OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A new data dump by Twitter reveals that under previous management, the platform’s executives met often — at times, on a weekly basis — with federal agencies, including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, to flag stories as ‘misinformation’ and to limit the reach of other accounts and users during the 2020 election cycle.
The third installment of the so-called “Twitter Files” was released over a three-hour period by journalist Matt Taibbi, and while the dump contained some errors — referring to Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) as a “congresswoman” and Mike Huckabee as a former governor of Arizona instead of Arkansas, “much of the information that was released was stunning as it confirmed long held suspicions about things that were going on at the company, including the revelation that executives sometimes went against their own policies when determining to censor former President Donald Trump, as well as the fact that all the censorship appeared to come solely from the political Left and government entities and was aimed at the political Right,” the Daily Wire reported.
“The information released showed that Twitter had special Slack channels set up where they monitored Trump’s tweets and made rapid decisions about whether to censor the president or add warning labels to his tweets,” the report continued.
Much of the thread dealt with the platform’s decision to ban then-President Donald Trump, but there were also revelations that some government agencies, namely the FBI and DHS, were regularly in contact with Twitter officials:
Then-Twitter Policy Director Nick Pickles appeared to admit that the platform was meeting officials from the FBI and DHS regarding some of the actions that it was taking.
Yoel Roth, then-Twitter Global Head for Trust & Safety, confirmed in an internal message that he was meeting with the FBI, DHS, and Director of National Intelligence about election security and about the Hunter Biden laptop story. The DHS, FBI, and DOJ said during the election that the laptop story was not disinformation, which the former Director of National Intelligence confirmed to The Daily Wire on Friday night.
Exactly. https://t.co/ORUSozIuhG
— John Ratcliffe (@JohnRatcliffe) December 10, 2022
“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,” Taibbe noted.
“One particular slack channel offers an unique window into the evolving thinking of top officials in late 2020 and early 2021,” he continued. “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.
“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,” he noted.
At one point, Roth appeared to admit that he was having “weekly confabs with federal law enforcement,” Taibbi added.
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. pic.twitter.com/i771hD8aCD
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
He went on to note some tweets that the FBI flagged for Twitter around election security:
The FBI's second report concerned this tweet by @JohnBasham: pic.twitter.com/8J8j5GlUVx
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
There were also a number of times when Twitter employees sought to take action against some of Trump’s tweets, but the information contained in them was accurate, despite some statements about the outcome of the 2020 election.
Some screenshots shared by Taibbi indicated that Roth was happy with the enforcement action against Trump.
"VERY WELL DONE ON SPEED": the group is pleased the Trump tweet is dealt with quickly pic.twitter.com/WMyQjbWqNW
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
“Other internal documents showed that Twitter once again targeted conservative actor James Woods for posting a screenshot of a Trump tweet. The team decided to not hit Woods for that tweet, but they said they would hit hard in the future for a different violation if Woods broke a rule,” the Daily Wire added.
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.” pic.twitter.com/dusFylxAXS
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
