeKHXEA0O0Uo.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIBgEPXEAERt7f.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIBhqcXEAw-AgP.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
15. Just to show the FBI can be hyper-intrusive in both directions, they also asked Twitter to review a blue-leaning account for a different joke, except here it was even more obvious that @ClaireFosterPHD, who kids a lot, was kidding:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIBzZ7XEAwnFNN.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIB12ZWQAA5RxE.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
16. “Anyone who cannot discern obvious satire from reality has no place making decisions for others or working for the feds,” said @ClaireFosterPHD, when told about the flagging.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
17.Of the six accounts mentioned in the previous two emails, all but two – @ClaireFosterPHD and @fromMA – were suspended.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
18.In an internal email from November 5, 2022, the FBI’s National Election Command Post, which compiles and sends on complaints, sent the SF field office a long list of accounts that “may warrant additional action”:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkICQFOXEAgDNG6.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
21.Many of the above accounts were satirical in nature, nearly all (with the exceptions of Baldwin and @RSBNetwork) were relatively low engagement, and some were suspended, most with a generic, “Thanks, Twitter” letter:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIDBvgXEBU__gx.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIDD8LXoAEJQ-j.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
22.When told of the FBI flagging, @lexitollah replied: “My thoughts initially include 1. Seems like prima facie 1A violation 2. Holy cow, me, an account with the reach of an amoeba 3. What else are they looking at?”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
24.In a letter to former Deputy General Counsel (and former top FBI lawyer) Jim Baker on Sep. 16, 2022, legal exec Stacia Cardille outlines results from her “soon to be weekly” meeting with DHS, DOJ, FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIDuPpXEBU216U.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
25.The Twitter exec writes she explicitly asked if there were “impediments” to the sharing of classified information “with industry.” The answer? “FBI was adamant no impediments to sharing exist.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
26. This passage underscores the unique one-big-happy-family vibe between Twitter and the FBI. With what other firm would the FBI blithely agree to “no impediments” to classified information?
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
27.At the bottom of that letter, she lists a series of “escalations” apparently raised at the meeting, which were already “handled.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
28. About one, she writes: “Flagged a specific Tweet on Illinois use of modems to transmit election results in possible violation of the civic integrity policy (except they do use that tech in limited circumstances).”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
29.Another internal letter from January, 2021 shows Twitter execs processing an FBI list of “possible violative content” tweets:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIEvnZXEA8Buuq.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
30.Here, too, most tweets contained the same, “Get out there and vote Wednesday!” trope and had low engagement. This is what the FBI spends its time on:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIE4U8XEBISYyu.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
31. In this March, 2021 email, an FBI liaison thanks a senior Twitter exec for the chance to speak to “you and the team,” then delivers a packet of “products”:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIFC4TXEBMPkwT.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
32.The executive circulates the “products,” which are really DHS bulletins stressing the need for greater collaboration between law enforcement and “private sector partners.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIFMaMXEAwYsC-.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
33.The ubiquity of the 2016 Russian interference story as stated pretext for building out the censorship machine can’t be overstated. It’s analogous to how 9/11 inspired the expansion of the security state.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIFXtuXEBAyzFJ.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
34.While the DHS in its “products” pans “permissive” social media for offering “operational advantages” to Russians, it also explains that the “Domestic Violent Extremist Threat” requires addressing “information gaps”:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIFfKIXEBgK40-.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
35.FBI in one case sent over so many “possible violative content” reports, Twitter personnel congratulated each other in Slack for the “monumental undertaking” of reviewing them:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIFm4vXEBQKbTo.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIFpcaXECUML96.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
36.There were multiple points of entry into Twitter for government-flagged reports. This letter from Agent Chan to Roth references Teleporter, a platform through which Twitter could receive reports from the FBI:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIFzz2XEBA3mhx.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
37.Reports also came from different agencies. Here, an employee recommends “bouncing” content based on evidence from “DHS etc”:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIGAWOWYAAXX5z.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
39.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.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
40.“WHY WAS NO ACTION TAKEN?” Below, Twitter execs – receiving an alert from California officials, by way of “our partner support portal” – debate whether to act on a Trump tweet:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIGQXoXgAACBAA.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIGTRkXEBoK8Wi.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
41.Here, a video was reported by the Election Integrity Project (EIP) at Stanford, apparently on the strength of information from the Center for Internet Security (CIS):
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIGek1XEAMXuhT.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
42.If that’s confusing, it’s because the CIS is a DHS contractor, describes itself as “partners” with the Cyber and Internet Security Agency (CISA) at the DHS:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkIGnhIXEAEblC_.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
43.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.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
44.The takeaway: 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.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
45. Twitter Files researchers are moving into a variety of new areas now. Watch @bariweiss, @ShellenbergerMD, and this space for more, soon.
Supplemental
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
2.In July of 2020, San Francisco FBI agent Elvis Chan tells Twitter executive Yoel Roth to expect written questions from the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), the inter-agency group that deals with cyber threats.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkQuhjKWIAEGQct.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
3.The questionnaire authors seem displeased with Twitter for implying, in a July 20th “DHS/ODNI/FBI/Industry briefing,” that “you indicated you had not observed much recent activity from official propaganda actors on your platform.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkQuuU5WQAEeHY4.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
5.Chan underscored this: “There was quite a bit of discussion within the USIC to get clarifications from your company,” he wrote, referring to the United States Intelligence Community.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
6.The task force demanded to know how Twitter came to its unpopular conclusion. Oddly, it included a bibliography of public sources - including a Wall Street Journal article - attesting to the prevalence of foreign threats, as if to show Twitter they got it wrong.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
7.Roth, receiving the questions, circulated them with other company executives, and complained that he was “frankly perplexed by the requests here, which seem more like something we'd get from a congressional committee than the Bureau.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkQvVLkWQAUEGOt.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
8.He added he was not “comfortable with the Bureau (and by extension the IC) demanding written answers.” The idea of the FBI acting as conduit for the Intelligence Community is interesting, given that many agencies are barred from domestic operations.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
9.He then sent another note internally, saying the premise of the questions was “flawed,” because “we've been clear that official state propaganda is definitely a thing on Twitter.” Note the italics for emphasis.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkQvcClWYAIz6Ii.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
10.Roth suggested they “get on the phone with Elvis ASAP and try to straighten this out,” to disabuse the agencies of any notion that state propaganda is not a “thing” on Twitter.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
11.This exchange is odd among other things because some of the “bibliography” materials cited by the FITF are sourced to intelligence officials, who in turn cited the public sources.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
12.The FBI responded to Friday’s report by saying it “regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identified foreign malign influence actors’ subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkQv9H0XoAIBtsY.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
13.That may be true, but we haven’t seen that in the documents to date. Instead, we’ve mostly seen requests for moderation involving low-follower accounts belonging to ordinary Americans – and Billy Baldwin.
Part VII
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
1. TWITTER FILES: PART 7
The FBI & the Hunter Biden Laptop
How the FBI & intelligence community discredited factual information about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings both after and *before* The New York Post revealed the contents of his laptop on October 14, 2020
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
In Twitter Files #6, we saw the FBI relentlessly seek to exercise influence over Twitter, including over its content, its users, and its data.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_40/mtaibbi.jpg)
Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
In Twitter Files #7, we present evidence pointing to an organized effort by representatives of the intelligence community (IC), aimed at senior executives at news and social media companies, to discredit leaked information about Hunter Biden before and after it was published.
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
The story begins in December 2019 when a Delaware computer store owner named John Paul (J.P.) Mac Isaac contacts the FBI about a laptop that Hunter Biden had left with him
On Dec 9, 2019, the FBI issues a subpoena for, and takes, Hunter Biden's laptop.
nypost.com/2020/10/14/ema…
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkWnojHVsAIb8kO.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkWnrR9VsAE3L3L.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkWnsnEUYAAbgln.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
By Aug 2020, Mac Isaac still had not heard back from the FBI, even though he had discovered evidence of criminal activity. And so he emails Rudy Giuliani, who was under FBI surveillance at the time. In early Oct, Giuliani gives it to @nypost
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1a558838-7d0d-4808-acd0-3520f9e9657f_1024x682.jpeg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Shortly before 7 pm ET on October 13, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, George Mesires, emails JP Mac Isaac.
Hunter and Mesires had just learned from the New York Post that its story about the laptop would be published the next day.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkWo9lJVsAMggZJ.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
7. At 9:22 pm ET (6:22 PT), FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan sends 10 documents to Twitter’s then-Head of Site Integrity, Yoel Roth, through Teleporter, a one-way communications channel from the FBI to Twitter.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkWpkUZVsAcqT8S.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
8. The next day, October 14, 2020, The New York Post runs its explosive story revealing the business dealings of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. Every single fact in it was accurate.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkWp4KeVUAAinQL.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
9. And yet, within hours, Twitter and other social media companies censor the NY Post article, preventing it from spreading and, more importantly, undermining its credibility in the minds of many Americans.
Why is that? What, exactly, happened?
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
10. On Dec 2, @mtaibbi described the debate inside Twitter over its decision to censor a wholly accurate article.
Since then, we have discovered new info that points to an organized effort by the intel community to influence Twitter & other platforms
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_40/mtaibbi.jpg)
Matt Taibbi @mtaibbi
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
11. First, it's important to understand that Hunter Biden earned *tens of millions* of dollars in contracts with foreign businesses, including ones linked to China's government, for which Hunter offered no real work.
Here's an overview by investigative journalist @peterschweizer
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
12. And yet, during all of 2020, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies repeatedly primed Yoel Roth to dismiss reports of Hunter Biden’s laptop as a Russian “hack and leak” operation.
This is from a sworn declaration by Roth given in December 2020.
fec.gov/files/legal/mu…
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkWs5ECUcAYy0BE.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
13. They did the same to Facebook, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “The FBI basically came to us [and] was like, ‘Hey... you should be on high alert. We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in 2016 election. There's about to be some kind of dump similar to that.'"
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
14. Were the FBI warnings of a Russian hack-and-leak operation relating to Hunter Biden based on *any* new intel?
No, they weren't
“Through our investigations, we did not see any similar competing intrusions to what had happened in 2016,” admitted FBI agent Elvis Chan in Nov.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkWusGjUAAAuoG-.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkWusGfUoAEgAxb.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkWusGiUYAErN5w.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkWusG2UEAc4d9-.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
15. Indeed, Twitter executives *repeatedly* reported very little Russian activity.
E.g., on Sept 24, 2020, Twitter told FBI it had removed 345 “largely inactive” accounts “linked to previous coordinated Russian hacking attempts.” They “had little reach & low follower accounts."
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkWw3kaUcAEguzJ.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
16. In fact, Twitter debunked false claims by journalists of foreign influence on its platform
"We haven’t seen any evidence to support that claim” by @oneunderscore__ @nbc News of foreign-controlled bots.
“Our review thus far shows a small-scale domestic troll effort…”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkWywTnUUAAuCpS.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkWy_mDUoAAFrzG.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
17. After FBI asks about a WaPo story on alleged foreign influence in a pro-Trump tweet, Twitter's Roth says, "The article makes a lot of insinuations... but we saw no evidence that that was the case here (and in fact, a lot of strong evidence pointing in the other direction).”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW0DSkVsAA5_h1.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW0Rp7UUAImFul.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
18. It's not the first time that Twitter's Roth has pushed back against the FBI. In January 2020, Roth resisted FBI efforts to get Twitter to share data outside of the normal search warrant process.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW0u7yUUAEv4dA.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW1GHdUAAA7PsP.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
19. Pressure had been growing:
“We have seen a sustained (If uncoordinated) effort by the IC [intelligence community] to push us to share more info & change our API policies. They are probing & pushing everywhere they can (including by whispering to congressional staff).”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW1bHuUEAA8CCC.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
20. Time and again, FBI asks Twitter for evidence of foreign influence & Twitter responds that they aren’t finding anything worth reporting.
“[W]e haven’t yet identified activity that we’d typically refer to you (or even flag as interesting in the foreign influence context).”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW2fe2UYAAQOPm.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW2jyiVsAEk910.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
21. Despite Twitter’s pushback, the FBI repeatedly requests information from Twitter that Twitter has already made clear it will not share outside of normal legal channels.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW3NapVQAA6qTg.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
22. Then, in July 2020, the FBI’s Elvis Chan arranges for temporary Top Secret security clearances for Twitter executives so that the FBI can share information about threats to the upcoming elections.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW3daSUAAA4J_w.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
23. On August 11, 2020, the FBI's Chan shares information with Twitter's Roth relating to the Russian hacking organization, APT28, through the FBI's secure, one-way communications channel, Teleporter.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW3sB3UoAAMIEK.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
24. Recently, Yoel Roth told @karaswisher that he had been primed to think about the Russian hacking group APT28 before news of the Hunter Biden laptop came out.
When it did, Roth said, "It set off every single one of my finely tuned APT28 hack-and-leap campaign alarm bells."
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
25. In Aug, 2020, FBI’s Chan asks Twitter: does anyone there have top secret clearance?
When someone mentions Jim Baker, Chan responds, "I don't know how I forgot him" — an odd claim, given Chan's job is to monitor Twitter, not to mention that they worked together at the FBI.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW5gbGUoAAf_th.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW5wTOUEAAGneJ.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
26. Who is Jim Baker? He's former general counsel of the FBI (2014-18) & one of the most powerful men in the U.S. intel community.
Baker has moved in and out of government for 30 years, serving stints at CNN, Bridgewater (a $140 billion asset management firm) and Brookings
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW6ztTVsAExjUs.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW6zuiVEAE8nHd.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW6zt5UcAA1_uU.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW6zvJVEAA3-PB.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
27. As general counsel of the FBI, Baker played a central role in making the case internally for an investigation of Donald Trump
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F15df0424-5866-4c0f-b4de-920401f75e44_1280x640.jpeg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
28. Baker wasn't the only senior FBI exec. involved in the Trump investigation to go to Twitter.
Dawn Burton, the former dep. chief of staff to FBI head James Comey, who initiated the investigation of Trump, joined Twitter in 2019 as director of strategy.
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
29. As of 2020, there were so many former FBI employees — "Bu alumni" — working at Twitter that they had created their own private Slack channel and a crib sheet to onboard new FBI arrivals.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW7nmfUoAAZEP7.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
30. Efforts continued to influence Twitter's Yoel Roth.
In Sept 2020, Roth participated in an Aspen Institute “tabletop exercise” on a potential "Hack-and-Dump" operation relating to Hunter Biden
The goal was to shape how the media covered it — and how social media carried it
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW8JPlVQAAAjws.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW8JQ5UEAAigqT.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW8JQLVEAE_7hw.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW8JRqUYAA2uR1.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
31. The organizer was Vivian Schiller, the fmr CEO of NPR, fmr head of news at Twitter; fmr Gen. mgr of NY Times; fmr Chief Digital Officer of NBC News
Attendees included Meta/FB's head of security policy and the top nat. sec. reporters for @nytimes @wapo and others
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW9YgiVQAAHRTN.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
32. By mid-Sept, 2020, Chan & Roth had set up an encrypted messaging network so employees from FBI & Twitter could communicate.
They also agree to create a “virtual war room” for “all the [Internet] industry plus FBI and ODNI” [Office of the Director of National Intelligence].
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW-NNdVQAAf_Wf.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW-NNhUEAAKjYP.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
33. Then, on Sept 15, 2020 the FBI’s Laura Dehmlow, who heads up the Foreign Influence Task Force, and Elvis Chan, request to give a classified briefing for Jim Baker, without any other Twitter staff, such as Yoel Roth, present.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkW_wH2UYAAlgjD.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
34. On Oct 14, shortly after @nypost publishes its Hunter Biden laptop story, Roth says, “it isn’t clearly violative of our Hacked Materials Policy, nor is it clearly in violation of anything else," but adds, “this feels a lot like a somewhat subtle leak operation.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXAehxUUAAencH.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
35. In response to Roth, Baker repeatedly insists that the Hunter Biden materials were either faked, hacked, or both, and a violation of Twitter policy. Baker does so over email, and in a Google doc, on October 14 and 15.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXBq9-UAAAU5jo.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXBtAGVsAAxEJR.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXBwjHUoAAplll.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
36. And yet it's inconceivable Baker believed the Hunter Biden emails were either fake or hacked. The @nypost had included a picture of the receipt signed by Hunter Biden, and an FBI subpoena showed that the agency had taken possession of the laptop in December 2019.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXCOE9VQAAVj-p.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXCOFpVQAAb-vw.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXCPApUAAA4IGB.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
37. As for the FBI, it likely would have taken a few *hours* for it to confirm that the laptop had belonged to Hunter Biden. Indeed, it only took a few days for journalist @peterschweizer to prove it.
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
38. By 10 am, Twitter execs had bought into a wild hack-and-dump story
“The suggestion from experts - which rings true - is there was a hack that happened separately, and they loaded the hacked materials on the laptop that magically appeared at a repair shop in Delaware”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXDZQIUYAAqih7.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
39. At 3:38 pm that same day, October 14, Baker arranges a phone conversation with Matthew J. Perry in the Office of the General Counsel of the FBI
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXEEyMUYAAEBM2.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
40. The influence operation persuaded Twitter execs that the Hunter Biden laptop did *not* come from a whistleblower.
One linked to a Hill article, based on a WaPo article, from Oct 15, which falsely suggested that Giuliani’s leak of the laptop had something to do with Russia.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXE17hUcAA85yk.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXFLETVUAAwoXM.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXFLFCUoAA0UGf.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
41. There is evidence that FBI agents have warned elected officials of foreign influence with the primary goal of leaking the information to the news media. This is a political dirty trick used to create the perception of impropriety.
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
42. In 2020, the FBI gave a briefing to Senator Grassley and Johnson, claiming evidence of “Russian interference” into their investigation of Hunter Biden.
The briefing angered the Senators, who say it was done to discredit their investigation.
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
43. “The unnecessary FBI briefing provided the Democrats and liberal media the vehicle to spread their false narrative that our work advanced Russian disinformation.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXGMbzVQAAzzkW.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXGOUrVEAAy2RH.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXGOT8VEAIVOwj.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXGOVkUUAEBFCS.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
44. Notably, then-FBI General Counsel Jim Baker was investigated *twice,* in 2017 and 2019, for leaking information to the news media.
“You’re saying he’s under criminal investigation? That’s why you’re not letting him answer?” Meadows asked.
“Yes”
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fda2e032d-1320-4dfa-83ea-9d780b61594b_1160x773.jpeg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
45. In the end, the FBI's influence campaign aimed at executives at news media, Twitter, & other social media companies worked: they censored & discredited the Hunter Biden laptop story.
By Dec. 2020, Baker and his colleagues even sent a note of thanks to the FBI for its work.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXHVR3VsAAIsGw.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
46. The FBI’s influence campaign may have been helped by the fact that it was paying Twitter millions of dollars for its staff time.
“I am happy to report we have collected $3,415,323 since October 2019!” reports an associate of Jim Baker in early 2021.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXH0RBVQAETJYj.png)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
47. And the pressure from the FBI on social media platforms continues
In Aug 2022, Twitter execs prepared for a meeting with the FBI, whose goal was “to convince us to produce on more FBI EDRs"
EDRs are an “emergency disclosure request,” a warrantless search.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkXIS5rVQAA8B_L.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
In response to the Twitter Files revelation of high-level FBI agents at Twitter, @Jim_Jordan said, “I have concerns about whether the government was running a misinformation operation on We the People.”
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0adefc06-d7b1-4bd3-9e97-793fa55be3c2_1024x682.jpeg)
![Twitter avatar for @ShellenbergerMD](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/ShellenbergerMD.jpg)
Anyone who reads the Twitter Files, regardless of their political orientation, should share those concerns.
/END
Part VIII
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkclyD0X0BolziM.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkcnD9cX0BcQ14d.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkcn9oFX0BI3j1Y.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkcn9oGXEAAUpQk.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkcn9oGWIAEO7uA.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.”
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkcqbkSX0AcFaRH.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkcrfuEXwAAboVt.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkctG0jXoAEOzi7.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkctG0lWQAMYklp.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkcvPeeXkAAPcn8.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkcvPebWIAEsDu6.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
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.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbd098ca6-331b-4fe4-9b39-725ec2577e9c_1200x800.jpeg)
Part IX
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
After weeks of “Twitter Files” reports detailing close coordination between the FBI and Twitter in moderating social media content, the Bureau issued a statement Wednesday.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
2.It didn’t refute allegations. Instead, it decried “conspiracy theorists” publishing “misinformation,” whose “sole aim” is to “discredit the agency.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwVP0IakAIqZmi.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
3.They must think us unambitious, if our “sole aim” is to discredit the FBI. After all, a whole range of government agencies discredit themselves in the #TwitterFiles. Why stop with one?
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
4.The files show the FBI acting as doorman to a vast program of social media surveillance and censorship, encompassing agencies across the federal government – from the State Department to the Pentagon to the CIA.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
5.The operation is far bigger than the reported 80 members of the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), which also facilitates requests from a wide array of smaller actors - from local cops to media to state governments.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
6.Twitter had so much contact with so many agencies that executives lost track. Is today the DOD, and tomorrow the FBI? Is it the weekly call, or the monthly meeting? It was dizzying.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwV8wwaAAAMHv2.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwWAkbaAAABrlq.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
7.A chief end result was that thousands of official “reports” flowed to Twitter from all over, through the FITF and the FBI’s San Francisco field office.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
8.On June 29th, 2020, San Francisco FBI agent Elvis Chan wrote to pair of Twitter execs asking if he could invite an “OGA” to an upcoming conference:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwWfIFaUAATqx1.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
9.OGA, or “Other Government Organization,” can be a euphemism for CIA, according to multiple former intelligence officials and contractors. Chuckles one: “They think it's mysterious, but it's just conspicuous."
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
10.“Other Government Agency (the place where I worked for 27 years),” says retired CIA officer Ray McGovern.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
11. It was an open secret at Twitter that one of its executives was ex-CIA, which is why Chan referred to that executive’s “former employer.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
12.The first Twitter executive abandoned any pretense to stealth and emailed that the employee “used to work for the CIA, so that is Elvis’s question.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwX2EiaAAEfyNB.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
13.Senior legal executive Stacia Cardille, whose alertness stood out among Twitter leaders, replied, “I know” and “I thought my silence was understood.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwYRgyaAAIyqUn.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
15.“I invited the FBI and the CIA virtually will attend too,” Cardille says to Baker, adding pointedly: “No need for you to attend.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
16.The government was in constant contact not just with Twitter but with virtually every major tech firm.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
17. These included Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, Reddit, even Pinterest, and many others. Industry players also held regular meetings without government.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
18.One of the most common forums was a regular meeting of the multi-agency Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), attended by spates of executives, FBI personnel, and – nearly always – one or two attendees marked “OGA.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwaP2yaMAAbVhB.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
19.The FITF meeting agendas virtually always included, at or near the beginning, an “OGA briefing,” usually about foreign matters (hold that thought).
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwaZrvaUAEH1-C.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwabgoaUAAP5Oq.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwacsmaYAAsP5F.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
20. Despite its official remit being “Foreign Influence,” the FITF and the SF FBI office became conduit for mountains of domestic moderation requests, from state governments, even local police:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwaofvakAAiyjG.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
21. Many requests arrived via Teleporter, a one-way platform in which many communications were timed to vanish:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwa-e8aYAAMqQ3.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
22.Especially as the election approached in 2020, the FITF/FBI overwhelmed Twitter with requests, sending lists of hundreds of problem accounts:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwbN5GaYAEGvDq.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwbQtUaUAEvnAk.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwbTZAaMAUOBAF.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
23. Email after email came from the San Francisco office heading into the election, often adorned with an Excel attachment:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwbjAlagAAqhSM.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
24. There were so many government requests, Twitter employees had to improvise a system for prioritizing/triaging them:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwbuFxakAAvOP6.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
25. The FBI was clearly tailoring searches to Twitter’s policies. FBI complaints were almost always depicted somewhere as a “possible terms of service violation," even in the subject line:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwcCVgaAAAdS6P.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
26. Twitter executives noticed the FBI appeared to be aasigning personnel to look for Twitter violations.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
27.“They have some folks in the Baltimore field office and at HQ that are just doing keyword searches for violations. This is probably the 10th request I have dealt with in the last 5 days,” remarked Cardille.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwcM6jaAAAOv2c.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
28. Even ex-FBI lawyer Jim Baker agreed: “Odd that they are searching for violations of our policies.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwc08saUAIb9ZG.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
29.The New York FBI office even sent requests for the “user IDs and handles” of a long list of accounts named in a Daily Beast article. Senior executives say they are “supportive” and “completely comfortable” doing so.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwdAlsaYAA8_Or.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwdFa7aUAEjQWY.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
30. It seemed to strike no one as strange that a “Foreign Influence” task force was forwarding thousands of mostly domestic reports, along with the DHS, about the fringiest material:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwdRgcaMAcUpyh.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
31. “Foreign meddling” had been the ostensible justification for expanded moderation since platforms like Twitter were dragged to the Hill by the Senate in 2017:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwdaFUaAAAQtty.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
32. Yet behind the scenes, Twitter executives struggled against government claims of foreign interference supposedly occurring on their platform and others:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwdpCRaEAMQsy-.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
33. The #TwitterFiles show execs under constant pressure to validate theories of foreign influence – and unable to find evidence for key assertions.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
34. “Found no links to Russia,” says one analyst, but suggests he could “brainstorm” to “find a stronger connection.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwdzytaAAEnzI3.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
36. “No real matches using the info,” says former Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth in another case, noting some links were “clearly Russian,” but another was a “house rental in South Carolina?”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkweEeEaAAEBNzh.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
37. In another case, Roth concludes a series of Venezuelan pro-Maduro accounts are unrelated to Russia’s Internet Research Agency, because they’re too high-volume:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwePxqakAA0Mlf.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
38.The Venezuelans “were extremely high-volume tweeters… pretty uncharacteristic of a lot of the other IRA activity,” Roth says.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
39. In a key email, news that the State Department was making a wobbly public assertion of Russian influence led an exec – the same one with the “OGA” past - to make a damning admission:
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
40. “Due to a lack of technical evidence on our end, I've generally left it be, waiting for more evidence,” he says. “Our window on that is closing, given that government partners are becoming more aggressive on attribution.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwkTBwaEAIidv7.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
41. Translation: “more aggressive” “government partners” had closed Twitter’s “window” of independence.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
42. “Other Government Agencies” ended up sharing intelligence through the FBI and FITF not just with Twitter, but with Yahoo!, Twitch, Clouldfare, LinkedIn, even Wikimedia:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwe7MPaEAcn1Do.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
43. Former CIA agent and whistleblower John Kiriakou believes he recognizes the formatting of these reports.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
44.“Looks right on to me,” Kiriakou says, noting that “what was cut off above [the “tearline”] was the originating CIA office and all the copied offices.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
45. Many people wonder if Internet platforms receive direction from intelligence agencies about moderation of foreign policy news stories. It appears Twitter did, in some cases by way of the FITF/FBI.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
47. One intel report lists accounts tied to “Ukraine ‘neo-Nazi’ Propaganda.’” This includes assertions that Joe Biden helped orchestrate a coup in 2014 and “put his son on the board of Burisma.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwgIYKUAAAx0je.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwgk5PUEAAeL7f.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
48. Another report asserts a list of accounts accusing the “Biden administration” of “corruption” in vaccine distribution are part of a Russian influence campaign:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwgw6AUYAEAcLQ.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
49. Often intelligence came in the form of brief reports, followed by long lists of accounts simply deemed to be pro-Maduro, pro-Cuba, pro-Russia, etc. This one batch had over 1000 accounts marked for digital execution:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwg-TSUoAEy-PI.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
50. One report says a site “documenting purported rights abuses committed by Ukrainians” is directed by Russian agents:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwhYqCUcAAunva.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
51. Intel about the shady origin of these accounts might be true. But so might at least some of the information in them – about neo-Nazis, rights abuses in Donbas, even about our own government. Should we block such material?
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
52. This is a difficult speech dilemma. Should the government be allowed to try to prevent Americans (and others) from seeing pro-Maduro or anti-Ukrainian accounts?
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
53. Often intel reports are just long lists of newspapers, tweets or YouTube videos guilty of “anti-Ukraine narratives”:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwh8EWUUAA9uJu.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwh9-7UEAAcGYB.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwh_p5VsAAh7Xx.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
54. Sometimes - not always -Twitter and YouTube blocked the accounts. But now we know for sure what Roth meant by “the Bureau (and by extension the IC).”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFkwiGu6UoAAUIrv.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
55. The line between “misinformation” and “distorting propaganda” is thin. Are we comfortable with so many companies receiving so many reports from a “more aggressive” government?
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
56.The CIA has yet to comment on the nature of its relationship to tech companies like Twitter. Twitter had no input into anything I did or wrote. The searches were carried out by third parties, so what I saw could be limited.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
Watch @bariweiss, @ShellenbergerMD, @lhfang, and this space for more, on issues ranging from Covid-19 to Twitter's relationship to congress, and more.
Part X
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
1. THREAD:
THE TWITTER FILES: HOW TWITTER RIGGED THE COVID DEBATE
– By censoring info that was true but inconvenient to U.S. govt. policy
– By discrediting doctors and other experts who disagreed
– By suppressing ordinary users, including some sharing the CDC’s *own data*
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
2. So far the Twitter Files have focused on evidence of Twitter’s secret blacklists; how the company functioned as a kind of subsidiary of the FBI; and how execs rewrote the platform’s rules to accommodate their own political desires.
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
3. What we have yet to cover is Covid. This reporting, for The Free Press, @TheFP, is one piece of that important story.
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
4. The United States government pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to elevate certain content and suppress other content about Covid-19.
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
5. Internal files at Twitter that I viewed while on assignment for @TheFP showed that both the Trump and Biden administrations directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform’s pandemic content according to their wishes.
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
6. At the onset of the pandemic, according to meeting notes, the Trump admin was especially concerned about panic buying. They came looking for “help from the tech companies to combat misinformation” about “runs on grocery stores.” But . . . there were runs on grocery stores.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6Qu9RXgAEoWwK.png)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
7. It wasn’t just Twitter. The meetings with the Trump White House were also attended by Google, Facebook, Microsoft and others.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6RM1CX0AEh6xP.png)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
8. When the Biden admin took over, one of their first meeting requests with Twitter executives was on Covid. The focus was on “anti-vaxxer accounts.” Especially Alex Berenson:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6RpxsXkAANFMP.png)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
9. In the summer of 2021, president Biden said social media companies were “killing people” for allowing vaccine misinformation. Berenson was suspended hours after Biden’s comments, and kicked off the platform the following month.
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
10. Berenson sued (and then settled with) Twitter. In the legal process Twitter was compelled to release certain internal communications, which showed direct White House pressure on the company to take action on Berenson.
alexberenson.substack.com/p/jesse-jackso…
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6SbqgX0AI4O7z.png)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
11. A December 2022 summary of meetings with the White House by Lauren Culbertson, Twitter’s Head of U.S. Public Policy, adds new evidence of the White House’s pressure campaign, and cements that it repeatedly attempted to directly influence the platform.
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
12. Culbertson wrote that the Biden team was “very angry” that Twitter had not been more aggressive in deplatforming multiple accounts. They wanted Twitter to do more.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6S9x-XwAMZtWl.png)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
13. Twitter executives did not fully capitulate to the Biden team’s wishes. An extensive review of internal communications at the company revealed employees often debating moderation cases in great detail, and with more care than was shown by the government toward free speech.
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
14. But Twitter did suppress views—many from doctors and scientific experts—that conflicted with the official positions of the White House. As a result, legitimate findings and questions that would have expanded the public debate went missing.
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
15. There were three serious problems with Twitter’s process:
First, much of the content moderation was conducted by bots, trained on machine learning and AI – impressive in their engineering, yet still too crude for such nuanced work.
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
16. Second, contractors, in places like the Philippines, also moderated content. They were given decision trees to aid in the process, but tasking non experts to adjudicate tweets on complex topics like myocarditis and mask efficacy data was destined for a significant error rate
![example template—deactivated after Musk’s arrival—of the decision tree tool that contractors used](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6UDGyWIAE8YMu.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
17 Third, most importantly, the buck stopped with higher level employees at Twitter who chose the inputs for the bots and decision trees, and subjectively decided escalated cases and suspensions. As it is with all people and institutions, there was individual and collective bias
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
19. Inevitably, dissident yet legitimate content was labeled as misinformation, and the accounts of doctors and others were suspended both for tweeting opinions and demonstrably true information.
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
20. Exhibit A: Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School, tweeted views at odds with US public health authorities and the American left, the political affiliation of nearly the entire staff at Twitter.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6VXk6XkAIWZfF.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
21. Internal emails show an “intent to action” by a moderator, saying Kulldorff’s tweet violated the company’s Covid-19 misinformation policy and claimed he shared “false information.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6VlCVX0AEpQt2.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
22. But Kulldorff’s statement was an expert’s opinion—one which also happened to be in line with vaccine policies in numerous other countries. Yet it was deemed “false information” by Twitter moderators merely because it differed from CDC guidelines.
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
23. After Twitter took action, Kulldorff’s tweet was slapped with a “Misleading” label and all replies and likes were shut off, throttling the tweet’s ability to be seen and shared by many people, the ostensible core function of the platform:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6WCV8XoAASJuw.png)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
24. In my review of internal files, I found countless instances of tweets labeled as “misleading” or taken down entirely, sometimes triggering account suspensions, simply because they veered from CDC guidance or differed from establishment views.
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
25. A tweet by @KelleyKga, a self-proclaimed public health fact checker, with 18K followers, was flagged as “Misleading,” and replies and likes disabled, even though it displayed the CDC’s *own data.*
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6WhSzXkAYjXhr.png)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
26. Internal records showed that a bot had flagged the tweet, and that it received many “tattles” (what the system amusingly called reports from users). That triggered a manual review by a human who– despite the tweet showing actual CDC data–nevertheless labeled it “Misleading”
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
27. Tellingly, the tweet by @KelleyKga that was labeled “Misleading” was a reply to a tweet that contained actual misinformation.
Covid has never been the leading cause of death from disease in children. Yet that tweet remains on the platform, and without a “misleading” label.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6XG6YXkAAcr2F.png)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
28. Whether by humans or algorithms, content that was contrarian but true was still subject to getting flagged or suppressed
This tweet was labeled “Misleading,” even though the owner of this account, @_euzebiusz_, a physician, was referring to the results of a published study
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6XaQRWQAEvp9l.png)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
29. Andrew Bostom, a Rhode Island physician, was permanently suspended from Twitter after receiving multiple strikes for misinformation. One of his strikes was for a tweet referring to the results from a peer reviewed study on mRNA vaccines.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6XyMYXEAEikmR.png)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
30. A review of Twitter log files revealed that an internal audit, conducted after Bostom’s attorney contacted Twitter, found that only 1 of Bostom’s 5 violations were valid.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6YARuXEAAaLWt.png)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
31. The one Bostom tweet found to still be in violation cited data that was legitimate but inconvenient to the public health establishment’s narrative about the risks of flu versus Covid in children.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6YNEDXoAAcd-Q.png)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
32. That this tweet was not only flagged by a bot, but its violation manually affirmed by a staff member is telling of both the algorithmic and human bias at play. Bostom’s account was suspended for months and was finally restored on Christmas Day.
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
33. Another example of human bias run amok was the reaction to this tweet by Trump. Many Trump tweets led to extensive internal debates, and this one was no different.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6Yn9YXoAIfeEx.png)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
34. In a surreal exchange, Jim Baker, at the time Twitter’s Deputy General Counsel, asks why telling people to not be afraid wasn’t a violation of Twitter’s Covid-19 misinformation policy.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6Yz2jXEAA1SvP.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
35. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of Trust & Safety, had to explain that optimism wasn’t misinformation.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6ZG4gX0AAqavG.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
36. Remember @KelleyKga with the CDC data tweet? Twitter’s response to her is clarifying: “we will prioritize review and labeling of content that could lead to increased exposure or transmission.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFk6Za97WYAITVI8.png)
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
37. Twitter made a decision, via the political leanings of senior staff, and govt pressure, that the public health authorities’ approach to the pandemic – prioritizing mitigation over other concerns – was “The Science” . . .
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
38. Information that challenged that view, such as showing harms of vaccines, or that could be perceived as downplaying the risks of Covid, especially to children, was subject to moderation, and even suppression. No matter whether such views were correct or adopted abroad.
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
39. What might this pandemic and its aftermath have looked like if there had been a more open debate on Twitter and other social media platforms—not to mention the mainstream press—about the origins of Covid, about lockdowns, about the true risks of Covid in kids, and much more?
![Twitter avatar for @davidzweig](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/davidzweig.jpg)
40. Thanks to @ShellenbergerMD, @lwoodhouse, @lhfang and the team @TheFP for their help reporting this story.
Part XI
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
2.In August 2017, when Facebook decided to suspend 300 accounts with “suspected Russian origin,” Twitter wasn’t worried. Its leaders were sure they didn’t have a Russia problem.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
3.“We did not see a big correlation.”
“No larger patterns.”
“FB may take action on hundreds of accounts, and we may take action on ~25.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkpFkZXwAAfBot.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkpLNLWIAMf17B.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkpMzKWIAMMJ9E.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
4.“KEEP THE FOCUS ON FB”: Twitter was so sure they had no Russia problem, execs agreed the best PR strategy was to say nothing on record, and quietly hurl reporters at Facebook:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkpUfQXkAMxIgJ.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkpWhKXoAICT7i.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
5.“Twitter is not the focus of inquiry into Russian election meddling right now - the spotlight is on FB,” wrote Public Policy VP Colin Crowell:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkpc30XEAEYpgx.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
6.In September, 2017, after a cursory review, Twitter informed the Senate it suspended 22 possible Russian accounts, and 179 others with “possible links” to those accounts, amid a larger set of roughly 2700 suspects manually examined.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
7.Receiving these meager results, a furious Senator Mark Warner of Virginia – ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee – held an immediate press conference to denounce Twitter’s report as “frankly inadequate on every level.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkpqRSXEAMCuEv.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkqNOsWQAcU7ZJ.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
8.“#Irony,” mused Crowell the day after Warner’s presser, after receiving an e-circular from Warner’s re-election campaign, asking for “$5 or whatever you can spare.”
“LOL,” replied General Counsel Sean Edgett.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkqSFHXkAAbhRk.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
9.“KEEP PRODUCING MATERIAL” After meeting with congressional leaders, Crowell wrote: “Warner has political incentive to keep this issue at top of the news, maintain pressure on us and rest of industry to keep producing material for them.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkqcVhWIAA6E_R.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
10.“TAKING THEIR CUES FROM HILLARY CLINTON” Crowell added Dems were taking cues from Hillary Clinton, who that week said: “It’s time for Twitter to stop dragging its heels and live up to the fact that its platform is being used as a tool for cyber-warfare.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkqnylXoAAb0lW.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkq-ZdWIAA-4_W.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
11. In growing anxiety over its PR problems, Twitter formed a “Russia Task Force” to proactively self-investigate.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkrGQSWQAAhPqA.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
12.The “Russia Task Force” started mainly with data shared from counterparts at Facebook, centered around accounts supposedly tied to Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA). But the search for Russian perfidy was a dud:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkrSj3XwAMHhXj.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
13. OCT 13 2017: “No evidence of a coordinated approach, all of the accounts found seem to be lone-wolf type activity (different timing, spend, targeting, <$10k in ad spend).”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkrYbyXEAAaSOc.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
14.OCT 18 2017: “First round of RU investigation… 15 high risk accounts, 3 of which have connections with Russia, although 2 are RT.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkrcKCWQAIetuR.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
15.OCT 20 2017: “Built new version of the model that is lower precision but higher recall which allows to catch more items. We aren’t seeing substantially more suspicious accounts. We expect to find ~20 with a small amount of spend.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkriiHXoAA8TCA.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
16.OCT 23 2017: “Finished with investigation… 2500 full manual account reviews, we think this is exhaustive… 32 suspicious accounts and only 17 of those are connected with Russia, only 2 of those have significant spend one of which is Russia Today...remaining <$10k in spend.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkrycbXwAMREky.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
17.Twitter’s search finding “only 2” significant accounts, “one of which is Russia Today,” was based on the same data that later inspired panic headlines like “Russian Influence Reached 126 Million Through Facebook Alone”:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkr4LSXEAgu0bl.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
19.In the weeks after Warner’s presser, a torrent of stories sourced to the Intel Committee poured into the news, an example being Politico’s October 13, “Twitter deleted data potentially crucial to Russia probes.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlksAliWAAE2Vzh.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
20.“Were Twitter a contractor for the FSB… they could not have built a more effective disinformation platform,” Johns Hopkins Professor (and Intel Committee “expert”) Thomas Rid told Politico.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlksFkYWIAEw5Jt.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
21.As congress threatened costly legislation, and Twitter began was subject to more bad press fueled by the committees, the company changed its tune about the smallness of its Russia problem.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
22.“Hi guys.. Just passing along for awareness the writeup here from the WashPost today on potential legislation (or new FEC regulations) that may affect our political advertising,” wrote Crowell.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlksOW0XoAAzHAX.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
23. In Washington weeks after the first briefing, Twitter leaders were told by Senate staff that “Sen Warner feels like tech industry was in denial for months.” Added an Intel staffer: “Big interest in Politico article about deleted accounts."
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkzTlIXgAA52NZ.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkzU1EWIAIii5q.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
25.“Knowing that our ads policy and product changes are an effort to anticipate congressional oversight, I wanted to share some relevant highlights of the legislation Senators Warner, Klobuchar and McCain will be introducing,” wrote Policy Director Carlos Monje soon after.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkz1EyXgAMsvrl.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
26.“THE COMMITTEES APPEAR TO HAVE LEAKED” Even as Twitter prepared to change its ads policy and remove RT and Sputnik to placate Washington, congress turned the heat up more, apparently leaking the larger, base list of 2700 accounts.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlkz9l5XwAYvQLQ.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
27.Reporters from all over started to call Twitter about Russia links. Buzzfeed, working with the University of Sheffield, claimed to find a “new network” on Twitter that had “close connections to… Russian-linked bot accounts.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlk0IOdWQAAOs_s.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
28.“IT WILL ONLY EMBOLDEN THEM.” Twitter internally did not want to endorse the Buzzfeed/Sheffield findings:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlk0PwBX0AMEMtt.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlk0R7FWYAEv8Ky.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlk0TUeX0AsR5Rb.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
29. “SENATE INTEL COMMITTEE IS ASKING… POSSIBLE TO WHIP SOMETHING TOGETHER?” Still, when the Buzzfeed piece came out, the Senate asked for “a write up of what happened.” Twitter was soon apologizing for the same accounts they’d initially told the Senate were not a problem.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlk0fZxXkAQ_CIN.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
30.“REPORTERS NOW KNOW THIS IS A MODEL THAT WORKS”
This cycle – threatened legislation, wedded to scare headlines pushed by congressional/intel sources, followed by Twitter caving to moderation asks – would later be formalized in partnerships with federal law enforcement.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlk0xQsWYAIbADc.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
31.Twitter soon settled on its future posture.
In public, it removed content “at our sole discretion.”
Privately, they would “off-board” anything “identified by the U.S.. intelligence community as a state-sponsored entity conducting cyber-operations.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlk09vTXwAAkfGr.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
32.Twitter let the “USIC” into its moderation process. It would not leave.
Wrote Crowell, in an email to the company’s leaders:
“We will not be reverting to the status quo.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFlk1Ts5XwAADiHI.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
33.For more on the #TwitterFiles, check out @bariweiss, @ShellenbergerMD, @lhfang, and @davidzweig.
Watch this space shortly for another thread…
Part XII
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
2.By 2020, Twitter was struggling with the problem of public and private agencies bypassing them and going straight to the media with lists of suspect accounts.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
3.In February, 2020, as COVID broke out, the Global Engagement Center – a fledgling analytic/intelligence arms of the State Department – went to the media with a report called, “Russian Disinformation Apparatus Taking Advantage of Coronavirus Concerns.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllA9tCXEAIovb5.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
4.The GEC flagged accounts as “Russian personas and proxies” based on criteria like, “Describing the Coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon,” blaming “research conducted at the Wuhan institute,” and “attributing the appearance of the virus to the CIA.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllA_ngXgAEk0qr.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
5.State also flagged accounts that retweeted news that Twitter banned the popular U.S. ZeroHedge, claiming the episode “led to another flurry of disinformation narratives.” ZH had done reports speculating that the virus had lab origin.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBBtqXoAATNdA.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
6.The GEC still led directly to news stories like the AFP’s headline, “Russia-linked disinformation campaign led to coronavirus alarm, US says,” and a Politico story about how “Russian, Chinese, Iranian Disinformation Narratives Echo One Another.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBDzuXEAA2WQw.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBGLLWQAIGrew.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBFUwWIAEOOMZ.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBG8JXEAAn2jz.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
7.“YOU HAVEN’T MADE A RUSSIA ATTRIBUTION IN SOME TIME” When Clemson’s Media Forensics Hub complained Twitter hadn’t “made a Russia attribution” in some time, Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth said it was “revelatory of their motives.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBIyOXwAEPoNc.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBKArXwAQuut0.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
8.“WE’RE HAPPY TO WORK DIRECTLY WITH YOU ON THIS, INSTEAD OF NBC.” Roth tried in vain to convince outsider researchers like the Clemson lab to check with them before pushing stories about foreign interference to media.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBLWJWYAALMuR.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
9.Twitter was also trying to reduce the number of agencies with access to Roth. “If these folks are like House Homeland Committee and DHS, once we give them a direct contact with Yoel, they will want to come back to him again and again,” said policy director Carlos Monje.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBM_JXwAA3nqr.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
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.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
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:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBQY6XEAYTxQk.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBTsCWYAAsRCc.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBUfPWYAAST6c.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
12.Roth saw GEC’s move as an attempt by the GEC to use intel from other agencies to “insert themselves” into the content moderation club that included Twitter, Facebook, the FBI, DHS, and others:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBV9dXoAEaghz.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
13.The GEC was soon agreeing to loop in Twitter before going public, but they were using a technique that had boxed in Twitter before. “The delta between when they share material and when they go to the press continues to be problematic,” wrote one comms official.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBZD6WQAAGZOy.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
15.“IT MAKES SENSE TO PUSH BACK ON GEC PARTICIPATION IN THIS FORUM” When the FBI informed Twitter the GEC wanted to be included in the regular “industry call” between companies like Twitter and Facebook and the DHS and FBI, Twitter leaders balked at first.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBeApXgAIzxSv.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
16.Facebook, Google, and Twitter executives were united in opposition to GEC’s inclusion, with ostensible reasons including, “The GEC’s mandate for offensive IO to promote American interests.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBfdqWQAMEgUp.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
17.A deeper reason was a perception that unlike the DHS and FBI, which were “apolitical,” as Roth put it, the GEC was “political,” which in Twitter-ese appeared to be partisan code.
“I think they thought the FBI was less Trumpy,” is how one former DOD official put it.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBiBVWQAEg4-U.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
18.After spending years rolling over for Democratic Party requests for “action” on “Russia-linked” accounts, Twitter was suddenly playing tough. Why? Because, as Roth put it, it would pose “major risks” to bring the GEC in, “especially as the election heats up.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBli7WYAEpDg0.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
19.When senior lawyer Stacia Cardille tried to argue against the GEC’s inclusion to the FBI, the words resonated “with Elvis, not Laura,” i.e. with agent Elvis Chan, not Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) unit chief Laura Dehmlow:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBnI6WQAANYwf.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
20.Eventually the FBI argued, first to Facebook, for a compromise solution: other USG agencies could participate in the “industry” calls, but the FBI and DHS would act as sole “conduits.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllFCntXwAAqVmd.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
21.Roth reached out to Chan with concerns about letting the “press-happy” GEC in, expressing hope they could keep the “circle of trust small.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBqpzWYAA8gE0.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
22."STATE... NSA, and CIA" Chan reassured him it would be a “one-way” channel, and “State/GEC, NSA, and CIA have expressed interest in being allowed on in listen mode only.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBsXhWAAENoXu.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
23."BELLY BUTTON" “We can give you everything we’re seeing from the FBI and USIC agencies,” Chan explained, but the DHS agency CISA “will know what’s going on in each state.” He went on to ask if industry could “rely on the FBI to be the belly button of the USG."
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllBuGxXEAAFCgo.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
24.They eventually settled on an industry call via Signal. In an impressive display of operational security, Chan circulated private numbers of each company’s chief moderation officer in a Word Doc marked “Signal Phone Numbers,” subject-lined, “List of Numbers.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllByFEXoAAYULi.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
25.Twitter was taking requests from every conceivable government body, beginning with the Senate Intel Committee (SSCI), which seemed to need reassurance Twitter was taking FBI direction. Execs rushed to tell “Team SSCI” they zapped five accounts on an FBI tip:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllB0ymWYAgzRe8.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllB4fXXEAIcanG.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllFDynWYAAYxMl.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllB-JHXwAAUN2S.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
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:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllCABXXwAAC115.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllCE0TWQAIUEJA.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllCCpeXgAAzcID.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllCGB6XgAEHgbV.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
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:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllCJKgX0AUYAA_.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
28.“WE DON’T DO THIS” Even Twitter declined to honor Schiff’s request at the time. Sperry was later suspended, however.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllCLfJXkAY8dEZ.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
29.Twitter honored almost everyone else’s requests, even those from GEC – including a decision to ban accounts like @RebelProtests and @bricsmedia because GEC identified them as “GRU-controlled” and linked “to the Russian government,” respectively:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllCRJPWAAAYNzE.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllEGaFXEAIBnJ2.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
30.The GEC requests were what a former CIA staffer working at Twitter was referring to, when he said, “Our window on that is closing,” meaning they days when Twitter could say no to serious requests were over.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllCTQRX0AEm45V.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
31.Remember the 2017 “internal guidance” in which Twitter decided to remove any user “identified by the U.S. intelligence community” as a state-sponsored entity committing cyber operations? By 2020 such identifications came in bulk.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
32.“USIC" requests often simply began “We assess” and then provided lists (sometimes, in separate excel docs) they believed were connected to Russia’s Internet Research Agency and committing cyber ops, from Africa to South America to the U.S.:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllCa54WYAACatG.png)
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
33.One brief report, sent right after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early last year, flagged major Russian outlets like Vedomosti and Gazeta.ru. Note the language about “state actors” fits Twitter’s internal guidance.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllCgKFXwAI86qF.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
34.Some reports were just a paragraph long and said things like: “The attached email accounts… were possibly used for “influence operations, social media collection, or social engineering.” Without further explanation, Twitter would be forwarded an excel doc:
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
35.They were even warned about publicity surrounding a book by former Ukraine prosecutor Viktor Shokhin, who alleged “corruption by the U.S. government” – specifically by Joe Biden.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
36.By 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:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllCrODX0AADFbj.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
37.“I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR WORK LOAD”: Requests poured in from FBI offices all over the country, day after day, hour after hour: If Twitter didn’t act quickly, questions came: “Was action taken?” “Any movement?”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFllCs47WYAM6Fcs.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
39.It 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.
Twitter wasn’t just paid. For the amount of work they did for government, they were underpaid.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
40.For more on the #TwitterFiles, check out @bariweiss, @ShellenbergerMD, @lhfang, and @davidzweig. For more on this story, read
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Ftaibbi.substack.com%2Ftwitter%2Fsubscribe-card.jpg%3Fv%3D-1503610657%26version%3D9)
Part VIX
Note that Taibbi skips number 8, but the Tweets below are in the order they were presented.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
1.THREAD: Twitter Files #14
THE RUSSIAGATE LIES
One: The Fake Tale of Russian Bots and the #ReleaseTheMemo Hashtag
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
2.At a crucial moment in a years-long furor, Democrats denounced a report about flaws in the Trump-Russia investigation, saying it was boosted by Russian “bots” and “trolls.”
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
3.Twitter officials were aghast, finding no evidence of Russian influence:
“We are feeding congressional trolls.”
“Not any…significant activity connected to Russia.”
“Putting the cart before the horse assuming this is propaganda/bots.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSYYSwXkCQhnG0.jpg)
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
4.Twitter warned politicians and media the not only lacked evidence, but had evidence the accounts weren’t Russian – and were roundly ignored.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
5.On January 18th, 2018, Republican Devin Nunes submitted a classified memo to the House Intel Committee detailing abuses by the FBI in obtaining FISA surveillance authority against Trump-connected figures, including the crucial role played by the infamous “Steele Dossier”:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSYcauXkBYiBdE.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
6.The Nunes assertions would virtually all be verified in a report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz in December 2019.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
7.Nonetheless, national media in January and early February of 2018 denounced the Nunes report in oddly identical language, calling it a “joke”:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSYj-6XkAExRo-.jpg)
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
9.On January 23rd, 2018, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) published an open letter saying the hashtag “gained the immediate attention and assistance of social media accounts linked to Russian influence operations.”
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
9b. Feinstein/Schiff said the Nunes memo "distorts" classified information, but note they didn't call it incorrect.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSZkfKXkAwRlaR.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
10.Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal followed suit, publishing a letter saying, “We find it reprehensible that Russian agents have so eagerly manipulated innocent Americans.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSZmN0XkBMVF3G.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
11.Feinstein, Schiff, Blumenthal, and media members all pointed to the same source: the Hamilton 68 dashboard created by former FBI counterintelligence official Clint Watts, under the auspices of the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD).
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSZqZuXkAcKyOG.png)
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
12.The dashboard, which featured a crude picture of Vladimir Putin deviously blowing evil red Twitter birds into the atmosphere, was vague in how it reached its conclusions.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSZsU-XkA4VFtE.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
13.Inside Twitter, executives panned Watts, Hamilton 68, and the Alliance for Securing Democracy. Two key complaints: Hamilton 68 seemed to be everyone’s only source, and no one was checking with Twitter.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
14.“I encourage you to be skeptical of Hamilton 68’s take on this, which as far as I can tell is the only source for these stories,” said Global Policy Communications Chief (and future WH and NSC spokesperson) Emily Horne.
She added: “It’s a comms play for ASD.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSZu1zXkAkdiB7.jpg)
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
16.“If ASD isn’t going to fact-check with us, we should feel free to correct the record on their work,” said Policy VP Carlos Monje.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
17.Roth couldn’t find any Russian connection to #ReleaseTheMemo – at all. “I just reviewed the accounts that posted the first 50 tweets with #releasethememo and… none of them show any signs of affiliation to Russia.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSZ1WiXkAEBhBt.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
18.“We investigated, found that engagement as overwhelmingly organic, and driven by VITs” – Very Important Tweeters, including Wikileaks and congressman Steve King.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSZ26FXgAAoxMX.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
19.A staffer for “DiFi” – Feinstein – agreed it would be “helpful to know” how Hamilton 68 goes by “the process by which they decide an account is Russian.”
But, only AFTER Feinstein published her letter about Russian influence.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSZ5TeWAAUigei.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
20.When Twitter spoke to a Blumenthal staffer, they tried to “wave him off” because “we don’t believe these are bots.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSZ7AgXkBUsdPW.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
21.Added another: “It might be worth nudging Blumenthal’s staffer that it could be in his boss’ best interest not to go out there because it could come back to make him look silly.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSaHc7X0AAI4eb.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
22.One Twitter exec even tried to negotiate, implying an undisclosed future PR concession if Blumenthal would lay off on this:
“It seems like there are other wins we could offer him.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSaJyXXkBMkr-p.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
24.Execs eventually grew frustrated over what they saw as a circular process – presented with claims of Russian activity, even when denied, led to more claims.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
25.They expressed this explicitly to Blumenthal’s camp, saying “Twitter spent a lot of resources” on this request and the reward from Blumenthal shouldn’t be round after round of requests.”
“We can’t do a user notice each time this happens.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSaOeJXkAsufWQ.jpg)
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
26.Eventually Twitter staff realize “Blumenthal isn’t looking for real and nuanced solutions” but “just wants to get credit for pushing us further.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSaVnBXkAI-CrK.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
27.Ultimately senior executives talked about “feeding congressional trolls” and compared their situation to the children’s book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSaYHuWYAEl4Z4.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
28.In the story, if you give a mouse a cookie, he’ll want a glass of milk, which will lead to a wave of other exhausting requests, at the end of which he’ll want a glass of milk. And one more cookie.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSaaZHXkA0W7En.png)
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
29.The metaphor for the endless Russia requests was so perfect, one exec wrote, “I’m legit embarrassed I didn’t think of that first.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSack7XkBkqHh_.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
30.Despite universal internal conviction that there were no Russians in the story, Twitter went on to follow a slavish pattern of not challenging Russia claims on the record.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
31.Outside counsel from DC-connected firms like Debevoise and Plimpton advised Twitter to use language like, “With respect to particular hashtags, we take seriously any activity that may represent an abuse of our platform.”
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
32.As a result, reporters from the AP to Politico to NBC to Rolling Stone continued to hammer the “Russian bots” theme, despite a total lack of evidence.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
33.Russians weren’t just blamed for #ReleaseTheMemo but #SchumerShutdown, #ParklandShooting, even #GunControlNow – to “widen the divide,” according to the New York Times.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
34.Re #SchumerShutdown and #ReleaseTheMemo, the internal guidance was, “Both hashtags appear to be organically trending.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmSaqWwXkBIQJ-a.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
35.NBC, Politico, AP, Times, Business Insider, and other media outlets who played up the “Russian bots” story – even Rolling Stone – all declined to comment for this story.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
37. Who did comment? Devin Nunes. "Schiff and the Democrats falsely claimed Russians were behind the Release the Memo hashtag, all my investigative work... By spreading the Russia collusion hoax, they instigated one of the greatest outbreaks of mass delusion in U.S. history.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
38.This #ReleaseTheMemo episode is just one of many in the #TwitterFiles. The Russiagate scandal was built on the craven dishonesty of politicians and reporters, who for years ignored the absence of data to fictional scare headlines.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
39.For more, watch @ShellenbergerMD, @bariweiss, @lhfang, @davidzweig, @AlexBerenson, and more.
Read Taibbi.Substack.Com for more on why “America Needs Truth and Reconciliation on Russiagate.”
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Ftaibbi.substack.com%2Ftwitter%2Fsubscribe-card.jpg%3Fv%3D135965818%26version%3D9)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
40.Twitter had no editorial input on this story. Searches were carried out by third parties, so the documents could be limited.
Part XV
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
1. New piece from the TWITTER FILES.
How the pharmaceutical industry lobbied social media to shape content around vaccine policy.
The push included direct pressure from Pfizer partner BioNTech to censor activists demanding low-cost generic vaccines for low-income countries.
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
2. In 2020, it was clear that the pandemic would require rapid innovation. Early on, there was a push to make the solution equitable: an international partnership to share ideas, technology, new forms of medicine to rapidly solve this crisis.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F299d23f0-89b0-4d08-bdae-396ce105e528_2560x1707.jpeg)
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
3. But global drug giants saw the crisis as an opportunity for unprecedented profit. Behind closed doors, pharma launched a massive lobbying blitz to crush any effort to share patents/IP for new covid-related medicine, including therapeutics and vaccines.
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
4. BIO, the lobby group that represents biopharma, including Moderna & Pfizer, wrote to the newly elected Biden admin, demanding the U.S. gov sanction any country attempting to violate patent rights and create generic low cost covid medicine or vaccines.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdf3f2909-f9ef-4ff2-ab50-b28fe402fb42_1200x800.jpeg)
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
5. That brings us to Twitter. The global lobbying blitz includes direct pressure on social media. BioNTech, which developed Pfizer's vaccine, reached out to Twitter to request that Twitter directly censor users tweeting at them to ask for generic low cost vaccines.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmmuMZuagAE0m-q.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
6. Twitter's reps responded quickly to the pharma request, which was also backed by the German government. A lobbyist in Europe asked the content moderation team to monitor the accounts of Pfizer, AstraZeneca & of activist hashtags like #peoplesvaccine
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmmvEUPaMAExoQ5.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
7. The potential "fake accounts" that Twitter monitored for protesting Pfizer? These were real people. Here's one the Twitter team flagged for potential terms of use violations. I talked to Terry, a 74 year old retired bricklayer in the UK on the phone. https://t.co/qIH0Tngsm1
![Twitter avatar for @TerryB28937065](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_40/TerryB28937065.jpg)
Terry Brough #PeaceJusticeSocialism ✊ @TerryB28937065
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
8. It's not clear what actions Twitter ultimately took on this particular request. Several Twitter employees noted in subsequent messages that none of this activism constituted abuse. But the company continued monitoring tweets.
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
9. In a separate push, Pfizer & Moderna's lobbying group, BIO, fully funded a special content moderation campaign designed by a contractor called Public Good Projects, which worked w/Twitter to set content moderation rules around covid "misinformation."
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
10. BIO provided $1,275,000 to the campaign, part of which is revealed through tax forms. The PGP campaign, called "Stronger," helped Twitter create content moderation bots, select which public health accounts got verification, helped crowdsource content takedowns.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmmzE-tagAAa0VE.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmmziLyaYAAkjGq.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
11. Many of the tweets the BIO-funded campaign focused on were truly unhinged misinfo, like claims that vaccines include microchips. But others Stronger lobbied Twitter on were more of a grey area, like vaccine passports & vaccine mandates, policies that coerce vaccination.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmm0dVmaYAIOIlg.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmm0eykaEAAn5RE.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
12. The Moderna/Pfizer-funded campaign included direct regular emails with lists of tweets to takedown & others to verify. Here's an example of those types of emails that went straight to Twitter's lobbyists and content moderators. Many focused on @zerohedge, which was suspended.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFmm1n2LaAAA52r2.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
13. Notably, this massive push to censor and label covid misinfo never applied to drug companies. When big pharma wildly exaggerated the risks of creating low-cost generic covid vaccines, Stronger did nothing. The rules applied only to critics of industry.
![Twitter avatar for @PhRMA](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_40/PhRMA.jpg)
PhRMA @PhRMA
![Twitter avatar for @lhfang](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/lhfang.jpg)
14. Here is my reported piece w/more detail. I was given some access to Twitter emails. 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.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F37234b9a-1bc9-4266-a5e5-d12491bd1241_1200x800.jpeg)
Part XV 2.0
The numbers are starting to get mixed up now, but Taibbi refers to this as part XV so we’ll just add “2.0” to it I guess.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
4.“Virtually any conclusion drawn from it will take conversations in conservative circles on Twitter and accuse them of being Russian.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfOlUSXwAU4Ij2.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
5.These are quotes by Twitter executives about Hamilton 68, a digital “dashboard” that claimed to track Russian influence and was the source of hundreds if not thousands of mainstream print and TV news stories in the Trump years.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfzA0OXoAAQLrF.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
6.The “dashboard” was headed by former FBI counterintelligence official (and current MSNBC contributor) Clint Watts, and funded by a neoliberal think tank, the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD).
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfOn1hXEAIW0K2.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
7.The ASD advisory council includes neoconservative writer Bill Kristol, former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, ex-Hillary for America chief John Podesta, and former heads or deputy heads of the CIA, NSA, and the Department of Homeland Security.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfOqA4XoAQC181.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfOrouXgAAl2y-.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
8.News outlets for years cited Watts and Hamilton 68 when claiming Russian bots were “amplifying” an endless parade of social media causes – against strikes in Syria, in support of Fox host Laura Ingraham, the campaigns of both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfOuMbWIAEgryD.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfOuRTWYAcUIJQ.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfOuQyXwAELnt8.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfOuUpWAAAFzBO.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
9.Hamilton 68 was the source for stories claiming Russian bots pushed terms like “deep state” or hashtags like #FireMcMaster, #SchumerShutdown, #WalkAway, #ReleaseTheMemo, #AlabamaSenateRace, and #ParklandShooting, among many others.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfO3fsWQAEJdUK.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfO3iVXoAA6c_p.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfO3gnX0AAtxm1.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfO3kZXoAA7RDC.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
10. The secret ingredient to Hamilton 68’s analytical method? A list: “Our analysis has linked 600 Twitter accounts to Russian influence activities online,” was how the site put it at launch.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfO0TvWIAA8JDX.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
11. Hamilton 68 never released the list, claiming "the Russians will simply shut [the accounts] down." All those reporters and TV personalities making claims about “Russian bots” never really knew what they were describing.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfPy5GWQAIrm32.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
12. Twitter executives were in a unique position to recreate Hamilton’s list, reverse-engineering it from the site’s requests for Twitter data.
Concerned about the deluge of Hamilton-based news stories, they did so – and what they found shocked them.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfzDTIXwAImrRx.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
13.“These accounts,” they concluded, “are neither strongly Russian nor strongly bots.”
“No evidence to support the statement that the dashboard is a finger on the pulse of Russian information ops.”
“Hardly illuminating a massive influence operation.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfzD1YXwAEquse.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfP27OXwAI89oo.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfP2-FXwAENcgc.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
14. In layman’s terms, the Hamilton 68 barely had any Russians. In fact, apart from a few RT accounts, it’s mostly full of ordinary Americans, Canadians, and British.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
15.It was a scam. Instead of tracking how “Russia” influenced American attitudes, Hamilton 68 simply collected a handful of mostly real, mostly American accounts, and described their organic conversations as Russian scheming.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
16. Twitter immediately recognized these Hamilton-driven news stories posed a major ethical problem, potentially implicating them.
“Real people need to know they’ve been unilaterally labeled Russian stooges without evidence or recourse,” Roth wrote.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQJywaMAgPvFk.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
17.Some Twitter execs badly wanted to out Hamilton 68. After Russians were blamed for hyping the #ParklandShooting hashtag, one wrote:
“Why can’t we say we’ve investigated… and citing Hamilton 68 is being wrong, irresponsible, and biased?”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQLdQacAABRUy.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
18.Yoel Roth wanted a confrontation. “My recommendation at this stage is an ultimatum: you release the list or we do,” he wrote.
However, there were internal concerns about taking on the politically connected Alliance for Securing Democracy.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQNbpacAIBiD2.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
19.“We have to be careful in how much we push back on ASD publicly,” said future White House and NSC spokesperson Emily Horne.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQPTrWQAMbK7j.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
20.“I also have been very frustrated in not calling out Hamilton 68 more publicly, but understand we have to play a longer game here,” wrote Carlos Monje, the future senior advisor to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQQpJaIAAQUsj.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
21. So the “legitimate people,” as one Twitter exec called them, never found out they’d been used as fodder for mountains of news stories about “Russian influence.” Because the #TwitterFiles contain the list, they’ve begun finding out.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
22.“I’m shocked,” says Sonia Monsour, who as a child lived through civil war in Lebanon. “Supposedly in a free world, we are being watched at many levels, by what we say online.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
23. “I’ve written a book about the U.S. Constitution,” says Chicago-based lawyer Dave Shestokas. “How I made a list like this is incredible to me.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQh5_aIAI4Uuf.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
24. “When I was growing up, my father told me about the McCarthyite blacklist,” says Oregon native Jacob Levich. “As a child it would never have occurred to me that this would come back, in force and broadly, in a way… designed to undermine rights we hold dear.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
25. Even Twitter execs were stunned to read who was on the list. Wrote policy chief Nick Pickles about British comic @Holbornlolz: “A wind-up merchant… I follow him and wouldn’t say he’s pro-Russian… I can’t even remember him tweeting about Russia.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQmtlaMAIdWpJ.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQmvzaAAAHCdS.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
26. I’m listed as a foreign bot?” said conservative media figure Dennis Michael Lynch. “As a proud taxpaying citizen, charitable family man, and honest son of a U.S. Marine, I deserve better. We all do!”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQo16WQAE6uzf.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
27. Consortium editor Joe Lauria too was angered to find he was on the list, which targeted voices across the spectrum: “Organizations like Hamilton 68 are in business to enforce an official narrative, which means excising inconvenient facts, which they call ‘misinformation.’”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQrKeaIAMrbzo.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
28.What makes this an important story is the sheer scale of the news footprint left by Hamilton 68’s digital McCarthyism. The quantity of headlines and TV segments dwarfs the impact of individual fabulists like Jayson Blair or Stephen Glass.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQtg6WYAMMTGS.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
29.Hamilton 68 was used as a source to assert Russian influence in an astonishing array of news stories: support for Brett Kavanaugh or the Devin Nunes memo, the Parkland shooting, manipulation of black voters, “attacks” on the Mueller investigation…
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQxGiacAELcmX.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQxMaakAEvfoK.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQxIMXEAE-NZK.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQxOGXEAAu22l.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
30.These stories raised fears in the population, and most insidious of all, were used to smear people like Tulsi Gabbard as foreign “assets,” and drum up sympathy for political causes like Joe Biden’s campaign by describing critics as Russian-aligned.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQ1INXkAECg_a.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQ1LJagAEW4NT.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
31.Incredibly, and ironically, these stories were also frequently used as evidence of the spread of “fake news” on sites like Twitter:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQ4cZaEAEOZOt.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
32.It was a lie. The illusion of Russian support was created by tracking people like Joe Lauria, Sonia Monsour, and Dave Shestokas. Virtually every major American news organization cited these fake tales— even fact-checking sites like Snopes and Politifact.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQ7OWagAA_7Il.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQ7Q_aQAA-EGf.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
33.Twitter didn’t have the guts to out Hamilton 68 publicly but did try to speak to reporters off the record. “Reporters are chafing,” said Horne. “It’s like shouting into a void.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQ-mqaUAAox3h.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfQ-ovaYAEu1WX.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
34.Roth was offended by the idea that tweets on certain themes suggested subversion. “Can we talk about how incredibly condescending…? If you talk about these themes, you must have been duped by Russian propaganda.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfRAzXaYAExu5_.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
35.Again, even Roth, like most Twitter execs an ardent Democratic partisan, saw that the Hamilton scheme would lead people “to assert that any right-leaning content is propagated by Russian bots.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfRCzDaAAA_Y38.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
36.At least two other research institutions that used similar methodologies – and were cited as sources in news stories – were also criticized in Twitter email correspondence.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,h_314,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffb59e059-e03b-45c8-9b3e-000354e88a8a_960x241.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
37.MSNBC, Watts, the Washington Post, Politico, Mother Jones (which did at least 14 Hamilton 68 stories), the Alliance for Securing Democracy, and the offices of politicians like Dianne Feinstein all refused comment, unless this counts:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfRFlOaQAE7Hex.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
38.This was an academic scandal as well, as Harvard, Princeton, Temple, NYU, GWU, and other universities promoted Hamilton 68 as a source:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfRJqEacAAbru_.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfRJwaaQAEFqg4.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfRJt3aIAE4cB9.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfRJy3acAUrPEf.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
39.Perhaps most embarrassingly, elected officials promoted the site, and invited Hamilton “experts” to testify. Dianne Feinstein, James Lankford, Richard Blumenthal, Adam Schiff, and Mark Warner were among the offenders.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfRM1CWQAIuMYb.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFnfRM4saMAUO6mL.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
40.The mix of digital McCarthyism and fraud did great damage to American politics and culture. News outlets that don't disavow these stories, or still pay Hamilton vets as analysts, shouldn't be trusted. Every subscriber to those outlets to write to editors about the issue.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
41.For more from the #TwitterFiles, follow @bariweiss, @lhfang, @ShellenbergerMD, @TheFP, and others. Twitter had no input into this story. Searches were conducted by a third party, so material may have been left out.
Part XVI
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
2. The #TwitterFiles have revealed a lot: thousands of moderation requests from every corner of government, Feds mistaking both conservatives and leftists for fictional Russians, even Twitter deciding on paper to cede moderation authority to the “U.S. intelligence community”:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFpSM3qTaUAEmijp.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFpSM-wRaMAQDKTS.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFpSM7-daMAIWwTo.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFpSNN8BaUAAO_Ir.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
3. These and at least a dozen other newsworthy revelations produced exactly zilch in mainstream news coverage in the last two months:
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFpSbyaIXEAABTZi.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
4. Then House hearings were held last week, at which one witness told a story about Donald Trump asking to remove a mean tweet by Chrissy Teigen.
The press went bananas. Now THAT was big news!
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFpSN2nFaAAIZTmo.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
5. Purely to show the bankruptcy of media in this area, let’s introduce a pair of loud new data points, and see if any press figures at all cover either of them.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
6. If a president freaking out about one tweeter is news, surely a U.S. Senator finking on three hundred-plus of his constituents also must be?
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFpSOL5iaEAAe6FQ.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
7. Here’s Maine Senator Angus King writing to Twitter to call a slew of accounts “suspicious” for reasons like:
“Rand Paul visit excitement”
“Bot (averages 20 tweets a day)”
Being followed by rival Eric Brakey
Or, my personal favorite: “Mentions immigration.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFpSOSx7aEAErHeH.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFpSOaAXaYAE5fCK.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFpSOWHoaMAADMbO.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFpSOcu6aMAAumiZ.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
8. King’s office declined comment. If Dick Nixon sniffed glue, this is what his enemies list might have looked like:
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
9. So as not to focus only on Dems or those who caucus with Democrats, here’s a contribution from Republican Mark Lenzi, a State Department official most famous for offering to donate his brain to science after a claimed brush with Havana syndrome.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFpSPmDGaAAEbEFc.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
10. Lenzi wrote to Twitter bluntly asking to remove 14 accounts distinguished among other things by skepticism of Russiagate: “The below are some Russian controlled accounts that I think you will want to look into and delete.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFpSPv0waAAAxmZC.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
11.A government official, writing from a State department email, asks to “delete” 14 accounts that are engaged in legit speech and for which no evidence is shown they're Russian controlled or bots (in fact, we at Racket know some of these people). A clear First Amendment issue.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
12. I noted before there were many crazy requests in Twitter records from officials wanting foes taken off Twitter, with Californian Adam Schiff’s effort to ban a reporter and stop “any and all search results” about a staffer making Angus King’s spreadsheet gambit look tame.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFpSXRudaEAInPKt.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
13. The fact that mainstream outlets ignored the Schiff story but howled about Teigen shows what they're about. Responses like this are designed to keep blue-leaning audiences especially focused on moronic partisan spats, obscuring bigger picture narratives.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
14. The real story emerging in the #TwitterFiles is about a ballooning federal censorship bureaucracy that's not aimed at either the left or the right per se, but at the whole population of outsiders, who are being systematically defined as threats.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
15. Beginning in March, we'll start using the Twitter Files to tell this larger story about how Americans turned their counterterrorism machinery against themselves, to disastrous effect, through little-known federal agencies like the Global Engagement Center (GEC).
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
16. Until then, if you found yourself on King's list, please DM or write in to Racket.News. I'm on vacation next week, but we'll mock up "Angus King Told Twitter I Was Suspicious, And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt" shirts when I get back.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
17. Thanks to #TwitterFiles contributors like @ShellenbergerMD and @lhfang, and thanks also to Racket researchers. Searches were performed by a third party and material may have been left out.
Part XVII
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
2. On June 8, 2021, an analyst at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab wrote to Twitter:
“Hi guys. Attached you will find… around 40k twitter accounts that our researchers suspect are engaging in inauthentic behavior… and Hindu nationalism more broadly.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKZfxGWwAYK-q8.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
3. DFRLab said it suspected 40,000 accounts of being “paid employees or possibly volunteers” of India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
But the list was full of ordinary Americans, many with no connection to India and no clue about Indian politics. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKZjHlWcAIHB9p.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKZmqEXgAAufjB.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
4. “I have no connection to any Hindu folks... Just a Reagan Republican here in CT,” replied “Bobby Hailstone.”
“A Hindu nationalist? I’ve never even been out of this country. Let alone the state of NJ,” said “Lady_DI816.”
“These people are insane!” said “Krista Woods.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
5. Twitter agreed, one reason many of the accounts remain active. “Thanks, Andy,” replied Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth. “I spot-checked a number of these accounts, and virtually all appear to be real people.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKZtAQWAAES-aq.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
7. DFRLab is funded by the U.S. Government, specifically the Global Engagement Center (GEC).
Director Graham Brookie denies DFRLab it uses tax money to track Americans, saying its GEC grants have "an exclusively international focus.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
8. But Americans on DFR’s list, like Marysel Urbanik, are unconvinced its focus is “exclusively international.”
“This is un-American,” says Urbanik, who immigrated from Castro’s Cuba. “They do this in places that don’t believe in free speech.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKaP5cX0AQmRF6.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
9. The Global Engagement Center is usually listed as a State Department entity.
It's not.
Created in Obama’s last year, GEC is an interagency group “within” State, whose initial partners included FBI, DHS, NSA, CIA, DARPA, Special Operations Command (SOCOM), and others.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqOMP77X0AU_1T0.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
10. GEC’s mandate: “To recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign... disinformation.”
On the surface, it’s the same mission the United States Information Agency (USIA) fulfilled for decades, with a catch. USIA focused on foreign “disinfo.”
GEC’s focus is wider.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKa0b6WAAMC4DJ.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
11. “It’s an incubator for the domestic disinformation complex,” says a former intelligence source. “All the shit we pulled in other countries since the Cold War, some morons decided to bring home.”
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
12.GEC could have avoided controversy by focusing on exposing/answering “disinformation” with research and a more public approach, as USIA did. Instead, it funded a secret list of subcontractors and helped pioneer an insidious – and idiotic – new form of blacklisting.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
13.Here GEC asks Twitter to review 499 accounts as “foreign” disinformation, for reasons that include using Signal to communicate and tweeting the hashtag, #IraniansDebateWithBiden.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKa8OWX0AInZdr.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
14. Here are 5500 names GEC told Twitter it believed were “Chinese… accounts” engaged in “state-backed coordinated manipulation.” It takes about negative ten seconds to find non-Chinese figures: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u…
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKbAXlWIAAIFs-.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
15. GEC’s “Chinese” list included multiple Western government accounts and at least three CNN employees based abroad. “Not exactly Anderson’s besties, but CNN assets if you will,” quipped Twitter’s Patrick Conlon.
"A total crock,” added Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKbDbNWIAAxAL-.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKbFfMX0AAtWRj.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
16.GEC passed some good information to Twitter, but mostly not. The root problem was exemplified by a much-circulated 2020 report, “Russian Pillars of Disinformation and Propaganda.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKbMAqWYAA3h8d.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKbNovWcAIRpMn.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
17.This GEC report was contradictory. On one hand, it offered reasoned evidence that a specific outlet like the “Strategic Culture Foundation” was partnered with the Russian Foreign Ministry, which would make it a true "proxy site."
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKb3IgWAAIKeOa.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
18.The same report advanced a far lazier idea.
Along with state actors, groups that “generate their own momentum” should also be seen as parts of a propaganda “ecosystem."
Independence, GEC said, should not “confuse those trying to discern the truth.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKb57BXgAYM8nc.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKb7r7XoAUE8Dh.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKcJbIX0AAPqA7.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
19. The “ecosystem” is not a new concept. It’s been with us since Salem: guilt by association.
As one Twitter exec put it: “‘If you retweet a news source linked to Russia, you become Russia-linked,’ does not exactly resonate as a sound research approach.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKcBVtXsAQrrK5.jpg)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
20.GEC sent Twitter a series of reports on a series of topics, often employing the “ecosystem” concept.
Its report on France “attributes membership in the yellow vest movement as being Russia-aligned,” is how Twitter’s Aaron Rodericks put it.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKcQK0XoAIMO1o.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKcTs0XwAI8X8M.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKcXqBWYAAYY8B.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
21.GEC’s report on China was “more entertainment value than anything,” said Rodericks. “It equates anything pro-China, but also anything against China in Italy, as part of Russia's strategy.”
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKcc1zWwAA2fiq.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKcfEQXoAIMvYR.png)
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
22. Twitter staffers had professionalism. They tended to look at least once before declaring a thing foreign disinformation. This made them a tough crowd for GEC.
Fortunately, there's an easier mark: the news media.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
23.GEC’s game: create an alarmist report, send it to the slower animals in journalism’s herd, and wait as reporters bang on Twitter’s door, demanding to know why this or that “ecosystem” isn’t obliterated.
Twitter emails ooze frustration at such queries. UGGG! reads one.
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFqKcqpnXwAAYJ4R.png)
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25.Twitter disagreed with GEC’s alert about Russian “disinfo” in South America, which appeared to confused cause and effect.
As Rodericks put it, “I believe what they mean is: ‘there was a surge in accounts that agreed with Moscow-aligned narratives' = Moscow controlled.”
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26. Roth noted Bret Schafer of the Alliance for Securing Democracy was quoted in Frenkel’s story and said: “Seems like ASD are back at their old tricks.”
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27. Roth was referring to the fact that the ASD created Hamilton 68, another guilt-by-association scheme detailed in Twitter Files #15. The Hamilton “dashboard” claimed to track accounts linked to “Russian influence activities,” but the list was largely made up of Americans.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
28. The Hamilton 68 dashboard creator, J.M. Berger, was on the GEC payroll until June of 2017, just before the dashboard’s launch. Hamilton claimed the list was “the fruit of more than three years of observation.”
Berger “unequivocally” denies working on Hamilton for GEC.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
30. The Hamilton 68 dashboard employed digital alchemy to create streams of headlines tying Americans to “foreign” disinformation.
The “ecosystem” reports GEC and many "disinformation" laboratories feed reporters are often just subtler versions of the same thing.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
31. In a crucial in-house Q&A in mid-2017, Roth was asked if it was possible to detect “Russian fingerprints” using Twitter’s public data. Though “you can make inferences,” he said, “in short, no.”
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
32. Twitter therefore knew from the first days of the “foreign interference” mania that the media zone was flooded with bad actors playing up cyber-threats for political or financial reasons, GEC included.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
33. “GEC has doubled their budget by aggressively overstating threats through unverified accusations that can't be replicated either by external academics or by Twitter,” wrote Rodericks.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
34.The same is true of New Knowledge, the scandal-plagued company staffed by former NSA officials that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) hired to do “expert” assessments of the initial batches of “suspect” Facebook and Twitter accounts.
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35. When Twitter saw New Knowledge and its reporter-worshipped “disinformation” gurus like Jonathon Morgan and Renee DiResta were making analytical leaps they felt were impossible, they knew something was off.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
36. After Politico cited a New Knowledge report to the SSCI as evidence for what it called a “sweeping effort to sow divisions,” Twitter dug in. NK pointed to five supposedly Russian accounts it said were “relatively easy to find with the Twitter public API."
Roth scoffed.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
37. Roth said two of the five accounts were a “small Indonesian content farm… just commercial spam. (Would suspend but don’t want to throw fire on the NK report by making anyone think they’re correct.) Becca account is an American and not at all suspicious.”
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38.Twitter’s Nick Pickles: “New Knowledge’s pitch... pick accounts that they have deemed to be IRA controlled, and then spin up bigger macro analysis... stories about ‘2000 Russian accounts tweeting about Kavanagh/Walkway/Caravan’ [were] often based on media activity from NK.”
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
39. Just like Hamilton 68, GEC and New Knowledge littered the media landscape with flawed or flat-out wrong news stories. Exacerbating matters, Americans in both cases paid taxes to become the subject of these manipulative operations.
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40. Particularly egregious: a New Knowledge report to the Senate on Russian interference was leaked just days before it was outed in a scheme to fake Russian influence in an Alabama election, and no media outlets issued retractions.
No SSCI staff have commented, either.
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41. Foreign cyber-threats exist, and there are sophisticated ways of detecting them. But GEC and its subcontractors don’t use those, instead deploying junk science that often lumps true bad actors in with organic opinion.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
42.“Disinformation studies” has mostly become a con, where non-experts mesmerize reporters with what one former GEC staffer calls “hairball” charts, usually measuring something idiotic – like who follows two Chinese diplomats, or shares an Iranian “FREE PALESTINE” meme.
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43.The Washington Examiner and @gekaminsky just profiled a GEC-funded NGO in the UK that algorithmically scores media outlets by "risk."
How does downranking the Daily Wire to help the New York Times get more ad revenue counter “foreign” disinformation?
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
44.An IG report shows GEC was initially obligated $98.7 million, of which roughly $80 million came from the Pentagon. It reportedly gave to at least 39 different organizations, whose names were redacted.
Why is this list secret?
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45. Twitter comms official Ian Plunkett wrote years ago that “misinformation, like [countering violent extremism, or CVE] before it, is becoming a cottage industry.”
Disinformation is the counterterrorism mission, rebranded for domestic targets.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
46. Reauthorization for GEC’s funding is up for a vote this year. Can we at least stop paying to blacklist ourselves?
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
47. The #TwitterFiles were prepared by a third party, so material may have been left out. Thanks to @ShellenbergerMD and the team at Racket.News, who’ll have more on this all month.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
48. NOTE: Just before publication, Graham Brookie of DFRLab wrote to clarify about the 40,000 India names: “We didn’t publish this from a former researcher because we lacked confidence in its findings.”
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49. I asked Brookie if he’d made this lack of confidence clear to the Reuters reporter whose story based on that research is still live and uncorrected online: reuters.com/article/facebo…
He hasn’t replied.
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50. For more on these and other #TwitterFiles topics, @ShellenbergerMD and I will be testifying in the House on Thursday, March 9, at 10 a.m. We're humbled and grateful to @Jim_Jordan and @JudiciaryGOP for the invitation.
Part XIX
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1.TWITTER FILES #19
The Great Covid-19 Lie Machine
Stanford, the Virality Project, and the Censorship of “True Stories”
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2.“The release of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Spring 2020 emails… has been used to exacerbate distrust in Dr. Fauci.”
“Increased distrust in Fauci’s expert guidance.”
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3.“Reports of vaccinated individuals contracting Covid-19 anyway”; “natural immunity”; suggesting Covid-19 “leaked from a lab”; even “worrisome jokes”:
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4.All were characterized as “potential violations” or disinformation “events” by the Virality Project, a sweeping, cross-platform effort to monitor billons of social media posts by Stanford University, federal agencies, and a slew of (often state-funded) NGOs.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
5.Just before @ShellenbergerMD and I testified in the House last week, Virality Project emails were found in the #TwitterFiles describing “stories of true vaccine side effects” as actionable content.
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6.We’ve since learned the Virality Project in 2021 worked with government to launch a pan-industry monitoring plan for Covid-related content. At least six major Internet platforms were “onboarded” to the same JIRA ticketing system, daily sending millions of items for review.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
7.Though the Virality Project reviewed content on a mass scale for Twitter, Google/YouTube, Facebook/Instagram, Medium, TikTok, and Pinterest, it knowingly targeted true material and legitimate political opinion, while often being factually wrong itself.
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8.This story is important for two reasons. One, as Orwellian proof-of-concept, the Virality Project was a smash success. Government, academia, and an oligopoly of would-be corporate competitors organized quickly behind a secret, unified effort to control political messaging.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
9.Two, it accelerated the evolution of digital censorship, moving it from judging truth/untruth to a new, scarier model, openly focused on political narrative at the expense of fact.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
10.THE BEGINNING: On February 5, 2021, just after Joe Biden took office, Stanford wrote to Twitter to discuss the Virality Project. By the 17th, Twitter agreed to join and got its first weekly report on “anti-vax disinformation,” which contained numerous true stories.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
11. February 22, 2021: Stanford welcomed Twitter veterans like Yoel Roth and Brian Clarke, instructing them on how to join the group JIRA system. You can watch the friendly welcome video here:
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12. March 2, 2021: "We are beginning to ramp up our notification process to platforms.” In addition to the top-7 platforms, VP soon gained "visibility" to “alternative platforms such as Gab, Parler, Telegram, and Gettr” – near-total surveillance of the social media landscape.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
13.Through July of 2020, Twitter’s internal guidance on Covid-19 required a story be “demonstrably false” or contain an “assertion of fact” to be actioned. But the Virality Project, in partnership with the CDC, pushed different standards.
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14.VP told Twitter that “true stories that could fuel hesitancy,” including things like “celebrity deaths after vaccine” or the closure of a central NY school due to reports of post-vaccine illness, should be considered "Standard Vaccine Misinformation on Your Platform."
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15. In one email to Twitter, VP addressed what it called the “vaccine passport narrative,” saying “concerns” over such programs “have driven a larger anti-vaccination narrative about the loss of rights and freedoms.”
This was framed as a "misinformation" event.
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16.VP routinely framed real testimonials about side effects as misinformation, from “true stories” of blood clots from AstraZeneca vaccines to a New York Times story about vaccine recipients who contracted the blood disorder thrombocytopenia.
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17.By March of 2021, Twitter personnel were aping VP language, describing "campaigns against vaccine passports," "fear of mandatory immunizations," and "misuse of official reporting tools" as "potential violations."
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18. This echoed a report to Twitter by the Global Engagement Center re “Russia-linked” accounts: “While this account posts legitimate and accurate COVID-19 updates... it posts content that attacks Italian politicians, the EU, and the United States.” drive.google.com/file/d/1u2412d…
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19.That same GEC report found in the #TwitterFiles identified former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, and former Italian Democratic Party Secretary Nicola Zingaretti (who’s been compared to Bernie Sanders) as “highly connective” accounts in a “Russia-linked” network.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
20.The Virality Project helped pioneer the gauging of “disinformation” by audience response. If the post-vaccine death of a black woman named Drene Keyes in Virginia went unnoticed inspired mostly “anti-vaccine” comments on local media, it became a “disinformation” event.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
21.VP warned against people “just asking questions,” implying it was a tactic “commonly used by spreaders of misinformation." It also described a "Worldwide Rally for Freedom planned over Telegram" as a disinformation event.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
22."ALMOST ALWAYS REPORTABLE" It encouraged platforms to target people, not posts, using Minority Report-style “pre-crime” logic. Describing “repeat offenders” like Robert Kennedy, Jr., it spoke of a “large volume of content that is almost always reportable.”
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
23.VP was repeatedly, extravagantly wrong. In one email to Twitter on “misinformation,” it spoke of wanting to “hone in” on an “increasingly popular narrative about natural immunity.”
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
24.The VP in April 2021 mistakenly described “breakthrough” infections as “extremely rare events” that should not be inferred to mean “vaccines are ineffective.”
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
25.Later, when “the CDC changed its methodology for counting Covid-19 cases among vaccinated people,” only counting those resulting in hospitalization or death, VP complained that “anti-vaccine” accounts RFK Jr. and “WhatsHerFace” retweeted the story to suggest “hypocrisy.”
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
27.In a chilling irony, the VP ran searches for the term “surveillance state.” As an unaccountable state-partnered bureaucracy secretly searched it out, the idea that “vaccines are part of a surveillance state” won its own thoughtcrime bucket: “conspiracy.”
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
28.After about a year, on April 26, 2022, the VP issued a report calling for a “rumor-control mechanism to address nationally trending narratives,” and a “Misinformation and Disinformation Center of Excellence” to be housed within CISA, at the Department of Homeland Security.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
29. The next day, April 27, 2022, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced in a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing that a “Disinformation Governance Board” had been created, to be headed by the singing censor, Nina Jankowitz.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
30.Even in its final report, VP claimed it was misinformation to suggest the vaccine does not prevent transmission, or that governments are planning to introduce vaccine passports. Both things turned out to be true.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
31.The Virality Project was specifically not based on “assertions of fact,” but public submission to authority, acceptance of narrative, and pronouncements by figures like Anthony Fauci. The project's central/animating concept was, "You can't handle the truth."
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
32. One of its four core partners, Pentagon-funded Graphika, explained in a report about “Fauxi” that because the public cannot be trusted to make judgements on its own, it must be shielded from truths that might undermine its faith in authority.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
33. “This continual process of seeding doubt and uncertainty in authoritative voices,” Graphika wrote, in a report sent to Twitter, “leads to a society that finds it too challenging to identify what’s true or false.”
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
34.For this reason, the CDC-partnered project focused often on disinformation “events” involving Fauci, saying “release of Fauci’s emails foments distrust,” and deriding assertions he “misled the public.”
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
35.A Cleveland Clinic study showed previous infection offered the “same immunity” as the vaccine, but VP said discovery was susbservient to narrative: “Whether or not... scientific consensus is changing, ‘natural immunity’ is a key narrative… among anti-vaccine activists.”
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
36."OFTEN TRUE CONTENT" The Virality Project communications mirror those produced in the recent court case Louisiana vs Biden, which showed Facebook admitting to the WHO that it, too, was censoring true content.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
37.From the start, Stanford explained the Virality Project would essentially continue the work of its 2020 Election Integrity Partnership. “The same JIRA system from the EIP is up and running,” they wrote.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
38. In the last #TwitterFiles thread, we posted a video of EIP Director Alex Stamos describing that project as Stanford trying to “fill the gap of things the government couldn’t do” legally. (h/t Foundation for Freedom Online).
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
39.We also showed video in which Stamos introduced EIP Research Director Renee DiResta as having “worked for the CIA.” DiResta in 2021-2022 would be listed as a “Stanford scholar,” “leading” the Virality Project. youtube.com/watch?v=GsooGv…
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
40. By October 2020, Stamos was hinting at the direction of the future Virality Project, telling a national cybersecurity conference that the “Anti-Disinformation” mission needed a new focus.
![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
41.“We talk way too much about foreign…it's sexy, and it's fun, and it's a little bit cold warry,” Stamos said, adding the “vast majority” of problems were now domestic. “We have like an 80-20 breakdown... I think that needs to be flipped.”
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
42.VP’s partners: DOD-funded Graphika, the National Science Foundation funded Center for an Informed Public (CIP), the GEC-funded DFRLab, and the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics, or CSMaP.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
43.VP would later say it partnered with “several government agencies,” including the Office of the Surgeon General and the CDC. It reportedly also worked with DHS’s CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) and GEC, among others.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
44.To recap: America’s information mission went from counterterrorism abroad, to stopping “foreign interference” from reaching domestic audiences, to 80% domestic content, much of it true. The “Disinformation Governance Board” is out; but truth-policing is not.
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![Twitter avatar for @mtaibbi](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/mtaibbi.jpg)
45. Special thanks to @NAffects for hard work on this story, with @Techno_Fog, @ShellenbergerMD, @bergerbell, @SchmidtSue1, @aaronjmate, and the racket.news team. Thanks especially to @MikeBenzCyber. Searches conducted by a third party; material may be left out.
A marvelously useful recap and resource. They tell the story well.
You mention Greenwald. He moved to substack from The Intercept, which he cofounded, when it refused to run anything critical of Joe Biden before the election. That was saying the quiet part out loud: We call ourselves liberal but are in fact partisan.
Brad - Your the best - all SIX parts unrolled in one easy to find location.