Wednesday, December 21, 2022

To What Extent Did The FBI Play A Role In Censoring Information On Twitter?

Daily Mail: FBI paid Twitter $3.5M 'to do its bidding': Taxpayers' money was used for 'processing requests' from the bureau amid Hunter Biden censorship scandal - as anger grows over secret state censorship of the American people 

* The most recent batch of Twitter files show that the FBI paid off staffers at the tech giant to the tune of $3.5 million 

* Emails show that Twitter's deputy counsel Jim Baker met with feds for top secret meeting - a day before he said Hunter laptop should be banned  

* In response to the latest Twitter files dump, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said: 'This is going to be a much bigger situation than people realize' 

* Earlier it was revealed that former FBI lawyer turned Twitter general counsel Jim Baker helped to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story 

The FBI handed nearly $3.5 million of taxpayers money to Twitter to pay its staff to handle requests from the bureau as it sought to ban accounts. 

A Twitter employee wrote in a February 2020 email that the company's Safety, Content & Law Enforcement (SCALE) had 'collected $3,415,323' in less than two years from the FBI for 'law-enforcement related projects.' 

The email, which was revealed by journalist Michael Shellenberger, stated that SCALE had instituted a 'reimbursement program' in exchange for devoting staff hours to 'processing requests from the FBI'.  

Read more .... 

WNU Editor: The FBI is denying these reports .... FBI agent Elvis Chan DENIES he warned Twitter security chief about Hunter Biden leak operation (Daily Mail). 

As to what is my take. There does appear to be enough evidence that the FBI did try to influence Twitter on what could be posted. This should surprise no one. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself admitted the FBI influenced his company to ban certain posts, so why not Twitter .... Zuckerberg tells Rogan FBI warning prompted Biden laptop story censorship (BBC). 

So what should be done? 

In the 1970s the US Senate launched the Church Committee Hearings to investigate abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) (link here). It looks like the US needs another similar hearing to investigate alleged abuses from these agencies in 2023. 

 Update: One thing that I find remarkable about the release of the Twitter files is the almost complete absence of legacy media coverage of this story. I know in Canada there has been zero coverage from the main networks. So the question is why? Hmmm .... Dinesh D'Souza may have a point (see below).

More News On The FBI And Twitter  

Twitter Files Part 6 reveals FBI's ties to tech giant: 'As if it were a subsidiary' -- FOX News  

Twitter Files Part 7: FBI, DOJ 'discredited' information about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings -- FOX News

Twitter Files 7.0: FBI paid $3.4 million to Twitter, made top executives dub Hunter Biden laptop story as ‘Russian disinformation’ -- pIndia  

Twittergate explained: FBI paid Twitter $3.5m to handle its requests, told it to delete accounts (after warning the site about Hunter leak), removed posts for Biden campaign and shadow banned conservatives -- Daily Mail  

'Twitter Files' author calls for investigations into FBI-Big Tech collusion: 'Chilling episode' of US history -- FOX News

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, The FBI Is NOT ‘Paying Twitter To Censor’ | Techdirt

Anonymous said...

This site often accuses the mainstream media of failing to cover a story. No. The story more often than not is covered by right-of-center media and ignored by central or left-of-center when the story is very questionable or simply total nonsense.Thus MSM accused really of being professional and acting that way.

Anonymous said...

The above is from the owner of website Extra Bad Shit. That guy is such a shill.

If I write an email to a person who is sympatico, I could use "may", “any action or inaction deemed appropriate within Twitter policy.” or "could be" and the the person at the other end know what I want. They are the same political persuasion The worked together at the FBI, etc Any ambiguities could be talked about offline with no paper or electronic trail.

the Tech Dirt author says there were 8,000 requests and so 3.4 million is not all that much. that comes down to $437.5 per request. With the right database tools, it takes longer to read the email than to change a table in a database and censor someone.

This needs to go to trial. that way people can take the stand and tell the world how long it takes to make such a change in a database. Not long. But everyone needs to know.

If suppressing the Hunter laptop story was wrong and we know it was, then you can be sure the other 7,999 were bogus too.


The Russians spent $80,000 on Facebook ads. with half of it coming at the 2016 election. We are told that it is an END of the World type of problem.


The FBI spent 3.5 million versus the Russian 80,000.

But in Lib World 80,000 > 3,500,000 by a factor of a million zillion.

Anonymous said...

"Thus MSM accused really of being professional and acting that way."

And there is Extra Bad Shit taking a 2nd bite of the apple.


I bet Winton Smith's interrogators wished they had used the line

"We are being accused as acting professional"

War News Updates Editor said...

The Twitter story is not the first story to reveal to waht extent the FBI is influencing information.

We have on video Mark Zuckerberg telling Joe Rogan that he was visited by the FBI personally and told/warned to not permit the dissemination of certain news stories.

The legacy media ignored even that story.

Does that mean they were also acting professionally?

Thank God for independent media.

Anonymous said...

I'm getting software or something. 10:42 (10:45) has been here for 7 to 10 years. Yet someho2 their grammar and exposition have improved slightly. Their logic is still flawed and they are none the wiser, but their written word has improved slightly. given who they are, this is not very credible. Someone took over their account?

Anonymous said...

The Twitter files should have lead with Lee Fang's story from yesterday.

https://twitter.com/lhfang/status/1605292454261182464

"TWITTER FILES PART 8

*How Twitter Quietly Aided the Pentagon’s Covert Online PsyOp Campaign*"

The first 2-3 stories weren't very attention-catching and considered "old news" by many. Whereas #8 reveals a massive network of Pentagon bots being protected and assisted by Twitter execs.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the deniers are out in force, trying to ridicule anything and everyone who would dare question the Deep State.

Anonymous said...

^ Not to worry, I'm sure the Dems in congress will be having hearings to get to the bottom of this LMFAO

Anonymous said...

provide evidence other than what Twitter new owner claims..or his minions,
And if you do not know the difference between these two, you might, someday, find out:
1. You may have terminal cancer
2. You have terminal cancer

Anonymous said...

Executive Summary Of Jan. 6 Report Shows How Trump Ignored Advisers, Spread Election Lies

Anonymous said...

Elon Musk claims the FBI paid Twitter to 'censor info from the public.' Here's what the Twitter Files actually show
this show how the and why FBI paid money to Twitter.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Frederock. We's [sic] too stupid to figure it out, unless some leftist with a press pass from CNN, MSNBC or the NYT explains it to us simpletons.

Anonymous said...

So read through the CNN piece. It is written by Oliver Darcy and boy is it a doozy. So is his Twitter feed.

Darcy spends 4 paragraphs reciting Twitter collection policy and belly aching.

So if Twitter has to "censor" a story, it is company policy to collect. That is news? Over 30 years ago in classroom. we were told that it cost $25 dollars to touch (process) paperwork if it was routine. with inflation I do not think it takes 437 dollars to censor whatever the FBI is shoveling.

Then there is the question should it have been censored. Darcy never analyzes whether the stories should have been censored in the first place or if there was a wink wink nod nod between former FBI employees at Twitter and current FBI employees.

I can see why someone would like Oliver Darcy. The man does not have an education.