Now We've Got Their Names - 'Twitter Files' No. 6: FBI Flagged Accounts for Twitter to Censor
The sixth round of internal Twitter communications released as the “Twitter Files” implicates the FBI in coordinating internet censorship with the platform’s former administrators.
In the emails, released by journalist Matt Taibbi on Friday, FBI personnel directed Twitter moderators to police accounts and censor content.
“Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary,” Taibbi tweeted.
Taibbi claims to have identified more than 150 emails exchanged between the FBI and former Twitter head of trust and safety Yoel Roth.
4. Between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
Roth — who Elon Musk has said was Twitter’s “real CEO” before Musk’s acquisition of the site — helped secure a series of censorship policies at Twitter, including the suspension of former President Donald Trump.
In one email addressed to “Twitter folks,” FBI agent Elvis Chan singled out Twitter accounts for suspension for supposedly misleading the public on the time and place of the 2022 midterm elections.
19.Agent Chan passed the list on to his “Twitter folks”: pic.twitter.com/eXaZnC3I7y
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
Twitter’s censors went on to dutifully report that they had suspended a number of the accounts on the FBI’s radar.
20. Twitter then replied with its list of actions taken. Note mercy shown to actor Billy Baldwin: pic.twitter.com/zQzNGQMKmO
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
As many as 80 FBI agents regularly colluded with Twitter to direct censorship, blurring the lines between private content moderation and government suppression of speech.
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.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
The FBI’s social media task force appeared to tattle on accounts that were satirical in nature — seemingly under the impression that the accounts were legitimately misleading the public.
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: pic.twitter.com/uLxHayY11C
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
FBI agents involved in the censorship process declined to provide their full names in communications with Twitter, identifying themselves merely as “Fred” or “Michael.”
Jim Baker, a former FBI lawyer closely involved in baseless investigations seeking to establish a connection between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia, was employed as Twitter’s deputy general counsel at the time.
Musk fired Baker this month when his involvement in censoring content related to Hunter Biden became public knowledge.
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