FBI Responds To Latest Release Of ‘The Twitter Files’
The FBI released a statement Friday evening in response to the newest release of “The Twitter Files” which showed that federal law enforcement officials were regularly flagging content for Twitter to take action against.
Journalist Matt Taibbi said that between January 2020 and November 2022, then-Twitter Senior Director of Trust & Safety Yoel Roth had exchanged more than 150 emails with the FBI.
Taibbi showed numerous emails between federal law enforcement agencies and Twitter officials where agents repeatedly flagged election-related tweets from small accounts for the company to censor.
“The FBI regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identified foreign malign influence actors’ subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities,” the FBI said in a statement. “Private sector entities independently make decisions about what, if any, action they take on their platforms and for their customers after the FBI has notified them.”
Taibbi’s report revealed that the FBI’s social media-focused task force, known as FTIF, has 80 agents that focus on threats involving “foreign influence and election tampering of all kinds.”
“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,” he continued.
Taibbi noted that the newest documents discovered throughout the course of the investigation showed that the FBI and DHS were “regularly sending social media content to Twitter through multiple entry points, pre-flagged for moderation.”
Stacia Cardille, then-director and associate general counsel for Twitter’s global policy legal team, emailed then-Twitter Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker saying that she was having regular meetings with the FBI, DOJ, DHS, and ODNI about election threats.
Other internal company emails showed employees processing a list of tweets that were flagged by the FBI for “possible violative content.”
Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Greg Steube (R-FL) responded to the news by indicating that the incoming Republican-majority Congress will investigate the revelations that have been made in the release of “The Twitter Files.”
“@FBI has a lot to answer for after the latest drop of #TwitterFiles6,” Gaetz tweeted. “@Jim_Jordan, @RepMikeJohnson, @RepAndyBiggsAZ, @RepDanBishop, and I will be asking the questions. Clear your calendar.”
“80 @FBI agents were colluding with Twitter to police content and moderate Americans’ speech?” Steube tweeted. “Sounds like Communist China to me. Investigations are coming!”
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