Some people find it hard to look a gift horse in the mouth. I’m referring here to the Twitter files. Put to one side your opinion about Elon Musk, I personally see him as a bit of a Maverick. Plus the requirement to put any information gleaned firstly on Twitter itself. Instead we should be firmly focused on what these files have/will reveal.
From pressure to “expose” Russian activity, to suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story, to shadow banning accounts based on information from the National Intelligence Security State, to suppressing any debate around Covid19 to banning high profile individuals such as Donald Trump. The Twitter files have it all.
Whatever Musk’s motivation, this is like the deep state having their dirty laundry washed in public!
Russia
- From 2017 to 2020 Twitter was under immense pressure from Congress and the media to produce material showing a conspiracy of Russian accounts. Whilst openly the company claimed independence, internal guidance reveals that Twitter agreed to remove accounts as “identified by the US intelligence community”. Although the documents prove that Twitter took requests from everyone – the Treasury, HHS (Health and Human Services), NSA(national Security Agency), FBI, DHS etc. Even personal requests such as from Adam Schiff who asked to have journalist Paul Sperry suspended.
Russiagate. Democrats Dianne Feinstein, Richard Blumenthal and Adam Schiff cited a think tank called Hamilton 68 in denouncing a memo by Devin Nunes (Republican) as aided by Russians. They were informed by Twitter execs that there were no Russians implicated.
Adam Schiff sent repeated requests for bans of people critical of their office. They asked for the takedown, for example, of “Peter Douche” obvious satire. Including accounts that were critical of the Steele dossier. They also outed the name of the supposed whistleblower in the Ukrainegate case, Eric Ciaramella.
Hunter Biden’s Laptop
- Twitter blocked this story supposedly on account of the “hacked materials”. However, internal documents reveal execs were aware of the problematic nature of blocking this story. It’s revealed that Democratic members want more moderation, and “the First Amendment isn’t absolute”. San Francisco FBI agent Elvis Chan is known to have sent 10 documents to Yoel Roth through Teleporter the evening before the New York Post article about the laptop, Teleporter being a one-way communications channel from the FBI to Twitter.
Twitter’s secret blacklists.
- Yes, in the alternate media we have been talking about shadow banning – but here is the proof in black and white. They called it “visibility filtering”. They even had a high level council called SIP-PES that made decisions on high profile accounts. Other tools they employed included a search blacklist, trends blacklist and a Do Not Amplify setting. As a Twitter employee said;
Think about visibility filtering as being a way for us to suppress what people see to different levels. It’s a very powerful tool.
January 6th
- The above mentioned visibility tools were employed for the events of January 6 2021. Trust and safety chief Yoel Roth met regularly with not just the FBI and Homeland Security, but also with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Following Jan 6 Twitter internally reconfigured it’s rules to make a Trump ban fit their policies. At least one employee expressed concern of a;
slippery slope (in which) an online platform CEO with a global presence...can gatekeep speech for the entire world.
They were shot down for voicing this opinion. Yoel Roth also argued for a ban on congressman Matt Gaetz despite that this “doesn’t quite fit anywhere”.
Donald Trump
- The removal of Donald Trump. January 8th 2021. Despite concerns raised by staffers at Twitter they were overruled by senior execs like Roth and Vijaya Gadde. They noted many on Twitter’s staff citing the “Banality of Evil” and comparing those who did not favour a ban to “Nazis following orders”. These people have truly lost their compass!
First Amendment isn't absolute
The role of the FBI
Twitter and the FBI were cosied up in bed together. FBI personnel regularly sent lists to Twitter. The FBI was adamant that there were “no impediments to sharing”. In turn Twitter agreed to bounce content.
- Furthermore Twitter is compensated for “processing requests” by the FBI. Twitter’s lawyer James Baker said;
I am happy to report we have collected $3,415,323 since October 2019!
Aiding the Pentagon and others
Although the company explicitly testified to congress that it didn’t, the platform was nonetheless a clear partner in state backed programmes involving fake accounts. US Central Command sent Twitter a list of 52 Arab-language accounts used to amplify messages and Twitter agreed to whitelist them. This took place between 2017-2020.
Flagged Content. We have detailed accounts now of how communication took place between Twitter, the FBI and other agencies, like the CIA. Summer of 2020 Twitter and CIA officials attended at least one conference. Both Twitter and Facebook received “OGA” briefings. (Office of Global Affairs). The FBI and the “Foreign Influence Task Force” met regularly with Twitter, Yahoo!, Twitch, Cloudfare, LinkedIn and Wikimedia.
Covid19
Twitter smothered information. They were engaged in discrediting doctors and any other experts with dissenting views. Memos from Biden officials who were “very angry” that Twitter had not deplatformed more. Countless instances have been uncovered of Twitter banning or labelling “misinformation” that was either true or just controversial.
Pharmaceutical industry lobbied social media to shape content in relation to the vaccine. This included direct pressure from Pfizer partner BioNTech to censor activists demanding low-cost generic vaccines for low-income countries. Pfizer & Moderna's lobbying group, BIO, fully funded a special content moderation campaign designed by a contractor called Public Good Projects, which worked with Twitter to set content moderation rules around Covid ‘misinformation.'" Tax forms revealed that BIO provided nearly $1.3 million to the campaign. Notably, this massive push to censor and label Covid misinformation never applied to drug companies
Alex Berenson.
- This journalist fought and won a high profile campaign to have his suspension lifted. He has detailed how Twitter silenced or erased information about Covid19 with the assistance of Scott Gottlieb, a former Pfizer lobbyist. Gottlieb lobbied for the removal of Alex Berenson. Senior political advisor Todd O’Boyle feared the (correct) observation that natural immunity is the best kind of immunity would be corrosive and put a “misleading” label on Berenson’s tweet.
Conclusion
It should be noted that the Twitter files release was delayed due to information being reviewed by former FBI General Counsel and Twitter Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker. We can only conclude there is even more damaging stuff they are keen to redact.
These Twitter files have consisted of a great deal of information and we have a few independent investigative journalists who have/are reporting on this ongoing story to thank. This includes Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, ShellenbergerMD, Lee Fang, David Zweig and Alex Berenson.
Those in the alternative media who have decided not to cover these stories are generally the same ones who have not reported on Julian Assange and now are sceptical about the British establishment doctor Dr Aseem Malhotra who has changed their mind and now come out to support a suspension of the vaccination programme. Healthy scepticism is a necessity but can result in throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
I believe there is more dirty washing to come. In the meantime, not to be outshone, we now have some Facebook files as reported on by Robby Soave, revealing much of the same. We know this wasn’t just a Twitter problem.
Links here and here to further information about the Facebook files and their cosying up to the CDC. For more follow I'm sure.
Image from link highlighted above.
