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@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
THREAD: If you're watching @TuckerCarlson and unfamiliar w the Biden administration's first of its kind National Strategy on Countering Domestic Terrorism and where it fits in the admin's broader War on Wrongthink, I've been covering this vital, disturbing topic for the last year
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
1/13/21: If you accede to the view that anything that challenges the prevailing progressive orthodoxy constitutes violence, then you will take any means necessary to snuff it out https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/13/democrats-are-using-the-recent-capitol-riot-to-consolidate-power/
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
2/11/21: Is the Biden administration planning to use the purported threat of "domestic violent extremism" (DVE) to justify a further crackdown on the First Amendment by Big Tech proxy? Yes. https://www.newsweek.com/will-free-speech-first-casualty-bidens-war-domestic-terror-opinion-1568088
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
2/15/21: Biden admin's planning to use full force of feds in pursuit of a new war. Its target? Americans. This countering DVE effort, declared in wake of Capitol riot, manifests media rhetoric about need to “deprogram,” “de-ba’athify,” drone Deplorables https://thefederalist.com/2021/02/15/bidens-domestic-war-on-terrorism-may-seek-to-criminalize-political-dissent/
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
3/31/21: illiberal efforts are accelerating and expanding in 2021—supercharged using pretext of Capitol Riot—reflected in Wokeification of military, muzzling of contrarian media and impending execution of a war on DVE that could sweep up half the country https://www.newsweek.com/why-big-tech-censored-our-podcast-touching-2020-election-irregularities-opinion-1579647
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
4/22/21: In Woke America we increasingly inhabit, opposing prog agenda is tantamount to bigotry. Dem's modus operandi is to play up purported bigotry as pretext to savage/smear pol foes, run roughshod over rights, usurp power in name of virtue, "equity" https://www.newsweek.com/covid-19-hate-crimes-bill-thought-crime-bill-opinion-1585568
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
5/21/21: J6 Cmte's part of a rolling effort to exploit disgraceful actions of several hundred to further narrative up to half US constitutes would-be or actual terrorists, justify pervasive use of Ruling Class power to pursue em, hang it around necks of Rs https://www.newsweek.com/january-6th-commission-wrongthink-inquisition-opinion-1593500
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
5/23/21: Ruling Class has invested in collapsing narrative—J6 represented murderous, armed insurrection, threatening US. Yet exploitation of event to marginalize/malign up to half US, in slew of efforts posing threat to liberty/justice, continues apace https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-capitol-riot-narrative-is-collapsing-but-its-political-exploitation-persists_3826065.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
6/30/21: Biden admin's Domestic Terror Strategy codifies fed War on Wrongthink. It makes imposition of Wokeism NatSec imperative, using public safety to justify leftist domination of public policy, discourse, enforcing regime's ideology at point of gov gun https://www.newsweek.com/biden-domestic-terror-strategy-codifies-woke-war-wrongthink-opinion-1605341
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
7/2/21: Claiming half US loathed by Ruling Class is bigoted isn't new, nor is fear-mongering belief people should vote in person, w ID, on election day is rooted in bigotry. But linking views re elections to not only bigotry, but terrorism, is novel https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-capitol-riot-narrative-is-collapsing-but-its-political-exploitation-persists_3826065.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
7/16/21: Biden remarks on "protecting the sacred, const right to vote" advocated for nothing of sort. He was at his demagogic worst, maligning those who'd ensure vote integrity. Disturbing rhetoric in context of Dom Terror Strategy makes it more sinister https://www.newsweek.com/biden-voting-rights-demagoguery-made-more-sinister-domestic-terror-plan-opinion-1610299
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
7/16/21: The demagoguery, manufactured hysteria of the Ruling Class, and the tyrannical lengths to which it believes it must go to impose its will—using civil rights-imperiling force and coercion rather than persuasion—betrays weakness and authoritarianism https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-ruling-class-poses-the-very-authoritarian-dangers-it-claimed-trump-did_3903950.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
7/23/21: Ruling Class effort to control info sphere—monopolize Narrative—has been underway for years. What's changed is it's now policy for relevant state & private-sector power centers to jointly eliminate dissent, under pretext of public health, NatSec https://www.newsweek.com/biden-big-tech-covid-censorship-collusion-tip-ruling-class-spear-opinion-1612355
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
10/8/21: Totalitarian regimes classify dissent as dom extremism and, under guise of public health/safety, hunt dissenters w NatSec apparatus. It defends ruling regime. This is increasingly America under Joe Biden, Ruling Class avatar https://www.newsweek.com/biden-regime-uses-domestic-extremism-impose-its-rule-opinion-1636417
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
10/11/21: It's no coincidence DOJ heeded NSBA call for Biden admin to target parents critical of CRT, COVID policies in schools by labeling 'em domestic terrorists and mobilizing DOJ/FBI against em. Strategy for Countering Dom Terror mandates it https://thefederalist.com/2021/10/11/biden-administration-parents-who-oppose-racism-are-domestic-terrorists/
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
1/3/22: 2021 closes as year of crackdown, when Ruling Class weaponized its powers to crush dissenters from Wokeist-Scientist orthodoxy in arguably most far-reaching, brazen, lawless assault on Americans by state and private-sector adjuncts in US history https://www.newsweek.com/2021-year-ruling-class-crackdown-dissent-opinion-1664757
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
1/6/22: J6 melodrama's part of info op by authoritarian Ruling Class to cast foes as threats to democracy (its power), use purported threat to justify whole-of-society crackdown on dissent. Ruling Class:dem as Fauci:Science. Neither may be challenged https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/06/democrats-cling-to-j6-mania-because-they-cant-appeal-to-facts-or-their-failed-policies/
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
1/25/22: While Biden admin fixates on smearing political opponents as dom terrorists and effectively silencing, targeting, pursuing them accordingly, bona fide terrorists, foreign adversaries, violent criminals have been greenlit to act with total impunity https://www.newsweek.com/woke-weak-biden-punishes-americans-emboldens-adversaries-opinion-1671921
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
2/17/22: In Biden's America, attempting to cancel Joe Rogan is counter-terror policy. This is bc for ruling class, those who question regime on any matter of consequence pose threats to homeland, as per DHS's threat bulletin on mis- dis- malinformation https://www.newsweek.com/americas-ruling-regime-doesnt-fear-disinformation-it-fears-truth-opinion-1679940
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
4/7/22: The chilling effort to destroy the lives of Trump-defending lawyers is part and parcel of the War on Wrongthink https://www.theepochtimes.com/chilling-effort-to-destroy-trump-lawyers-epitomizes-americas-war-on-wrongthink_4388006.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
4/27/22: The Biden administration's equity action plans make Wokeism vital to both U.S. national security and foreign policy--further codifying the War on Wrongthink https://www.newsweek.com/biden-equity-plans-make-wokeism-core-us-national-security-opinion-1700866
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
5/12/22: The truth about the Biden administration's Disinformation Czar is exposed--revealing her to be the perfect representative of the anti-Wrongthink regime https://nypost.com/2022/05/12/you-couldnt-have-picked-a-worse-minister-of-truth-than-nina-jankowicz/
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
6/6/22: The contrast in the cases of Michael Sussmann and Peter Navarro sends an unmistakeable message: The Ruling Class believes it can take out anyone, anywhere, anytime, on any grounds, while it is untouchable https://thefederalist.com/2022/06/06/justice-for-me-but-not-for-thee-why-sussmann-walked-but-navarro-was-shackled/
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
6/7/22: Big Tech censors Jan. 6 journalism on heels of Committee show trial, reinforcing the point Wrongthink on elections constitutes a danger, and cementing Big Tech’s role as deputized Deep State info warrior https://nypost.com/2022/06/07/youtube-now-censoring-journalism-for-the-biden-administration/amp/
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
6/10/22: The Jan. 6 Committee may be a sham, but it's a deathly serious one because it casts political opposition as terroristic, and seeks to probe and punish said opposition accordingly--hand-in-glove with the Department of Justice https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-jan-6-committee-may-be-a-sham-but-its-a-deathly-serious-one_4525373.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
6/20/22: Disinformation Governance Board, contrary to claims of DHS Sec. Mayorkas, was focused on domestic dissent on the most contentious of issues--namely election integrity and the Chinese coronavirus--and sought to deputize Big Tech as speech police https://www.newsweek.com/documents-show-dhs-wants-deputize-big-tech-speech-police-opinion-1716670
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
6/21/22: Other side of War on Wrongthink coin is that while Wrongthinkers are treated as terrorists, progressives engaged in political violence aligned with The Regime are treated with kid gloves. Justice = soft on prog crime, hard on thought crime https://www.theepochtimes.com/lefts-leniency-on-its-political-violence-demonstrates-its-devotion-to-injustice_4547996.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
8/8/22: War on Wrongthink crosses a new civilizational Rubicon, with the FBI raiding Mar-a-Lago. https://www.newsweek.com/fbis-mar-lago-raid-presents-time-choosing-regime-america-opinion-1731983
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
8/17/22: The Regime uses the Mar-a-Lago raid--an escalation in the War on Wrongthink--to further intensify it by casting itself as victim of the gambit rather than the aggressor, using victimhood status to persecute political opponents ever more viciously https://thefederalist.com/2022/08/17/in-its-war-on-trump-and-wrongthink-the-regime-just-delivered-a-death-blow-to-rule-of-law/
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
8/22/22: Your Deep State, aided by its corporate media communications arm, would like you to know that its rank corruption, brazen intimidation, and chilling weaponization on behalf of our ruling administration aren’t the real danger to America. You are. https://www.theepochtimes.com/deep-state-plays-victim-in-mar-a-lago-raid-so-administration-can-keep-persecuting-wrongthinkers_4672503.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
9/23/22: We learned that the FBI rewarded serial Russian disinformation-spinner Igor Danchenko -- the key researcher behind the key document (the Steele dossier) behind the key effort to undermine candidate, and then topple President @realDonaldTrump (Russiagate), while it was punishing whistleblowing Special Agent @RealStevefriend for detailing myriad allegations of FBI malfeasance around January 6 https://newsweek.com/fbi-paid-russian-disinformation-while-punishing-patriot-opinion-1745574
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
10/11/22: The Woke medical establishment not only seeks to encourage interventions up to the mutilation of children's' bodies, but with it the mutilation of Americans' free speech rights in service of its lucrative "gender-affirming care" enterprise by calling on AG Garland to unleash the DOJ on foes of efforts to transition children https://newsweek.com/medical-establishment-wants-less-free-speech-more-mutilated-children-opinion-1750204
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
10/17/22: PayPal's proposed policy to fine "misinformation" promoters up to $2,500 per violation raises the specter of dystopia: a de-banked future—driven by de facto social credit scoring—that is quickly becoming our present https://www.newsweek.com/paypal-americas-pending-social-credit-system-opinion-1752074
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
10/27/22: Do Americans want the DOJ demanding they cooperate with free speech-stifling, unbelievably extensive fishing expeditions if they dare support policies with which the president disagrees? That prospect was put to the test in an Alabama courtroom. In a rare rebuke, a federal judge smacked down the DOJ for targeting conservative nonprofit Eagle Forum of Alabama with a stunning subpoena — punishing the wrongthinker on gender ideology by process and sending a chilling message to other dissenters from regime orthodoxy https://nypost.com/2022/10/27/bidens-doj-finally-got-a-legal-slapdown-for-targeting-a-group-opposed-to-mutilating-kids/
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
11/9/22: New revelations about America's speech police forces illustrate the massive challenges facing anyone who would dare seek to rein in a rotted national security and intelligence apparatus hellbent on pursuing Wrongthinkers under the guise of "mis-, dis-, and mal-information" https://theepochtimes.com/new-revelations-about-americas-speech-police-illustrate-challenges-for-reformers-of-deep-state_4850771.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
11/25/22: The Democrats kicked off their 2024 presidential campaign by appointing a special counsel to pursue Donald Trump, an escalation in their political prosecution of him and a brazen act of election interference. This is where “our democracy” stands today: with its purported defenders engaging in the singularly anti-democratic act of siccing a hyper-politicized law enforcement apparatus on a candidate for the highest elected office, on dubious grounds, thereby subverting the political process by which we decide who represents us. https://theepochtimes.com/appointment-of-special-counsel-amounts-to-election-interference-and-sets-dangerous-precedent_4884195.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
12/9/22: The Twitter Files shine a spotlight on the revolving door between the Democrat-partnered Deep State and Democrat-dominated Big Tech -- which have used their disproportionate control over the pivotal area of speech to stifle political foes and attain ideological dominance https://nypost.com/2022/12/09/inside-revolving-door-between-democrat-deep-state-and-big-tech/
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
12/25/22: The Twitter Files have provided stunning confirmation of a Deep State-Big Tech conspiracy to censor ideas and individuals deemed harmful to their shared ends — from protecting Joe Biden’s candidacy for president to draconian COVID-19 lockdowns — under the pretext of national security or public health. But Twitter was far from the only platform with the motive and means to purge dissenting voices from establishment orthodoxy. Nor was it the only such platform with a “Trust and Safety” (read: “censorship”) team helmed by former US intelligence officials, which met regularly with their former security-state employers to combat “misinformation” in the run-up to the 2020 election. https://nypost.com/2022/12/25/revelations-about-twitter-intel-ties-raise-questions-about-big-tech-other-sites/
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
12/26/22: With its "move along, nothing to see here" response to the Twitter Files, the FBI gaslights the American people over the stunning—if unsurprising—evidence that it engaged in a conspiracy with Big Tech to silence Wrongthinkers in violation of the First Amendment. Meanwhile, in attacking those who refuse to be gaslit, the bureau is also telegraphing that it would respond to Congress investigating its hyper-politicization and weaponization with relentless information warfare. https://newsweek.com/fbi-gaslights-america-over-twitter-files-opinion-1769352
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
1/4/23: As stunning as the Twitter Files have proven in revealing a largely successful bid by the U.S. national security apparatus to manipulate public opinion at a mass scale by imposing a censorship regime on social media platforms, they are merely the tip of the iceberg for why the @Weaponization is needed. Consider this—by no means comprehensive—list of the many areas ripe for investigation: The national security apparatus' alleged inflation of the domestic violent extremist threat—under which they have effectively sought to equate "MAGA" with "terrorist." FBI's suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop and seeming unwillingness to pursue related probes, including into how the president might be implicated in corrupt foreign influence-peddling with our worst adversaries—while pursuing, along with the Justice Department (DOJ), the likes of James O'Keefe and Project Veritas over Ashley Biden's diary. The DOJ's pursuit of parents critical of draconian COVID-19 policies and Critical Race Theory. DOJ/FBI's targeting of pro-lifers while treating their attackers with kid gloves. FBI's alleged purging of conservative employees. DHS' attempted creation of a Disinformation Governance Board and broader persisting effort across agencies to police "mis-, dis-, and mal-information." FBI's deploying of entrapment schemes and use of confidential informants. DOJ/FBI's double standard in the pursuit of January 6 defendants versus summer 2020 Black Lives Matter rioters. The Mar-a-Lago raid. DOJ/FBI's hyper-political pursuit of Republican members of Congress, state legislators, and numerous others in connection with January 6. And then there is Russiagate itself and its subsidiary scandals, from the mass of illegal leaks to FISA abuse, the hyper-political prosecution of Michael Flynn and others, the Mueller special counsel's politicization, and recent revelations that the Department of Justice was snooping on congressional investigators. The targeting of Donald Trump and his allies, and the comparative non-pursuit of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and numerous other powerful left-leaning figures alone could fill years' worth of hearings. https://newsweek.com/twitter-files-tip-iceberg-needed-church-style-committee-opinion-1770948
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
1/9/23: We hear a lot about the illiberalism that prevails on college campuses and increasingly pervades the "real world"—where Wrongthink is not only castigated and censored, but even criminalized. However, it's another thing entirely to witness it up close and personal. I had occasion to spend time among the silenced, shunned, and canceled of the academy. What they said—or in some cases, conveyed through their silence—was profoundly disturbing. The impression they left about the state of our disproportionately influential elite academic institutions, and therefore what is to come in the disproportionately influential economic, cultural, and political institutions where their students will matriculate, is perhaps even more profoundly disturbing. https://newsweek.com/my-visit-silenced-shunned-canceled-academy-opinion-1772062
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
1/17/23: With the establishment of a Church-style @Weaponization committee, Congress now has a vital opportunity to hold America’s national security and law enforcement apparatus to account for its corrupt and lawless targeting of perceived political foes. The House Judiciary subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, will be fully empowered to investigate the deep state’s depredations across the entirety of the executive branch, covering the full panoply of assaults on our civil liberties, and to take steps to prevent it from ever inflicting such damage on our republic again. Given the massive scope of the already-known security state scandals, the stakes involved in putting said security state on trial, and the counterassault against the committee already underway, it is imperative that the panel operate in a highly strategic fashion to seize the critical opportunity at hand. To that end, its planners should give considerable thought to the following questions upfront. https://thefederalist.com/2023/01/17/for-the-sake-of-the-republic-the-church-style-weaponization-committee-must-answer-these-questions/
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
2/14/23: Almost daily now, Americans see new evidence of a mass, public-private censorship regime—part and parcel of something resembling an American social credit system in which those who submit to ruling class orthodoxy are rewarded, and those who run afoul of it are railroaded. So when news broke recently that DirecTV was booting center-right network Newsmax, the fourth highest-rated cable news channel, from its lineup, the question naturally arose: Was this about politics, or was it strictly business? A deeper question also beckons: To what extent has politics so pervaded every facet of American life that a distinction can even be drawn between the two? https://theepochtimes.com/newsmax-versus-directv-and-americas-censorship-regime_5052006.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
3/6/23: The release of J6 footage via @TuckerCarlson elicits Ruling Class rage. Why? They can't handle your handling of the truth. That's the dirty secret behind their outrage over House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) decision to fulfill a commitment to release the 44,000 hours of January 6 footage the U.S. Capitol Police had been sitting on. The purpose of the release of the footage should be obvious: Americans deserve to know the unvarnished truth about the Capitol breach—an event that has been used to justify the Left's sprawling, civil liberties-eviscerating War on Wrongthink. https://newsweek.com/mccarthys-release-january-6-footage-offers-hope-clarity-opinion-1785550
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
3/14/23: .@Weaponization releases a stunning but unsurprising report on the FTC's targeting of @elonmusk over his purchase of Twitter and whistleblowing about its prior First Amendment-eviscerating coordination with the federal government https://www.theepochtimes.com/deep-administrative-state-depredations-exposed-in-ftc-investigation-of-musk_5118738.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
3/29/23: America's Ruling Class has stoked a moral panic over mis-, dis-, and mal-information (MDM), claiming the consumption of such content fuels threats to public health and safety among its political foes, and using the fear over such threats to justify a whole-of-society War on Wrongthink targeting said foes. An essential component of the Ruling Class's War on Wrongthink is the mass public-private censorship regime that Americans have had imposed upon us primarily by a Disinformation-Industrial Complex running from the Deep State to Big Tech to often government-tied MDM monitors. Now, it would appear the already sprawling Disinformation-Industrial Complex may be creeping into and coming to encompass your local elementary school—targeting your children. https://newsweek.com/disinformation-industrial-complex-coming-k-12-schools-opinion-1790694
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
3/29/23: In wake of collapse of SVB, and with authorities rushing to intervene and calm financial markets, a perhaps unexpected subplot emerged. On a Zoom call consisting of congressmen, their staffers, and officials representing the Federal Reserve, Treasury, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on the Sunday in which the agencies would publicly announce their “non-bailout” bailout of SVB – Democrat Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona raised a question. According to House Republican colleague @RepThomasMassie, Kelly asked agency officials “if there was a program underway on social media to censor information that would lead to a bank run.” Massie told @ShellenbergerMD that: I believe he [Sen. Kelly] couched it [the censorship inquiry] in a concern that foreign actors would be doing this…but he didn’t suggest the censorship should be limited to foreigners or to things that were untrue. The people from the three agencies couldn’t answer him and just sort of took a pass on the question. Sen. Kelly would clarify that on the Zoom call I said, ‘Hey, our foreign adversaries out there may have an interest in trying to undermine our banking system. Have we put in any protections, have we reached out to social media companies to see if this is something they’re thinking about?’ So that’s the question I asked. Accounts suggest Senator Kelly’s “ask” was more prescriptive. Regardless, in another time such a proposition might have been inconceivable. Rumor and innuendo have proliferated in financial markets – as in every other area of human life concerning contentious and substantive issues, particularly those involving power and influence – since time immemorial. But we are living in no ordinary time. Sen. Kelly’s position is consistent with the zeitgeist – with what is fast becoming our censorious new normal in which anything and everything that could be perceived to be “harmful” is ripe for silencing. That new normal was on display days earlier, when Shellenberger and fellow disaffected liberal journalist @mtaibbi delivered bombshell testimony before @Weaponization concerning the “Twitter Files.” The Twitter Files brought into stark relief one of the great scandals in U.S. history: that America’s Ruling Class erected a mass public-private censorship regime to wage war on dissenters from its orthodoxy, part and parcel of a broader domestic War on Wrongthink. Central to the censorship regime is what Shellenberger and Taibbi term the “Censorship Industrial Complex.” The focus of their testimony, a new installment of the Twitter Files released alongside it, and much that we have learned from prior installments and court cases demonstrates that for years now we have been operating in an information environment rife with government interference – interference in our elections and concerning our basic functioning as a society given the pervasive Chinese coronavirus-related interventions. To save “our democracy,” the national security apparatus and its administrative state partners, alongside Big Tech, corporate media, and a coterie of research organizations, “fact-checkers,” and NGOs – themselves often times government-funded and staffed with ex-government officials – have conspired to suppress ideas that challenge their own and silence the individuals who dare to espouse them. Like all good tyrannies, this one claims to do so for the benefit of its victims – to maintain public health and public safety, “defending democracy” by perversely adopting the authoritarian tactic of quashing free and open discourse. As a subsequent Twitter File release would reveal, our betters in fact went so far as to quash free and open discourse on accepted truths regarding the Chinese coronavirus when those truths undermined their favored narratives. If we are to overcome this censorship regime – an imperative if we are to live as a free people – it is critical to understand why it arose and how it has been institutionalized. https://docemetproductions.com/americas-disinformation-dystopia/
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
3/31/23: @mtaibbi speaks to @Weaponization, a subcommittee created for the purpose of exposing and holding to account weaponized federal agencies, about how a number of those agencies had conspired with each other and private sector actors to target their political opposition in arguable violation of the opposition’s First Amendment rights. That very day, a federal agency with the power to wreak unique havoc on its targets' lives dispatched an official to Taibbi’s door with a message. The stated message was that the journalist was to call the IRS. The unstated message needed no articulating: Expose federal government malfeasance such as authorities’ imposing of a mass public-private censorship regime on the American people, and you can expect a knock at your door from federal agents armed with the power to break you. https://theepochtimes.com/the-ominous-message-behind-the-taxmans-visit-to-journalist-matt-taibbis-home_5160626.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
4/3/23: DA Alvin Bragg brings a wholly contrived, baseless, unprecedented, abomination of a case against @realDonaldTrump that every other Trump-hating authority declined to bring. It’s an outrageous assault on the rule of law that “normalizes” the other bastardized cases likely to come from Georgia to Washington, D.C. in the perpetual coup against Trump and anyone else who dares to engage in the actual (thought)crime core to every Trump-related case: opposing our ruling elites. The indictment can never be undone. A precedent has been set: America, like every other tinpot dictatorship, now legally persecutes leaders when out of power. Its rulers, Beria-like, seek to lock the opposition in jail, to criminalize dissent by finding a crime to fit the man. Now, as another New York prosecution just showed, our ruling class not only pursues presidents but wins cases convicting political meme-makers. For generations, millions fled their ancestral homelands, penniless, and without knowing a word of English, to come to America in search of refuge from the very kind of regime ours has now become. There is nowhere else to flee. In attempting to destroy one man, our ruling elites have not only eviscerated the rule of law for us all, but also fundamentally transformed America into a Third World nation, and therefore fundamentally transformed the Western civilization that America has led. This is a world-historical calamity from which there’s no going back. And there’s no remedy. https://theepochtimes.com/trump-indictment-fundamentally-transforms-america-to-third-world-nation_5168510.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
4/7/23: Revelations from Missouri and Louisiana et al. v. Biden demonstrate that Americans have been funding their own censorship via a government-led Disinformation-Industrial Complex -- a censorship regime the government seems to be covering up https://www.newsweek.com/taxpayer-dollars-must-not-fund-government-led-censorship-regime-opinion-1792828
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
4/18/23: @Weaponization report shows Biden DOJ baselessly targeted parents concerned about their kids being indoctrinated in leftism in public schools as domestic terrorists. Zero investigations resulted in federal arrests or charges https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-biden-administrations-war-on-parents_5195934.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
4/19/23: In their targeting of all from political memesters to parents and pious Catholics, the authorities have criminalized dissent, systematically eroding the First Amendment. There are literal thought criminals now https://www.theepochtimes.com/with-dissent-now-criminalized-free-speech-faces-a-big-chill_5204836.html
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
🧵 1/ Rulers of Public Discourse: On February 8, former Twitter excts were called to testify before members of the Congress’s Oversight Committee regarding the #TwitterFiles. A review of the hearing and the dramatic recent legal developments of internet governance >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
2/ Before I get to Congress - let's set a frame for this discussion: ‘The Control of Content’- who and how should control the content of the public discourse, should there be such control at all? - this question has been sharpened during the unprecedented Covid censorship >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
3/ In these years, the social networks went through an accelerated process from careful and very reserved control of how positions and opinions are expressed (censorship of incitement and calls for violence) to aggressive and shameless control of the positions themselves >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
4/ eventually creating a centrally coerced truth and false that allowed those in control of the content to determine WHAT is allowed to be said or expressed - leading the public discourse into a fake “consensus”. >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
5/ I have been following this process very closely, first on Facebook - where the censorship rules changed blatantly and quickly, then on Twitter after the unprecedented and unreasonable action of suspending the account of a sitting president - Trump >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
6/ I’ve been researching Internet law in recent years and I followed closely and with great concern the rapid and dramatic changes in the private governance policy of social networks. During the Covid years I noticed a very clear change in their governance policy >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
7/ It became clearer and clearer that the social networks are no longer managed in a way that preserves and protects the liberties of their users from governments and other seekers of this content control - but - >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
8/ Never have I imagined how close and routine their relationship with the government administration was, all for the purpose of monitoring the individual, censoring the discourse into a uniform narrative and using the networks as a GLOBAL and "private" platform - >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
9/ to create a covert global content control that governments were NOT (then) allowed to carry out within the framework of the constitutions and the brakes applied to them to protect basic rights and important democratic principles. So this was a constitutional bypass. >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
10/Simply put: the public sector has let the private corporations be the free "liberator" of democracy- so that we all depend on it for the maintenance of discourse- and thus the liberator can become an effective prison, to be then used- by those government agencies. >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
11/ The complexity of the issue of monitoring/regulating/controlling the discourse has always been around the dilemma - how do we do no harm? How do you do it solely to keep this space as authentic and safe and not to select and filter preferred opinions and silence others, >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
12/ and also - who can actually be the person that will have this enormous power and not abuse it? who will monitor this person against misuse of power? - Do we prefer private governance or public governance? Or maybe non at all? >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
13/ This increased censorship policy on social networks and the absolute abuse of power came into light with the reveal of #TwitterFiles and the public debate that followed (following this also- the recent events that happened in the @Project_Veritas - see attached tweet) >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
14/ Back to the US Congress’s Oversight Committee’s hearing regarding the #TwitterFiles 4 ex Twitter employees, invited to testify: Jim Baker, Vijaya Gadde, Yoel Roth, Anika Collier Navaroli Who are they? >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
15/ Jim Baker- fmr FBI lawyer,served as Twitter Deputy General Counsel Vijaya Gadde- an attorney, former general counsel & Head of legal, policy, and trust at Twitter. Yoel Roth- former Global Head of Trust & Safety at Twitter. Anika Collier Navaroli- Twitter Whistleblower >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
16/ The hearing was titled ”Protecting Speech from Government Interference and Social Media Bias, Part 1: Twitter’s Role in Suppressing the Biden Laptop Story.” It was set up for a discussion on the censorship case of Biden Jr.’s computer, but - >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
17/ Inevitably it dealt with the censorship on Twitter in general, including the censorship of scientists, doctors, politicians - and thus a broader picture of control of content and public discourse was revealed. Let’s review the hearing first >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
18/ Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) argued that the entire discussion is a misuse of public resources, But imagine she was censored for that argument- across all social platforms, is it still a waste of time do discuss the abuse of censorship powers? The hearing begins >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
19/ Here are the claims against former these ex Twitter employees - @RepClayHiggins: Claim #1 Content governance interfered with the 2020 US presidential elections, knowingly and willingly. Higgins announces his intention to collect evidence from them leading to arrests >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
20/ @laurenboebert: Claim #2 - Twitter governance silenced Members of Congress from communicating with their constituents, in this case with “an aggressive visibility filter” (shadow ban) because of one tweet on Hilarity Clinton “Who the hell do you think that you are?” >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
21/ To complete the picture, this is the tweet that got @laurenboebert shadow banned: >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
22/ @RepMTG : Claim #3 - Twitter Content governance censored congress members’s tweets - with critical views on vaccines, masks, etc.- but pedophile accounts were not taken down or censored: >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
23/ @RepJamesComer - Claim #4: Twitter previously lied to Congress. And - “Twitter under the leadership of our witnesses today was a private company the federal government used to accomplish what it constitutionally cannot — limit the free exercise of speech”
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
24/ @RepNancyMace : Claim #5 - Twitter Content governance also censored and silenced an important, substantive and professional criticism of government Covid policy - and cost lives: >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
25/ Here @DrJBhattacharya explains how he found out he was "blacklisted" on Twitter from the first day he entered the platform: >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
26/ Freedom of speech is protected under the 1st amendment of the US constitution, so, How could Twitter (and other platforms) do all that and get away with it? Are they really more powerful than everyone else? Who in Twitter has that power? Well, >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
27/ Let’s go back to Jim Baker for a second. Baker claimed in the hearing that he ‘did not act unlawfully or otherwise inappropriately with respect to the Biden laptop’ affair (an affair which the members refer to as criminal interference in the US elections) >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
28/ “I’ve acted in a way consistent with the First Amendment. As a private entity, The First Amendment protects Twitter and its content moderation decision.” Says Baker, a former FBI lawyer, that served as Twitter Deputy General Counsel >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
29/⚖️ This absurd argument of using the freedom of speech amendment to allow private corporations to censor speech- is argued now by NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (which both represent Facebook, Google, Twitter) in recent legal developments. >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
30/ The representative groups say the First Amendment prohibits viewpoint-based laws that restrict websites’ editorial choices. 👉🏻 The federal court wasn’t convinced when ruling in the case of the anti-censorship new Lee in Texas: https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/21/21-51178-CV1.pdf >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
31/ This interesting legal issue arose when two states (Texas, Florida) enacted anti-censorship laws that prevent platforms from filtering content - following the suspension of Trump's Twitter account and other censorship events. This issue was brought to the Supreme Court. >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
32/ Two other cases were recently brought to the Supreme Court the question whether platforms should have a complete immunity from publishers responsibility to published content and/or to censorship of content, as a non-publisher under section 230 to the DCA
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
33/ So, on one hand the platform seek constitutional protection as a private editor of speech, and on the other hand - they seek ‘complete immunity from liability’ under Section 230 to the DCA (1996) - as a “non publisher” >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
34/ But it gets worse. The private censor did not act with independent judgment but in coordination and conspiring with government agencies - against citizens. >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
35/ On February 1 - @RepDanBishop explained how government agencies have used Twitter to spy on US citizens. ‘Bad enough if it was just the FBI but it was also intelligence agencies that should be directing their attention abroad’ based on the #TwitterFiles >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
36/ On the February 8 hearing- 🚨 @RepLuna exposes 👉🏻 Jira a private cloud server that used Twitter to secretly communicate with the government >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
37/ “The law allows governments to have complex, multi-faceted relationships with the private sector. When done properly, these interactions can be of interest to the company and the general interest of the public.” Says Baker on the February 8th hearing: >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
38/ Was Twitter really a private company (Dr facto)? It is a vital and complicated question- whether a private company can censor the public discourse in such manner (I’ll get back to that) but can Twitter still argue the private company protection? >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
39/ Let’s go back to Jim Baker - FBI lawyer that served as Twitter Deputy General Counsel - who is he? And is this just anecdotal? >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
40/ Was Baker the only Twitter employee who previously worked for the FBI? - Apparently there were many. Here’s a review: What can we conclude from that? >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
41/ Can there really be a private censor with such power? Can it stay independent as a private entity, free from governments? We saw on the #TwitterFiles that the government agencies used the private sector as a shield from the constitution. Can we stop this from happening? >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
42/ Maybe the problem is the excessive power that those entities (private and public) have when they conspire TOGETHER? Listen to this clip from a follow up discussion on the #TwitterFiles and the dangerous relationship between the private platforms and the administration >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
43/ Can there really be a “Safe & Effective” separation between the private sector power and the public sector power? Listen👇🏻 >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
44/ The SECRET relationship between Twitter executives and the government administration and agencies led to them being high on power >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
46/ #TwitterFiles uncovered that Biden Admin officials colluded with Big Tech companies to silence differing opinions during the pandemic. But also - the dangerous potential in such power and in internet content moderation in general >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
47/ Did those particular people fail or did the whole mechanism fail? Is it possible for the public to find out and judge the content completely on its own? And if not, is there a mechanism less at risk of abuse of power? >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
48/ ⚖️ The U.S. Supreme Court will have to decide soon on the boundaries of this complicated issue that affects our lives to the core. The court recently delayed its decision and asked the Biden administration for its views on the controversial laws in the meantime. >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
49/ If the court takes the cases up, it likely won’t be until the next term, and a decision wouldn’t come until 2024, which coincides with the next presidential election. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2023/01/24/supreme-court-delays-decision-on-hearing-texas--florida-social-media-moderation-cases >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
50/ 👉🏻 The Supreme Court’s move came as new Twitter owner Elon Musk has granted “amnesty” to many suspended accounts, including Trump’s. Could this be the reason for restoring those accounts? Prevention of a problematic ruling? Or is it simply to make us depend on it again? >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
51/ ⚖️ On February 21, 2023 there will be a hearing at the US Supreme Court in the case of the lawsuit filed by the Gonzalez family against Google, which will examine the protections granted to networks under Article 230. https://www.reuters.com/legal/supreme-court-scrutinize-us-protections-social-media-2022-10-03/ >
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@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
52/ 🇩🇪 Meanwhile, in December 2022 - a German court ruled that Twitter should remove offensive tweets •BEFORE• they are reported - That means they have an even greater responsibility, for active censorship > https://t.co/dxQCjjERDB
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
53/ Another thing is happening at the same time - Google's search engine is exercising ׳preventive control׳ over the contents in advance )like a vaccine 😂) This is how it looks like to cultivate habits of chilling discourse and self-censorship. > https://t.co/Gx9DFwVMBP
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
54/ 🇮🇱 Last but not least- Israel’s internet governance The Ministry of Communications recently adopts the recommendations of the committee for regulating the social networks operating in Israel. >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
55/ The main recommendations of the committee: applying regulation to platforms with over 500,000 active users in Israel (5% of the country's population), determining legal responsibility of the platform operators in relation to clearly offensive illegal content >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
56/ requiring the platforms to operate an online HOTLINE for reporting illegal and offensive content and handling In these reports, the duty of transparency and more. >
@GalG____ - Gal.G, Adv 🇮🇱
57/ It would’ve sounded wonderful if it hadn’t come at the end of a tsunami of legislation that seriously harms individual freedoms and especially their privacy, in the post-Covid era, And if we weren't painfully aware now of the dangers of having “discourse rulers”
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
1. TWITTER FILES: Statement to Congress THE CENSORSHIP-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
2. “MONITOR ALL TWEETS COMING FROM TRUMP’S PERSONAL ACCOUNT/BIDEN’S PERSONAL ACCOUNT” When #TwitterFiles reporters were given access to Twitter internal documents last year, we first focused on the company, which at times acted like a power above government.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
3. But Twitter was more like a partner to government. With other tech firms it held a regular “industry meeting” with FBI and DHS, and developed a formal system for receiving thousands of content reports from every corner of government: HHS, Treasury, NSA, even local police:
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
4. Emails from the FBI, DHS and other agencies often came with spreadsheets of hundreds or thousands of account names for review. Often, these would be deleted soon after.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
5. Many were obvious “misinformation,” like accounts urging people to vote the day after an election. But other official "disinfo" reports had shakier reasoning. The highlighted Twitter analysis here disagrees with the FBI about accounts deemed a “proxy of Russian actors":
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
6. Then we saw "disinfo" lists where evidence was even less clear. This list of 378 “Iranian State Linked Accounts” includes an Iraq vet once arrested for blogging about the war, a former Chicago Sun-Times reporter and Truthout, a site that publishes Noam Chomsky.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
7. In some cases, state reports didn’t even assert misinformation. Here, a list of YouTube videos is flagged for “anti-Ukraine narratives”:
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
8. But the bulk of censorship requests didn’t come from government directly.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
9. Asked if Twitter’s marketing department could say the company detects “misinfo” with help of “outside experts,” a Twitter executive replied:
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
10. We came to think of this grouping – state agencies like DHS, FBI, or the Global Engagement Center (GEC), along with “NGOs that aren’t academic” and an unexpectedly aggressive partner, commercial news media – as the Censorship-Industrial Complex.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
11. Who’s in the Censorship-Industrial Complex? Twitter in 2020 helpfully compiled a list for a working group set up in 2020. The National Endowment for Democracy, the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab, and Hamilton 68’s creator, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, are key:
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
12. Twitter execs weren’t sure about Clemson’s Media Forensics Lab (“too chummy with HPSCI”), and weren’t keen on the Rand Corporation (“too close to USDOD”), but others were deemed just right.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
13. NGOs ideally serve as a check on corporations and the government. Not long ago, most of these institutions viewed themselves that way. Now, intel officials, “researchers,” and executives at firms like Twitter are effectively one team - or Signal group, as it were:
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
14. The Woodstock of the Censorship-Industrial Complex came when the Aspen Institute - which receives millions a year from both the State Department and USAID - held a star-studded confab in Aspen in August 2021 to release its final report on “Information Disorder.”
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
15. The report was co-authored by Katie Couric and Chris Krebs, the founder of the DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Yoel Roth of Twitter and Nathaniel Gleicher of Facebook were technical advisors. Prince Harry joined Couric as a Commissioner.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
16. Their taxpayer-backed conclusions: the state should have total access to data to make searching speech easier, speech offenders should be put in a “holding area," and government should probably restrict disinformation, “even if it means losing some freedom.”
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
17. Note Aspen recommended the power to mandate data disclosure be given to the FTC, which this committee just caught in a clear abuse of office, demanding information from Twitter about communications with (and identities of) #TwitterFiles reporters. https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/Weaponization_Select_Subcommittee_Report_on_FTC_Harrassment_of_Twitter_3.7.2023.pdf
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
18. Naturally Twitter’s main concern regarding the Aspen report was making sure Facebook got hit harder by any resulting regulatory changes:
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
19. The same agencies (FBI, DHS/CISA, GEC) invite the same “experts” (Thomas Rid, Alex Stamos), funded by the same foundations (Newmark, Omidyar, Knight) trailed by the same reporters (Margaret Sullivan, Molly McKew, Brandy Zadrozny) seemingly to every conference, every panel.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
20. The #TwitterFiles show the principals of this incestuous self-appointed truth squad moving from law enforcement/intelligence to the private sector and back, claiming a special right to do what they say is bad practice for everyone else: be fact-checked only by themselves.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
21.While Twitter sometimes pushed back on technical analyses from NGOs about who is and isn't a “bot,” on subject matter questions like vaccines or elections they instantly defer to sites like Politifact, funded by the same names that fund the NGOs: Koch, Newmark, Knight.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
22. #TwitterFiles repeatedly show media acting as proxy for NGOs, with Twitter bracing for bad headlines if they don't nix accounts. Here, the Financial Times gives Twitter until end of day to provide a “steer” on whether RFK, Jr. and other vax offenders will be zapped.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
23. Well, you say, so what? Why shouldn’t civil society organizations and reporters work together to boycott “misinformation”? Isn’t that not just an exercise of free speech, but a particularly enlightened form of it?
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
24. The difference is, these campaigns are taxpayer-funded. Though the state is supposed to stay out domestic propaganda, the Aspen Institute, Graphika, the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab, New America, and other “anti-disinformation” labs are receiving huge public awards.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
25. Some NGOs, like the GEC-funded Global Disinformation Index or the DOD-funded Newsguard, not only seek content moderation but apply subjective “risk” or “reliability” scores to media outlets, which can result in reduction in revenue. Do we want government in this role?
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
26. Perhaps the ultimate example of the absolute fusion of state, corporate, and civil society organizations is the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), whose “Election Integrity Partnership” is among the most voluminous “flaggers” in the #TwitterFiles:
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
27. After public uproar “paused” the Orwellian “Disinformation Governance Board” of the DHS in early 2020, Stanford created the EIP to “fill the gaps” legally, as director Alex Stamos explains here (h/t Foundation for Freedom Online). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbF2UXKV1q8
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
28. EIP research manager Renee DiResta boasted that while filling “gaps," the EIP succeeded in getting “tech partners” Google, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter to take action on “35% of the URLS flagged” under “remove, reduce, or inform” policies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtcK59lfjrU
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
29. According to the EIP’s own data, it succeeded in getting nearly 22 million tweets labeled in the runup to the 2020 vote.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
30. It’s crucial to reiterate: EIP was partnered with state entities like CISA and GEC while seeking elimination of millions of tweets. In the #TwitterFiles, Twitter execs did not distinguish between organizations, using phrases like “According to CIS[A], escalated via EIP.”
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
31. After the 2020 election, when EIP was renamed the Virality Project, the Stanford lab was on-boarded to Twitter’s JIRA ticketing system, absorbing this government proxy into Twitter infrastructure – with a capability of taking in an incredible 50 million tweets a day.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
32. In one remarkable email, the Virality Project recommends that multiple platforms take action even against “stories of true vaccine side effects” and “true posts which could fuel hesitancy.” None of the leaders of this effort to police Covid speech had health expertise.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
33. This is the Censorship-Industrial Complex at its essence: a bureaucracy willing to sacrifice factual truth in service of broader narrative objectives. It’s the opposite of what a free press does.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
34. Profiles portray DiResta as a warrior against Russian bots and misinformation, but reporters never inquire about work with DARPA, GEC, and other agencies. In the video below from @MikeBenzCyber, Stamos introduces her as having "worked for the CIA": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsooGvgLh7U
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
35. DiResta has become the public face of the Censorship-Industrial Complex, a name promoted everywhere as an unquestioned authority on truth, fact, and Internet hygiene, even though her former firm, New Knowledge, has been embroiled in two major disinformation scandals.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
36. This, ultimately, is the most serious problem with the Censorship-Industrial Complex. Packaged as a bulwark against lies and falsehood, it is itself often a major source of disinformation, with American taxpayers funding their own estrangement from reality.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
37. DiResta’s New Knowledge helped design the Hamilton 68 project exposed in the #TwitterFiles. Although it claimed to track “Russian influence,” Hamilton really followed Americans like “Ultra Maga Dog Mom,” “Right2Liberty,” even a British rugby player named Rod Bishop:
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
38. Told he was put on the Hamilton list of suspected “Russian influence” accounts, Bishop was puzzled. “Nonsense. I’m supporting Ukraine,” he said.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
39. As a result of Hamilton’s efforts, all sorts of people were falsely tied in press stories to “Russian bots”: former House Intel chief Devin Nunes, #WalkAway founder @BrandonStraka, supporters of the #FireMcMaster hashtag, even people who used the term “deep state”:
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
40. Hamilton 68 was funded by the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which in turn was funded by the German Marshall Fund, which in turn is funded in part by – the Department of State.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
41. The far worse scandal was “Project Birmingham,” in which thousands of fake Russian Twitter accounts were created to follow Alabama Republican Roy Moore in his 2017 race for US Senate. Newspapers reported Russia seemed to take an interest in the race, favoring Moore.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
42. Though at least one reporter for a major American paper was at a meeting in September, 2018 when New Knowledge planned the bizarre bot-and-smear campaign, the story didn’t break until December, two days after DiResta gave a report on Russian interference to the Senate.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
43. Internally, Twitter correctly assessed the Moore story as far back as fall of 2017, saying it had no way if knowing if the Moore campaign purchased the bots, or if “an adversary purchased them… in an attempt to discredit them.”
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
44. Twitter told this to reporters who asked about the story contemporaneously. Moreover, after the story broke, Twitter's Roth wrote: “There have been other instances in which domestic actors created fake accounts… some are fairly prominent in progressive circles.”
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
45. Roth added, “We shouldn’t comment.” Repeatedly in the #TwitterFiles, when Twitter learned the truth about scandals like Project Birmingham, they said nothing, like banks that were silent about mortgage fraud. Reporters also kept quiet, protecting fellow “stakeholders.”
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
46. Twitter stayed silent out of political caution. DiResta, who ludicrously claimed she thought Project Birmingham was just an experiment to “investigate to what extent they could grow audiences… using sensational news,” hinted at a broader reason.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
47. “I know there were people who believed the Democrats needed to fight fire with fire,” she told the New York Times. “It was absolutely chatter going around the party.”
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
48. The incident underscored the extreme danger of the Censorship-Industrial Complex. Without real oversight mechanisms, there is nothing to prevent these super-empowered information vanguards from bending the truth for their own ends.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
49. By way of proof, no major press organization has re-examined the bold claims DiResta/New Knowledge made to the Senate – e.g. that Russian ads “reached 126 million people” in 2016 – while covering up the Hamilton and Alabama frauds. If the CIC deems it, lies stay hidden.
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
50. In the digital age, this sprawling new information-control bureaucracy is an eerie sequel to the dangers Dwight Eisenhower warned about in his farewell address, when he said: “The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyZoUfNsUl8
@mtaibbi - Matt Taibbi
51. Thanks to @ShellenbergerMD and reporters/researchers @Techno_Fog, @neffects, @bergerbell, @SchmidtSue1, @tw6384, and others for help in preparing this testimony. The Twitter Files searches are performed by a third party, so material may have been left out.
@KanekoaTheGreat - kanekoa.substack.com
Matt Taibbi's opening statement on the Twitter Files and the censorship industrial complex: "Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other companies developed a formal system for taking in moderation requests from every corner of government, from the FBI, DHS, HHS, DOD, the Global…
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
1) Twitter Files #FauciPharmaFiles Last December, @elonmusk sent out his viral tweet about Fauci. Fauci went on Fox News and said he had "no clue what [Elon] was talking about."
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
2) "A lot of people are spouting out a lot of things about me and Twitter," Fauci told @FoxNews. "I've never had a Twitter account. I don't intend on having a Twitter account, and I've had nothing to do with Twitter. So I don't know what they're talking about when they say that."
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
3) Fauci made similar claims, during multiple exchanges, in a 7-hour deposition, where he denied using Twitter or even knowing how to access a tweet.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
4) But in an internal Twitter report in March 2021, the company revealed "Dr. Anthony Fauci did an account takeover for @WHOCOVIDResponse." This runs contrary to Fauci's public statements and sworn deposition given on Nov 23, 2022.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
5) According to this tweet, Fauci took over the White House COVID-19 Response account again, in April 2021.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
6) Fauci was beloved by Twitter 1.0 Elon Musk tweeted last December that former employees had an internal Slack channel unironically called "Fauci Fan Club." (pssst, don't disagree w/ Fauci)
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
7) Attorney Angela Sherrer, who left when Musk sought to buy Twitter, praised Fauci as "the leading trusted voice about the COVID-19 response in the United States."
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
8) Angela Sherrer was no small fry at Twitter. According to a deposition by FBI agent Elvis Chan, Sherrer was one of the attorneys he interfaced with on "disinformation" at Twitter.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
9) Twitter didn't just rely on the voices of prominent physicians like Fauci. Oddly enough, they also worked with Big Pharma companies and pharmacy chains to shape vaccine marketing campaigns.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
10) In December 2020, Twitter announced they would begin removing and labelling tweets that contained vaccine "misinformation" especially concerning COVID-19 vaccines.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
11) During that same time frame, Twitter began working with Johnson and Johnson on a COVID-19 vaccine "marketing strategy" and with CVS pharmacy to promote approved narratives.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
12) By the summer of 2021, Johnson and Johnson began a full court press to market a ton of their products on Twitter, including a controversial antidepressant.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
13) Much thanks to @TexasLindsay_ who helped collect and organise #TwitterFiles. We read and read, until our eyes bled. More to come!
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
14) Harvard's @MartinKulldorff who is suing the federal government for colluding w/ social media companies on censorship "Twitter should be a place for people to exchange ideas without censoring." https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/twitter-files-twitter-loves-dr-fauci
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
16) I had to make a slight change to article, noting that J&J was a Twitter *client* while Twitter was simultaneously calling balls & strikes on vaccine "misinformation." A subtle yet important distinction. https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/twitter-files-twitter-loves-dr-fauci
@AbsoluteWithE - The Absolute Truth with @EmeraldRobinson
EXCLUSIVE: @EmeraldRobinson got her hands on internal emails which prove Twitter suspended her account to run cover for @DARPA on the Covid jabs. WATCH:
@WillingWitness - Derek Broes
The pentagon has funded “Argus” which is AI that is designed to find social media posts it doesn't like and have them removed. It's in action against Americans and is actually removing millions of posts about the Maui fire . Does it get worse? Yes it will.
@MikeBenzCyber - Mike Benz
Dataminr - who just inked a new Pentagon contract - is one of the AI censorship supeweapons I described in that viral video to Elon Musk over the summer. Example: Dataminr was used to monitor the spread of “conspiracy theories” about the leaked decision overturning Roe v Wade
@ReclaimTheNetHQ - Reclaim The Net
Department of Defense Signs Contract With Social Media Monitoring Company https://reclaimthenet.org/department-of-defense-signs-contract-with-social-media-monitoring-company
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
EXCLUSIVE: Docs Shed New Light on Feds' Collusion with Private Actors to Police Speech on Social Media @RCInvestigates we report on records showing the thousands of tweets and Facebook posts on topics from mail-in voting to aberrant election results that DHS' partner, the Election Integrity Partnership, flagged to platforms for censorship -- much of which they would suppress https://realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/11/06/documents_shed_new_light_on_feds_collusion_with_private_actors_to_police_speech_on_social_media_990672.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
The evidence shows EIP – sometimes alongside DHS sub-agency CISA – pressuring platforms to target speech that included statements by then-President Trump; opinions about election integrity rooted in government records and even think-tank white papers; and speculative tweets from statesmen and everyday citizens alike. We detail a dozen of those instances, with reaction from the targeted including @MZHemingway @JMichaelWaller @RonColeman @ChuckDeVore https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/11/06/how_the_federal-private_speech_police_operated_in_election_2020_with_a_dominant_focus_on_the_right_990725.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
.@RCInvestigates' reporting, drawing on sources including Missouri v. Biden, illustrates how EIP coordinated with government officials; targeted right-leaning domestic speech from politicians, journalists, and everyday Americans; and served as an active censorship advocate rather than a mere misinformation and disinformation research vehicle. “One look at these documents shows the government and these organizations working hand-in-glove to suppress the speech of Americans,” said Rep. @RepDanBishop, Chairman of the @HomelandGOP oversight subcommittee that procured the documents from Stanford. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/11/06/documents_shed_new_light_on_feds_collusion_with_private_actors_to_police_speech_on_social_media_990672.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
How the Election Integrity Partnership Emerged Established in Nov. 2018 to “elevate the mission” of an existing DHS office, sub-agency CISA’s mandate is to protect critical infrastructure. This includes election infrastructure like polling stations and voting machines, a responsibility the departing Obama administration assigned to CISA’s predecessor after claims of Russian meddling in the 2016 contest. Before the 2020 election, CISA widened its mandate to include combatting “election infrastructure disinformation,” encompassing online speech about election administration and results – without regard to whether the speaker was foreign or domestic. But CISA hit a snag. There was a “gap” in the government’s authority to clamp down on what it considered misinformation and disinformation – a gap identified by DHS officials and interns on loan to the agency from the Stanford Internet Observatory. Given what SIO research manager Renee DiResta described as the “unclear legal authorities” and “very real First Amendment questions” regarding this gap, the parties hatched a plan to form a public-private partnership that would provide DHS with an avenue to surreptitiously censor speech. It was called the Election Integrity Partnership. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/11/06/documents_shed_new_light_on_feds_collusion_with_private_actors_to_police_speech_on_social_media_990672.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
What the Election Integrity Partnership Did The Stanford Internet Observatory launched the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) months before the 2020 election, alongside other, often government-linked heavy hitters in what advocates call social media misinformation and disinformation analysis, including the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public; the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Lab; and social media analytics firm Graphika. The Stanford observatory convened EIP as “a model for whole-of-society collaboration” aimed at “defending the 2020 election against voting-related mis- and disinformation.” The partnership did so in two primary ways, the records show. First, EIP lobbied social media companies, with some success, to adopt more stringent moderation policies around “content intended to suppress voting, reduce participation, confuse voters as to election processes, or delegitimize election results without evidence.” Second, EIP surveilled hundreds of millions of social media posts for content that might violate the platforms’ moderation policies. In addition to identifying this content internally, EIP also collected content forwarded to it by external “stakeholders,” including government offices and civil society groups. EIP then flagged this mass of content to the platforms for potential suppression. It coordinated this effort through a digital "ticketing" system. During the 2020 election cycle, EIP generated 639 tickets, covering 4,784 unique URLs – content shared millions of times – disproportionately related to the “delegitimization” of election results. Platforms like Twitter, Google, and Facebook responded to 75% or more of the tickets in which they were tagged. These platforms “labeled, removed, or soft blocked” 35% of the URLs shared via EIP. For comparison, platforms reportedly remove content flagged by the FBI at a 50% rate. EIP was very public about its efforts, but never released the individual tickets, garnering requests for them from @HomelandGOP and @JudiciaryGOP in connection with their investigations into alleged government-driven censorship. Many of those tickets were produced, and @RCInvestigates has analyzed them. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/11/06/documents_shed_new_light_on_feds_collusion_with_private_actors_to_police_speech_on_social_media_990672.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
What the Public-Private Partnership Did @RCInvestigates' analysis of the raw ticket data, in conjunction with related reports and court filings, indicates that: • About 10% of the tickets bear markings of involvement from federal officials, including at CISA, the FBI, and/or the State Department’s Global Engagement Center through references to government email addresses, offices, or officials. CISA internally kept tabs on the progress of at least 11 EIP tickets, according to discovery material it produced in Missouri v. Biden. • The number of government-involved tickets grows to more than 25% when one cross-references the EIP data with the lawsuit discovery material. Nearly a quarter of the 400 EIP tickets originated with misinformation reports from the CISA-funded EI-ISAC. Federal officials directly forwarded dozens of these same reports to social media companies for potential moderation. • Nearly all tickets deal with domestic speech. This is consistent with EIP’s 2020 report noting that less than 1% of tickets pertained to foreign interference. • The word “recommend” or some derivative thereof appears over 100 times in ticket comments, suggesting EIP was not a passive research effort but one aimed at spurring social media companies to censor. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/11/06/documents_shed_new_light_on_feds_collusion_with_private_actors_to_police_speech_on_social_media_990672.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
What the Individual Tickets Show A review of individual tickets shows EIP targeting sometimes clear falsehoods about the 2020 election. But it also demonstrates among other things that EIP targeted elected officials; called for social media platforms to take action on content while CISA was doing the same; and flagged a raft of speculative and satirical posts – even posts making reference to U.S. government documents – subjectively, at the whims of analysts https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/11/06/documents_shed_new_light_on_feds_collusion_with_private_actors_to_police_speech_on_social_media_990672.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
Targeting of President Trump by CISA, an Executive Agency One ticket originated by CISA’s Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing & Analysis Center (EI-ISAC) concerns a tweet from then-President Trump indicating “most” states permit one to change one’s original vote after engaging in early voting, which EIP categorized as potential “Procedural Interference.” EIP analysts point to fact-checks from, among other sources, Buzzfeed and ABC News challenging the president’s claim. Following two redacted comments on the ticket, an unnamed commenter writes, “Twitter received and is reviewing.” A subsequent comment reads: “We heard back from Twitter through CISA with this response: Our team concluded that the Tweet was not in violation of our Civic Integrity Policy.” CISA-produced documentation shows the sub-agency’s chief counter-MDM (mis-, dis-, and malinformation) officer, Brian Scully, had also reported the tweet to Twitter, which responded to him directly about it. Therefore, EIP and its stakeholder, an executive agency, both forwarded the chief executive’s speech to a social media platform for potential censorship. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/11/06/how_the_federal-private_speech_police_operated_in_election_2020_with_a_dominant_focus_on_the_right_990725.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
Making Explicit EIP is a Proxy for Feds to Avoid Legal Issues Another ticket originated by the State Department’s Global Engagement Center highlights an Instagram post showing a video depicting a poll worker purportedly caught modifying ballots. The GEC submitter writes: I came across this post while looking for potential foreign narratives on Instagram … While the video does not claim to be of any state in particular, I believe the original video was taken in Montgomery County, MD per an article describing the misinformation campaign. However, the video is apparently circulating without a state label in key swing states. As this is outside of my lane due to Privacy Act restrictions, I will leave further investigation to the EIP and Instagram teams. [Emphasis mine]
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
Targeting Conservative Sources for Raising Questions About the 2020 Election Another ticket concerns social media posts sharing an article from @FDRLST, where I am a senior contributor, titled “America Won’t Trust Elections Until The Voter Fraud Is Investigated.” According to the ticket, the article “Misconstrues Disinformation as Evidence.” One tagged post comes from Federalist Editor-in-Chief @MZHemingway. A stakeholder writes to Facebook and Twitter in connection with the ticket that “this seems to be the greatest hits from the past 3 days wrapped up in one article. The article links to several of the gateway pundit links which have received action since Tuesday.” Twitter indicates it received and was reviewing the tweet, though it appears not to have taken action on it. @RCInvestigates asked Hemingway for her comment on the flagging of her tweet and publication’s work. She replied: This unconscionable censorship of The Federalist and its reporters is sadly unsurprising. The censorship-industrial complex in this country clearly views free speech as its enemy and will do anything to shut it down, including spreading lies and using intimidation to coerce private companies to censor factual, legal speech on behalf of the regime. Hemingway concluded with a warning: “The censorship-industrial complex better buckle up, because the days of conservatives taking this lying down are over.”
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
Discounting Election Integrity Skepticism, Even When Based on U.S. Government Documents Another ticket includes a tweet from senior analyst for strategy at the Center for Security Policy, @JMichaelWaller. In it, he quotes testimony from a State Department official in 2004 highlighting indicators of Ukrainian electoral fraud, including “‘illegal use of absentee ballots,’ ‘opposition observers ejected,’ ‘North Korean style turnout in the East’ (‘nearly 96 percent’), ‘mobile ballot box fraud,’ etc.” – the implication being that the 2020 U.S. election was similarly flawed. Waller thanked Andrii Telizhenko, a former Ukrainian diplomat, in the tweet for drawing his attention to the testimony. An EIP commenter writes to Twitter: “We believe that this content should be reviewed and labeled under Twitter’s Civil Integrity policy. Old State Department documents (originally amplified by Andrii Telizhenko, a U.S.-flagged Russian agent) are being used to infer that the 2020 election was ‘rigged.’ These inferences are inflammatory and unsubstantiated.” Twitter received the comment, though it is not clear if it took action. RCI asked Waller what he made of the flagging of his tweet. Noting that “this tracks with what appeared to be shadow banning of my Twitter account,” Waller continued: It now appears that it’s “inflammatory and unsubstantiated” to cite the State Department’s own standards for foreign elections as a benchmark for determining the integrity of our own. If the U.S. just applied the State Department’s own foreign election integrity standards to American elections, there would be little electoral fraud in our country. Somehow, CISA thinks this is a subversive idea and must be censored. When @RCInvestigates noted that there was no indication that CISA personnel observed or commented on his tweet, Waller replied, “I draw no distinction between EIP and CISA. One operates as a front for the other.” Waller also found the scrutiny of his tweet over the reference to Telizhenko telling. He noted that Telizhenko, whom he considers a friend: … blew the whistle on Burisma and Hunter Biden, and … revealed the corrupt Hillary Clinton network regarding Ukraine. In the last days of the Trump administration, Treasury officials sanctioning real Russian agents falsely and maliciously included Telizhenko as one of them, sent the sanctions documents to Secretary of State Pompeo’s office for a hurried signature, and presto! Burisma’s chief accuser has his life destroyed as a wrongly accused, and permanently sanctioned, Russian agent. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/11/06/how_the_federal-private_speech_police_operated_in_election_2020_with_a_dominant_focus_on_the_right_990725.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
Attempting To Suppress Speculative Tweets About Mail-In Ballot Handling Another ticket flags many social media posts concerning claims that shortly after the 2020 election, Philadelphia had destroyed all ballot envelopes. One flagged tweet came from @RonColeman, who noted that this claimed destruction “makes it hard to prove Biden got any legitimate mail in votes at all.” Asked for comment about this flagging, Coleman, a New Jersey-based conservative lawyer and prominent First Amendment advocate, pointed @RCInvestigates to a subsequent reply to his original tweet, posted hours later that day, in which he clarified that: It increasingly looks like this [the destruction of ballots] didn't happen. But it is the response I have given to people who ask me, well what if they just destroy all the ballots - cover up the crime? That don’t work here. Coleman added: “Amazing how that works. I corrected the record without any censorship because of my own regard for the truth and my reputation.” “In contrast,” Coleman said, EIP “operate[s] in the shadows” and is “unaccountable.” “Why didn’t they confront me instead of ‘telling on me’?” he asked rhetorically. Coleman concluded: “Because they are shitty little punks.” https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/11/06/how_the_federal-private_speech_police_operated_in_election_2020_with_a_dominant_focus_on_the_right_990725.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
Political Stakeholders Target Opponents Another ticket originated by the @DNC concerns a post from the conservative @TPPF on mail-in voting linking to a report from the think-tank. An EIP analyst writes: “At this time, there is limited traction on the TPPF’s report on Facebook and Twitter. Further, the FB [Facebook] post’s text is not necessarily false, but the link to the webpage does contain false/misleading information. We are moving this report to ‘ongoing monitoring’ for now due to the limited traction on it, but recommend keeping an eye on TPPF for other misleading or false reports." When notified of this flagging effort, @ChuckDeVore, an executive at TPPF who authored the think-tank report, told RCI he was “very disappointed that an academic quality white paper on the efficacy of voting by mail would be flagged.” The former California state assemblyman continued: Social media today is the equivalent of the public square, as well as the local newspaper at the time of the founding of our Republic, and to have non-governmental organizations with close ties to the federal government working to shut down the free exchange of information about topics of vital interest to the public is an extremely dangerous development for our representative democracy. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/11/06/how_the_federal-private_speech_police_operated_in_election_2020_with_a_dominant_focus_on_the_right_990725.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
The district court that heard Missouri v. Biden described CISA and the EIP as “completely intertwined.” Events after the 2020 election further substantiate that claim. Yet despite the raft of ties between CISA and the EIP, in a March 2023 statement, @stanfordio partner, the @uwcip, challenged the idea EIP censored as a government cutout. It wrote: “CISA did not found, fund, or otherwise control the EIP. CISA did not send content to the EIP to analyze, and the EIP did not flag content to social media platforms on behalf of CISA.” @HomelandGOP Chair @RepMarkGreen countered, in a statement to @RCInvestigates, that the ticket records present "clear evidence that government employees helped the Election Integrity Partnership … work with social media companies to censor free speech in the name of combating ‘misinformation.'" An aide to the committee added that “Even if SIO and their partners didn’t literally take down a tweet or post, they were a foundational part of the process that led to those takedowns.” “It is a distinction without a difference.” https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/11/06/documents_shed_new_light_on_feds_collusion_with_private_actors_to_police_speech_on_social_media_990672.html
@bhweingarten - Benjamin Weingarten
The courts may well weigh in on the dispute of whether the government ought to be forbidden from working with putatively private partners to surveil and flag for suppression speech on social media the government disfavors. On July 4, Louisiana District Judge Terry A. Doughty found in Missouri v. Biden that the Biden White House, and agencies such as CISA, the FBI, and CDC, had likely violated Americans’ First Amendment rights by proxy through cajoling, coercing, and colluding with social media platforms to censor protected speech on matters from election integrity to COVID-19. He sought to freeze the alleged government-led censorship during the pendency of the case by issuing a ten-plank preliminary injunction. The injunction prohibited the feds not only from working with platforms to quell protected speech, but also colluding with entities specifically including the SIO and EIP to accomplish the same. Federal authorities challenged the ruling – arguing that the preliminary injunction violated the government’s own right to speech – sending the case to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appellate court upheld the injunction, but in modified form, jettisoning the SIO- and EIP-related provision. Still unsatisfied, the U.S. government appealed to the Supreme Court. On Oct. 20, it granted certiorari in the case now dubbed Murthy v. Missouri. The high court will assess whether the government did in fact convert social media companies into First Amendment-violating speech police, and whether the injunctions’ “terms and breadth” are proper. In an Oct. 10 Supreme Court filing, the plaintiffs requested that if the court granted certiorari, that it rule on whether the 5th Circuit erred when it vacated the injunction forbidding the government from partnering with entities like SIO and EIP to suppress speech. In granting certiorari, the court did not indicate it would take up this question. Asked whether the plaintiffs would continue to press it, Amber Hargroder, Communications Officer at the Louisiana Department of Justice told RCI: “We intend to raise all relevant arguments and considerations to the Supreme Court in pushing back against federal censorship.” Irrespective of what happens in the courts and Congress, the Election Integrity Partnership could cease its efforts in 2024. Time will tell. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/11/06/documents_shed_new_light_on_feds_collusion_with_private_actors_to_police_speech_on_social_media_990672.html
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
🧵 TWITTER ALGO FINALE THREAD 🧵 This thread will serve the purpose of providing a mountain of evidence to @realannapaulina for her congressional hearing against Twitter 1.0 employees for their role in mass censoring Conservative Americans.
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Let's first show the open sourced code on github that was provided by Elon Musk.
@elonmusk - Elon Musk
Twitter recommendation source code now available to all on GitHub https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Using the code from this repository we can then begin to confirm the codes connection to the Twitter Files released by @bariweiss. From this post we can see that there was account labels placed on popular conservative accounts.
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
From the images we can see the labels that were placed on those accounts were: - Recent Abuse Strike - Trends Blacklist - Notifications Spike - Search Blacklist - Do Not Amplify Consequently all these labels show up in the open source code found here. https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/72eda9a24f815f6d566818cbf8518138e29d83e9/visibilitylib/src/main/scala/com/twitter/visibility/models/UserLabel.scala#L11
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Not only did Twitter apply labels to accounts, but they also applied labels to individual tweets. This served to further reduce the reach of conservative accounts like those shown above. Here is the link to the full list of Tweet Safety Labels. https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm/blob/72eda9a24f815f6d566818cbf8518138e29d83e9/visibilitylib/src/main/scala/com/twitter/visibility/models/TweetSafetyLabel.scala#L12
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
These Tweet Safety Labels reduced visibility on some of the most important information for the public regarding Covid-19 and Elections. We can see these overreaching labels here for: - Misinfo Covid-19 - Misinfo Covid-19 Vaccine - Misinfo US Elections https://t.co/sXWz1aXz1B
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
There is also a label they can apply to tweets for simply not liking a specific user and is specifically worded as Persona Non Grata. For those that don't know what this means here is the definition. https://t.co/zMQwMdMWZy
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
We will now move away from labels and show yet other forms of censorship mechanisms in the code. There's actually a Social Credit Score built into the Algo and applies scores for the following: - User Mass Score - Reputation Score (Tweepcred) - Toxicity Score - Follow Score https://t.co/tbdK44DXep
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Here is the full thread I did on the Reputation Score that goes into detail about how it works in the code. The Reputation Score was also confirmed by Elon Musk and his Engineering Team 3 weeks after I disclosed it. https://t.co/cHK6Gv67Ph https://t.co/AoDUvHcTpT
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
🧵 TWEEPCRED AND REPUTATION TWITTER ALGORITHM THREAD 🧵 Ever wonder why once your Twitter Account gets BLACKLISTED it seems almost impossible to get off? This thread will explain why this likely happening. https://t.co/t0CsHxDSuW
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Additionally, Twitter 1.0 also went beyond just censoring individual users, but censored entire groups, mainly conservatives, by using a clustering method. By grouping these accounts in clusters they were able to silence entire groups and topics. It is shown in the code here. https://t.co/9wnaGZpGvy
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Here is a deeper explanation on the clusters from a previous post I did. https://t.co/rZcaFykGyG
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
🚨🚨🚨 BREAKING 🚨🚨🚨 TWITTER ALGO HAS CODING TO PENALIZE CERTAIN GROUPS, KNOWN AS CLUSTERS, WHERE CLUSTERS GET PENALIZED BASED ON LOTS OF INTEREST AND POPULAR USERS! CONSERVATIVE CLUSTERS ARE BEING PENALIZED, WHICH LIMITS VISIBILITY FOR ALL THAT ARE IN IT!! https://t.co/O33Q5gJgXD
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
As if these censorship mechanisms are not enough their is actually coding for a Government Request to intervene on things they consider misinformation. https://t.co/zpvvC4cYbD
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
We can also see the code that was directly responsible for suspending and silencing the sitting President of the United States @realDonaldTrump. Here is the full thread on it I did previously. https://t.co/iRpoIfpaWl https://t.co/qBaFpniRSx
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
🧵 DONALD TRUMP TOMBSTONE THREAD 🧵 Now that we know the exact Code responsible for suspending and silencing a sitting PRESIDENT, let's see how the process unfolded on January 8th, 2021. https://t.co/ZsakECluCf
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
This is now a good time to bring up the Tombstone censorship mechanism, which was the first thing I found in the code. Here is the full thread on the Tombstone as well as an example of what the Tombstone looks like in use. https://t.co/eMUJFE5ld6 https://t.co/Yp8NT713ax
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
🧵 TWITTER SUPPRESSION ALGORITHM THREAD 🧵 If you have ever been censored on Twitter or other platforms you will want to read this. This Thread will Expose the ALGORITHM LIKELY USED BY TWITTER FOR MASS CENSORSHIP. Let me introduce you to the Tombstone Generator! 💪 @elonmusk https://t.co/VFapx85pOS
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Now let's go a little deeper and talk about Models within the Algorithm. Here we can see several Trust and Safety Models that were released in the open source code and are as follows: - Abusive - NSFW - Toxicity https://t.co/zxoje0TogE
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Looking into the Toxicity Model we find that there is a keyword list used in order to make computational decisions on whether a posts visibility is altered. The list includes words for Politics, Insults, and Race. These keywords however are not open sourced. https://t.co/umzyVdZCZv
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Additionally, not all the models have been released and is even confirmed in the code. Here is what it says. https://t.co/GXrWKDcryy
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
It is also important to state that not once has any of my findings been disputed or Community Noted. In fact @CommunityNotes essentially confirmed my findings, but were too cowardly to actually apply the note. This is a post I did in response to this. https://t.co/xT2MRbMxlx
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
🚨🚨🚨 BREAKING 🚨🚨🚨 COMMUNITY NOTES AUDIT PROVES THAT THE GROUP IS COMPROMISED AND DOES NOT EVEN HONOR THEIR VERY OWN VOTING RESULTS. HERE ARE THE RESULTS OF THE DATA FROM THE COMMUNITY NOTE THAT CORRECTS THE FACT THAT I FOUND THE REPUTATION SCORE! https://t.co/t3Aj8njWyb
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
At this point it should be clear that Twitter Algo was designed for 1 purpose and 1 purpose alone, to silence conservatives and control the information narrative on social media. The depth that Twitter went to silence conservatives is nothing short of election interference.
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
This critical info should significantly help Rep Anna Paulina Luna and may also be of great interest to @Jim_Jordan as well in regards to his recent bombshell report on the Industrial Censorship Complex. https://t.co/y5mrdzcDRi
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Let's hope that this information initiates some serious change on Social Media platforms to stop censoring free speech and limiting the reach of conservatives. With elections coming up in less than a year it is more important than ever that this be addressed immediately.
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
In conclusion these mechanisms are still in place on Social Media Platforms including X. Although Elon Musk claims a new Algorithm is about to roll out, until it does, it is safe to assume that most of the old Algorithm is still in place. The time to restore Free Speech is now!
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
I look forward to providing testimony to Congress, this Thursday, about the Censorship Industrial Complex's clear and present threat to the United States of America and other liberal democratic Western democracies, and how we can shut it down. https://x.com/Weaponization/status/1729184280650404084?s=20
@Weaponization - Weaponization Committee
🚨HEARING ADVISORY: @mtaibbi, @shellenberger, @rupasubramanya. Thursday. 10:00 a.m. ET. https://t.co/UVa9HvRnTm
@KanekoaTheGreat - KanekoaTheGreat
.@mtaibbi: "Exactly one year ago, I first looked at the documents that came to be known as the Twitter files. We've learned a lot since then. When Michael and I testified before the good people of this committee in March, we both talked about how this isn't a partisan issue. Despite the fact that it's been repeatedly described as a right-wing conspiracy theory, we found evidence of suppression of movements on both sides, including leftist movements like the Yellow Vests and the Green Party and organizations like Consortium Magazine. Just this week, Michael and I reported on the group he talked about called the CTI League. In those documents, we found evidence of monitoring groups like the Democratic Socialists of America and hashtags like Health Care For All. The nature of censorship programs is that they tend to expand in all directions, and these programs already have. As someone who voted for Democrats his whole life and who got his ideas about speech issues from people like Senator Frank Church, Paul Wellstone, and Dennis Kucinich, I also believe there's a less obvious but more important reason that people across the spectrum should care about this issue. As the former Executive Director of the ACLU, Ira Glasser once explained to a group of students why he didn't support hate speech codes on campuses. The problem, he said, wasn't the speech. The problem was: "Who gets to decide what's hateful? Who gets to decide what to ban? Because most of the time, it ain't you." The story that came out in the Twitter files and for which more evidence surfaced in both the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit and this committee's Facebook files releases, and the CTI leaked documents. They all speak directly to Ira Glasser's concerns. There has been a dramatic shift in attitudes about speech in this country, and many politicians now clearly believe the bulk of Americans can't be trusted to digest information on their own... These programs will always feature a tiny, rarefied sliver of affluent professional-class Americans censoring a huge and ever-expanding pool of everyone else. Take away the highfalutin talk about countering hate and reducing harm, and anti-disinformation is just a bluntly elitist gatekeeping exercise... It is more than one side or the other that will lose if these programs are allowed to continue. It's everyone, which is why these programs must be defunded before it's too late."
@KanekoaTheGreat - KanekoaTheGreat
Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger testify about the most shocking things they found in the Twitter Files including former FBI officials working with the Aspen Institute, corporate media, and social media to pre-bunk the Hunter Biden laptop story. .@mtaibbi: "The most alarming thing we saw was the regular organized stream of communication between the FBI, DHS, and the largest tech companies. They had an organized system for flagging content, not occasionally, but in enormous numbers involving spreadsheets of accounts that ran into the hundreds of thousands." @shellenberger: "For me, it was seeing the so-called former FBI officials within Twitter working with a variety of groups including the Aspen Institute to pre-bunk the Hunter Biden laptop story before it was ever published in the New York Post, and then to get it censored by Twitter, whose Twitter's internal staff had concluded that the NYP tweet had not violated their terms of service and they censored it anyway." @mtaibbi: "This isn't a crazy conspiracy theory. we've already had four federal judges rule that they believe this activity violates the First Amendment." @shellenberger: "We discovered that the Aspen Institute had created a workshop attended basically by all major media, including social media platforms, to basically pre-bunk in advance the Hunter Biden laptop story even though there was no evidence that it existed outside of the fact that the FBI knew they had it because they got in December 2019."
@MikeBenzCyber - Mike Benz
Here are 10 flaming examples of times Facebook, YouTube & Amazon explicitly said they only passed censorship policies bc they were threatened by the Biden government https://t.co/iAkx3z9olk
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
TWITTER FILES - CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the most famous of the 18 US government agencies that comprise the Intelligence Community (IC) of the United States of America. Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the law strictly prohibits CIA employees or contractors from spying upon or running clandestine operations against American citizens on US soil. But now, a new Twitter Files investigation reveals that a member of the Board of Trustees of the CIA’s mission-driven venture capital firm and ostensibly “former” IC and CIA analysts were involved in a 2021-2022 effort to take over Twitter’s content management system. The effort also involved: — a long-time IC contractor and senior Department of Defense R&D official who spent years developing technologies to detect whistleblowers (“insider threats”) like Edward Snowden and Wikileaks’ leakers; — the proposed head of the DHS’ aborted Disinformation Governance Board, Nina Jankowicz, who aided US military and NATO “hybrid war” operations in Europe; — Jim Baker, who, as FBI General Counsel, helped start the Russiagate hoax, and, as Twitter’s Deputy General Counsel, urged Twitter executives to censor The New York Post story about Hunter Biden. https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1604902028852924416 These existing or former IC employees, contractors, or intermediaries weren’t satisfied with simply controlling Twitter. They also wanted to use PayPal, Amazon Web Services, and GoDaddy in a totalizing effort to de-platform, de-monetize, and excommunicate from the Internet entirely those individuals that the IC et al. deems to be a threat. There is much that we still do not know about the effort. We do not know if officials within the CIA or any other IC organization ran the operation. It is possible that the only individuals involved in the effort were the ones we discovered. And none of the individuals involved responded to our request for information except for one. But thousands of pages of Twitter Files and documents contained therein paint a clear picture of an organized operation by existing or former IC employees and contractors, using well-established IC tradecraft, to take control of Twitter’s content moderation. Our investigation comes at a moment when governments and intelligence agencies around the world are stepping up their efforts to monitor and censor their citizens. It thus has large implications for policymakers and the public in Western nations that look to the US as a model for free speech and citizen control of the military. This is a joint Public-Racket investigation. The authors are @Shellenberger @MTaibbi and @GalexyBrane. As always, the only condition we agreed to in publishing this was to first publish on X. At the end of this thread, we explain why and how this investigation began. Here we go...
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
35. In response to Roth, Baker repeatedly insists that the Hunter Biden materials were either faked, hacked, or both, and a violation of Twitter policy. Baker does so over email, and in a Google doc, on October 14 and 15.
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
Nina Jankowicz And The Alethea Group Before the IC’s attempt to infiltrate Twitter and control its content moderation, several of the operatives involved made the case for treating “disinformation” as a security threat that requires intelligence and military tactics to combat. On June 11, 2020, a little-known book publisher (“I.B. Tauris”) published Nina Jankowicz’s How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict, which argues for “info war” like the kind the US government waged in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Nina Jankowicz (Getty Images) In her book, Jankowicz compares the lack of regulation of speech on social media regulations to the lack of government regulation of automobiles in the 1960s. She calls for a “cross-platform” and public-private approach, so whatever actions are taken are taken by Google, Facebook, and Twitter, simultaneously. Jankowicz points to Europe as the model for regulating speech. “Germany’s NetzDG law requires social media companies and other content hosts to remove ‘obviously illegal’ speech within twenty-four hours,” she says, “or face a fine of up to $50 million.” By contrast, in the US, she laments, “Congress has yet to pass a bill imposing even the most basic of regulations related to social media and election advertising.” The purpose of her book is to sound the alarm and offer a vision. “The Biden-Harris administration can, and should, take up many of the solutions outlined in this book,” she writes. If the West is to win the “information war,” it needs a whole-of-society response, like the US and NATO used in Eastern Europe. She praises a NATO cyber security expert for having created a “Center of Excellence.” If that term sounds familiar to close observers of the Censorship Industrial Complex, it might be because Renée Diresta of the Stanford Internet Observatory, in 2021, promoted a “Center of Excellence” in a Department of Homeland Security video she recorded, in which she made the case for the Disinformation Governance Board Jankowicz would later, briefly, head up. One year later, Jankowicz would work with an anti-disinformation consulting firm to Twitter staffed by “former” IC analysts. Its name was Alethea Group.
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News” On July 28, 2020, a little-known teen and young adult book publisher released True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News, by Cindy Otis, a former CIA analyst. “I had wanted to work for the CIA almost my whole life,” she writes. “Almost all governments, including the United States, have used fake news as a weapon to influence events in other countries.” One year later, she would become a senior analyst for Alethea Group. We did not hear back from Cindy Otis. However, Jankowicz told us over email that Otis “led research at Alethea through July 2021.” Jankowicz said, “My full time employment with Alethea began September 13, 2021. Ms. Otis left Alethea prior to that period. To my knowledge, she has not been employed with Alethea since that time.” “My work with Alethea Group as a consultant (summer 2021) was narrowly focused on my subject matter expertise related to Russia,” she said. “I conducted Russian language translation and provided cultural analysis. When I joined Alethea as an employee (fall 2021) my work was entirely focused on public products: Changes to Alethea’s website, editing public reports, liaising with media, etc.” But that claim contradicts Alethea’s Statement of Work contract with Twitter, which lists her as “Technical Research Director” for work relating to Twitter’s management of misinformation during the 2020 election, and specifically a “retrospective analysis of how then President Trump or other key figures may have violated Twitters [sic] policies, or otherwise leveraged the platform in a way that may have contributed to key events…” Alethea Group founder, Lisa Kaplan, told us that Jankowicz “was never given the title Technical Research Director, that is a reference to a labor category for a contract.” Added Kaplan, “We respect client confidentiality and do not discuss relationships with our customers. In reviewing Nina’s timesheets she did provide support to one client that I cannot disclose, however I can confirm that while she was employed as the Director for External Affairs, Nina never conducted work at Alethea on behalf of Twitter.” When shown the Statement of Work listing her as “Supplier Personnel,” Jankowicz said, “I have never seen this document before. A statement of work is generally a speculative document that informs clients of potential staffing and work plans. They are usually crafted to allow contractors a degree of flexibility in implementation by listing staff even if they are not assigned to a particular project in case they might do future work for that project. I assume this is what happened in this case.” In fact, the Statement of Work between Alethea and Twitter was a formal contract between the two firms, signed by Alethea’s Founder and CEO and Twitter’s Senior Director and Associate General Counsel, and the contract specifies, “Any changes to the above listed Personnel must be approved by Twitter in writing.” There is no record in the Twitter Files of any chance to personnel. Jankowicz added, “Ms. Otis and I were friends and colleagues prior to my short stint there and remain friends and colleagues. Yes, I knew Ms. Otis had worked — emphasis on the past tense — at the CIA. That does not constitute a ‘relationship’ with the intelligence community.” In the acknowledgments to True or False, Otis thanks someone named Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, who also blurbs her book, which he calls a “guidebook to learning from the past with actionable solutions to help you save our future."
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“Disinformation will become the next iteration of warfare…the government should identify vulnerable populations” On July 9, 2020, Kaplan records a podcast on “The Next Iteration of Warfare.” She says: — “A lot of the way that this is approached, at least from a defensive perspective, is a lot of the same lessons that we learned from counterterrorism and social media,” she explains. “Where are the ISIS guys in chat rooms trying to recruit people to fly to Raqqa [in Syria]?” — “I'm not going to sit here and tell you guys in your audience the history of warfare, but when we think about the fact that governments have always had a monopoly on the mechanisms needed to conduct war and then, you know, obviously, we have had an emergence of terrorism and this feels like the next iteration of warfare in the sense that these tactics to cause chaos, these tactics to sow discord, they're, they're more diffuse….” — “Nobody is better positioned I think than the United States government to fight disinformation with the wealth of resources and analytic capabilities and intel that the government is able to get about these disinformation campaigns. Like Jankowicz and Otis, Kaplan urges regulation, saying, “The US Government has unmatched capacity to address disinformation, but needs to work towards legislation that will allow it to act in this space.” One year earlier, Kaplan had founded the Alethea Group. “I've always been fortunate to work in organizations where we've been mission-driven and part of a team, and we're all working to accomplish a goal together.”
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“I am being asked by Schumer’s NSA if we have been in touch with Obama” At 5:22 pm on July 15, 2020, the Twitter account for then-presidential candidate Joe Biden tweeted, “I am giving back to the community. All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled! If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000.” Similar faked spam tweets had been sent from accounts belonging to Barack Obama, Michael Bloomberg, and Elon Musk. Wrote a senior attorney for Twitter, “I am being asked by Schumer's NSA [National Security Advisor] if we have been in touch with Obama... Matt Masterson from DHS called me on my personal cell — didn’t know he had my number. He has been in touch w Biden Campaign… He offered to help in whatever way they can. Offered a forensic analysis.” Two weeks later, the police arrested Graham Ivan Clark, 17, for masterminding the hack. Clark had used a simple “phishing” con to trick Twitter employees into giving him information.
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“One of the world’s best-regarded hackers” On October 13, 2020, a Twitter executive emailed then-CEO Jack Dorsey to say, “Mudge signed.” Dorsey’s hiring of Zatko was big news. Wrote Reuters, “Social media giant Twitter Inc, under increased threat of regulation and plagued by serious security breaches, is appointing one of the world's best-regarded hackers to tackle everything from engineering missteps to misinformation.” Peiter "Mudge" Zatko (Getty Images) “The company on Monday named Peiter Zatko, widely known by his hacker handle Mudge," wrote Reuters, “to the new position of head of security, giving him a broad mandate to recommend changes in structure and practices.”
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“Zatko had engaged with members of US intelligence agencies” Attitudes toward Zatko would be quite different two years later. Zatko turned whistleblower, sued the company, and settled for $7.75 million. He then filed a complaint with the Justice Department, SEC, and FTC, alleging Twitter executives had misled the government, been negligent in protecting user data, and had violated a 2011 consent decree with the FTC. Somebody leaked Zatko’s complaint to the Washington Post, which reached out to Twitter for comment on August 19, 2022. In a shared Google Doc, dated August 21, 2022, called “Comms Statements/Tracking,” Twitter executives fine-tuned the language for responding to the news media about Zatko’s allegations. Buried deep within that discussion was this revelatory sentence: “Without the knowledge or support of management or the Board, Twitter learned that Zatko had engaged with members of US intelligence agencies and sought to enter a formal agreement that would allow him to work with them and provide information to them.”
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
FLASHBACK: The US Intelligence Community’s effort to penetrate Twitter On Dec 20, 2019, Elvis Chan, the FBI’s liaison to social media companies, emailed a Twitter executive. “My colleagues at the Fort had a query for you.” “The Fort” is IC slang for Fort Meade, Maryland, where the National Security Agency (NSA), the IC agency focused on spying through signals intelligence, is located. Chan’s NSA colleagues wanted to know if Twitter would please change a security policy so that NSA could better use Twitter data. The request immediately raised red flags from Twitter’s Head of Site Integrity, Yoel Roth. “My sense is that a call directly with the IC on this isn’t a great idea,” said Roth. “We’re threading a needle on this one—where we both want to keep law enforcement and the IC engaged on election integrity issues while maintaining our strong anti-surveillance stance on the data front.” The request bothered others at Twitter. “We have seen a sustained (If uncoordinated) effort by the IC to push us to share more information and change our API policies,” said Carlos Monje, Twitter’s Director of Policy, in response to Roth. But the IC’s "sustained effort" may have been more coordinated than it appeared.
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“I'd recommend Alethea group” On January 7, 2021, the day after the Capitol Hill riot, Zatko makes his first big recommendation to Twitter executives: hire the Alethea Group. “I feel an external investigation may be quite valuable,” said Zatko over the company’s Slack messaging system. “I'd recommend Alethea group for the disinformation angle.” Twitter authorized Zatko to do so. A few weeks later Zatko pitched Twitter’s legal team on hiring Alethea for a January 6 focused project. “As folks can understand,” Zatko wrote on February 24, 2021,”there's a lot still going on around Jan 6th and the 2020 election in general. Alethea is a boutique consultancy that specializes on disinformation and counter-messaging operations. They have been working with myself and Yoel [Roth].”
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
CIA, In-Q-Tel, And Alethea Ted Schlein is partner at Ballistic Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, the legendary Silicon Valley VC firm. In 2022, Schlein led a $10 million Series A investment in Alethea Group for Ballistic, and sits on its board. Kaplan says she met Schlein that same year. Schlein is also a member of the Board of Trustees of In-Q-Tel, or IQT, which is the CIA’s mission-driven venture capital firm. In 2022, IQT published a summary report describing its “Disinformation Workshop.” The report recommended many activities similar to those Alethea has offered, including “Track the confluence of bad narratives.” A full one-third of IQT investments were secret as of 2016, according to the Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-cias-venture-capital-firm-like-its-sponsor-operates-in-the-shadows-1472587352 The Journal also reported that Schlein had at least one connection to a firm in which IQT invested. And that was over seven years ago. “I do not know Zatko, Jankowicz or Otis. Lisa is the CEO of Alethea and I serve on her board of directors,” Schlein told us. He added that he is not aware of any relationship between Alethea and the IC and that he has no operational role. When asked if IQT had funded Alethea Group, Schlein said, “This is a question either the company or InQTel should answer, not me.” “I get the feeling that Alethea is a byproduct of Ted Schlein,” a high-tech entrepreneur told us, “and the CEO is merely a titular head….Without meaningful experience, it's not clear to me how [Lisa Kaplan] received $10m in a series A round.” In March 2022, the Department of Homeland Security made Schlein a member of its advisory council.
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“Does this affect our approach to Trump?” Another Alethea analyst is Patrick Conlon. From 2019 to 2022, Conlon was Twitter’s Global Lead of Threat Intelligence, where he ran Twitter’s “Threat Disruption” group. According to his bio, Conlon “also guided the process of selecting investigations for public disclosure in the Twitter Moderation Research Consortium.” Before that, from 2013 to 2019, Conlon worked for the Defense Department as an intelligence analyst and linguist. According to Conlon’s LinkedIn profile, he speaks eight languages, including Russian, Ukrainian, and Chinese. The Twitter Files show Conlon urging more censorship on multiple occasions within Twitter. After Yoel Roth tells Conlon that “Jack just approved repeat offender for civic integrity, Conlon replies, “Progress! Does this affect our approach to Trump, who I think that we publicly said had one remaining strike? Or does the incitement to violence aspect change that calculus?” Shortly after, Conlon celebrates efforts to identify January 6 protesters. Conlon messages Roth to say, “One thing that’s made me smile today is that people in DC are getting on Bumble and other dating services to chat with protesters/rioters to gather info and send it to law enforcement.” READ MORE: TWITTER FILES, PART 4 The Removal of Donald Trump: January 7
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“It would be almost impossible for us to refuse to turn them over to Congress” On March 11, three weeks after Zatko urged his colleagues to hire Alethea Group, he emailed his colleagues to express his concerns about Twitter's legal department holding up the release of Alethea Group's work product. Twitter Deputy Counsel Jim Baker explains that he wants Alethea’s analytical products to be owned by Twitter’s law firm, so that Congress cannot subpoena them in the future. “Our goal here,” says Baker, “is to enable the company to retain control via the attorney-client privilege of any reports, slide decks, interview summaries, or other materials that Alethea produces to us in the event that we receive congressional or other subpoenas or document requests (such as in connection with civil lawsuits against the company).” “Right now,” stresses Baker, “our outside counsel assesses that if we do nothing, the Alethea materials would not be privileged and it would be almost impossible for us to refuse to turn them over to Congress, the executive branch, or a civil litigant.” Baker’s supervisor agreed. The document “creates risk,” he writes. What are the risks? Twitter’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop, the 2020 elections, and the 2021 Capitol riots. Later events would prove that Baker, his boss, and the Jenner & Block attorney were all right to be worried.
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“We can draw a straight line… between the initial ‘Stop the Steal’ narratives and organizing to what ended up happening on the 6th.” Alethea’s assessment of Twitter reflects the view of its CEO, Kaplan, that online misinformation leads to violence. On March 11, 2021, the same day Baker flags the risk of working with Alethea without its law firm, Kaplan speaks on a panel at Harvard University’s Berkman School. While there, she blames misinformation on social media for the January 6 riot, and urges greater censorship. Kaplan says Alethea Group flags misinformation for social media companies so it can be censored. She says “one option” is to “call the social media platforms and they say, ‘social media misinformation for the January 6 riot,’” but that Alethea does something better, which is to use “early detection” to “catch narratives when they start and we’re able to then track them and understand how they may be influencing individuals and seeking to change individuals behavior.” January 6 was “an insurrection attempt,” says Kaplan, “We can draw a straight line from some of the narratives that were happening in March, saying that the election would be rigged, that there would be political violence…. The throughline you can draw between the initial ‘Stop the Steal’ narratives and organizing to what ended up happening on the 6th.” She says Alethea will recommend filing lawsuits against people and “seek damages” of a punitive form. The goal is to stop opponents from “narrative building” In response to our request for comment, Kaplan told us, “I worked in the United States Senate for a period of time. I have never worked directly for a US government agency, including the Intelligence Community. As this is true for both my time in college and after college, I suppose my relationship with the US Intelligence Community – or lack thereof – remains unchanged.” Kaplan did not disclose to us how many contracts Alethea has had with US government agencies, writing, “We hold client confidentiality in the highest regard and do not disclose our customer relationships.”
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“Current State Assessment” Alethea’s “Current State Assessment” of Twitter is scathing. The analysis stresses that the social media platform’s Trust and Safety executives were well-meaning but also overwhelmed and unskilled. They didn’t have the resources they needed, it says. The company was always on the defense when it came to misinformation, whether from “QAnon” or “coronavirus misinformation,” it claims. As a result, “historically marginalized groups” are vulnerable. Alethea’s analysts conclude that the underlying problem was that “Twitter does not have a traditional threat intelligence capacity that would better position the company to be proactive on misinformation and disinformation.” Twitter, in particular, lacks “geographic expertise and foreign language capabilities.” Another serious problem, says Alethea, is that “Twitter is not fully taking advantage of” its partnerships, such as with Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), the only non-media partner Alethea names. Previous Twitter Files and Facebook Files show that the DHS had asked SIO, which is led by a “former” CIA Fellow, Renee DiResta, and three other organizations to lead a “public-private” partnership to urge greater social media censorship of alleged misinformation relating to the 2020 elections and Covid. “Neither I nor Alethea have a relationship with SIO,” Kaplan said. READ ALETHEA’S “CURRENT STATE ASSESSMENT” HERE: https://environmentalprogress.org/big-news/2024/5/23/twitter-files-cia-key-documents
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“More vigorous content moderation” Before Alethea shares its full recommendations, Zatko pushes for more government-linked censorship. On March 24, 2021, Zatko emailed a 12-page report, “Recommendations to the Biden Administration On Regulating Disinformation and Other Harmful Content on Social Media,” to his colleagues. “The organizations and people behind this recommendation,” Zatko explains, “have the connection [sic] to get this in front of the right people in the administration.” The report is co-authored by Aspen Institute’s Vivian Schiller, who led the "pre-bunking" of the Hunter Biden laptop story, and Hamilton68 hoax author Clint Watts, and is published by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center at the Harvard Kennedy School and NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. The report calls for “more vigorous content moderation,” for the Biden administration to “work with social media companies to develop industry-wide standards” to respond to “known or suspected disinformation operations, whether domestic or foreign,” and for “altering financial incentives for platforms that fail to address the harms.” The Biden "Administration should work with Congress to create such a regulatory body, possibly as a new Digital Bureau within the Federal Trade Commission..." The report calls for new standards to be modeled after ESG and include “fines for violations” of “industry-wide standards” that would then be used to fund “credible local news outlets.” The report calls for social media platforms to pay for news content. MORE ON VIVIAN SCHILLER, ASPEN: MORE ON HAMILTON68 HOAX: READ “RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION ON REGULATING DISINFORMATION” HERE: https://environmentalprogress.org/big-news/2024/5/23/twitter-files-cia-key-documents
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
31. The organizer was Vivian Schiller, the fmr CEO of NPR, fmr head of news at Twitter; fmr Gen. mgr of NY Times; fmr Chief Digital Officer of NBC News Attendees included Meta/FB's head of security policy and the top nat. sec. reporters for @nytimes @wapo and others
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
"Expand formal and informal partnerships” with “Amazon Web Services, GoDaddy, or PayPal." On April 20, 2021, a Twitter attorney emails a 32-page document titled “Alethea Group Recommendations.” It says, “Twitter has an opportunity to become the industry leader.” How? At the top of the list is “Develop and expand threat intelligence capabilities.” This starts with hiring an “outside vendor to provide consistent threat intelligence feeds on priority markets or topics for Twitter, such as on COVID-19 misinformation, QAnon, violent hate groups, or foreign government-operated IO.” Why an outside vendor? Because “Outside vendors often have access to more unique datasets, language capabilities, and geographic expertise,” Alethea reasons. ”This approach is consistent with Twitter’s platform peers, such as Facebook, and to a lesser extent, YouTube’s new analytic team focused on Sophisticated Threat Actors.” The second major recommendation is to “Expand formal and informal partnerships” with “domain hosting companies, digital ad providers, and financial platforms, such as Amazon Web Services, GoDaddy, or PayPal.” Why? So that Twitter can respond to “threat actors in a more holistic fashion.” In other words, Alethea is proposing that Twitter lead an effort to organize all other social media companies, e-commerce companies, and Internet Service Providers, to de-platform, de-monetize, and de-person disfavored individuals. But would Twitter executives still make their own decisions about content moderation? Yes, affirms Alethea, but only after outsourcing “decision-making processes when it comes to disinformation and misinformation or a major security incident.” Alethea also proposes developing systems to place content from purveyors of “misinformation and disinformation” in a “void” so that users can’t see or share it. “This could include not allowing content to load from their websites, sending users to an error page, having adversaries inadvertently (and unknowingly) tweet dog pictures, quinoa recipes, or sports scores.” According to Alethea, “Threat intelligence could still be gathered within these artificial environments and used to inform future action against threat actors.” Other recommendations from Alethea are for Twitter to“create a more diverse team,” expand reporting options for users, and “invest in a program that will teach news literacy to high school students and college students.” Over email, Nina Jankowicz stressed to us that she had never seen the Alethea recommendations. “I never had contact with or access to Alethea customers or products. This was by design so as to protect customer confidential information. My role was entirely externally-facing.” When we asked what motivated her to pursue a relationship with Twitter, Kaplan wrote, “We respect client confidentiality and cannot confirm any client relationships. I have not advocated for censorship and your allegations are false.” “I have never and would never ask a social media platform to censor,” Kaplan told us. “I have flagged inauthentic coordinated behavior or what current X owner Mr. Elon Musk refers to as “the spam bots” which he seeks to “defeat” as they violate the terms of service for his and other platforms, as well as threats of violence against individuals. I have not urged social media companies to censor and that allegation is categorically false.” Kaplan told us she was unaware that Zatko had repeatedly advocated for Twitter to hire Alethea. READ ALETHEA’S “RECOMMENDATIONS” HERE: https://environmentalprogress.org/big-news/2024/5/23/twitter-files-cia-key-documents
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
Alethea In, Zatko Out Alethea proposed that Twitter outsource content management and moderation to it or to one of its allied organizations, perhaps SIO. All of this might seem routine—consultants frequently use “analytical products” to sell future work. Except in this case, Alethea was effectively urging Twitter to outsource its content management to IC intermediaries. Twitter executives might have responded to Alethea’s proposal with shock and offense. After all, the firm, led by individuals tied to the IC and promoting censorship, had disparaged Twitter’s employees in a way that Twitter’s lawyers thought was a risk to the company. And Alethea was essentially proposing that it take over the decision-making and management of content moderation, which is at the core of what the company does. Instead, Twitter doubled down on Alethea. On July 11 and 12, 2021, Twitter’s Privacy team gives Alethea Group access to Twitter’s data from January 6. On August 5, 2021, an attorney informs the Head of Site Integrity, Yoel Roth, that Twitter’s Chief Legal Officer, Vijaya Gadde, had hired Jenner & Block “to conduct a retrospective review of the conversation occurring on Twitter during the attack on the Capitol on January 6. They are also reviewing our election work that is tied to the insurrection as well.” Two weeks later, Twitter finalizes a Statement of Work (“SOW”) contract with Alethea. Listed as “Technical Research Director” is Nina Jankowicz. The proposal consists of Alethea writing a 2020 Election Report, and list as an "option" item working to “provide a retrospective analysis of how then President Trump or other key figures may have violated Twitter’s policies, or otherwise leveraged the platform in a way that may have contributed to key events.” Then, on August 23, 2021, Twitter fires Zatko.
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“We have to trust the rules and the systems that are governing us.” On February 21, 2022, at Colby College, Alethea’s Kaplan again promotes an aggressive censorship vision, including punishments for people who spread misinformation, and says “we have to trust” election rules. “I think we can get to the point where the government's doing everything that we think it can do within our comfort zone as a democracy,” she says. “But I think that we will need private companies to step up.” Kaplan says free speech threatens democracy. “I continue to be concerned about what it means that that segment of the population doesn't buy into our democratic system. And so putting politics aside when we're talking about democracy, we have to trust it. We have to trust the rules and the systems that are governing us.” Kaplan says 20% of Alethea’s business was with the government. Kaplan also says Alethea Group sometimes donates time to social media companies. “Sometimes we do catch things out in the wild and we'll bring that to companies. We don't, like, get paid for that when we do that. But, like, we'll do it if it's something that's pretty egregious that they think they should be aware of.” Kaplan points out the threat of election misinformation to political instability in Brazil. A few months later, in July 2022, Twitter hires Alethea to “Assist Counsel with fact gathering and analysis of misinformation/disinformation threats related to the 2022 Brazil election.” On August 4, 2022, Roth tells a colleague that Alethea is “providing services to us at a more than 50% discount over rack rate (a savings of approximately $50K for the specific cases here)...” for a Brazil misinformation analysis.
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“Zatko was aware of this issue, having learned about it separately through a contact at the CIA…” Recall that, on August 21, 2022, Twitter executives wrote talking points to respond to Zatko’s allegations, and one of them was that “Zatko had engaged with members of US intelligence agencies and sought to enter a formal agreement that would allow him to work with them and provide information to them.” Fast-forward five weeks to October 1, 2022, and a Twitter attorney at WilmerHale emails draft talking points for Twitter to use with the Department of Justice in addressing Zatko’s claims. One section addresses a claim by Zatko that Twitter received “specific information” that Twitter employees were “working on behalf of another particular foreign intelligence agency.” Writes Twitter’s attorney, “He’s wrong here too.” The FBI had contacted Twitter about an employee “who potentially had contact with an individual with a possible connection to China. There was no indication that this individual was in fact a foreign agent with ties to a foreign government, and the apparent person of interest was the contact of the Twitter employee, not the Twitter employee.” Then, the attorney noted, Twitter’s head of Corporate Security “was informed by the member of Zatko’s team that Zatko was aware of this issue, having learned about it separately through a contact at the CIA…”
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
Who is Zatko, really? Zatko is a longstanding contractor and employee of the federal government. He gave training seminars to the NSA and NASA in 1999 and perhaps earlier. Two books, Andy Greenberg’s 2013 This Machine Kills Secrets and Joseph Menn’s 2019 Cult of the Dead Cow, describe in detail how the IC and Defense Department have financed and directed Zatko’s work for over a quarter-century. Zatko was part of a group of hackers, or computer tinkerers, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The members of the group, “L0pht,” had access to early, expensive, and scarce computers and other cutting-edge technological innovations, including a motor-driven satellite dish and multiple computer systems in 1998. They testified to the US Senate that same year (see excerpts in the video below). In 2000, Zatko changed the name of L0pht to @stake. Four years earlier he had joined another hacker collective, the “Cult of the Dead Cow.” Members of both groups worked for the CIA, NSA, and DARPA directly or indirectly as contractors for firms like BBN. In 2006, @stake’s CEO Chris Darby became the CEO of In-Q-Tel, the CIA VC firm. Another @stake employee became its chief information security officer. Former Facebook executive Alex Stamos, who helped run the Stanford Internet Observatory’s censorship effort with former CIA Fellow Diresta for DHS, also worked for @stake. Zatko was Technical Director for National Intelligence Research and Applications for BBN, a contractor for the Defense Department, from 2004 to 2010. From 2010 to 2013, Zatko worked for DARPA to prevent “insider threats” using a threat model, Zatko said, “largely derived from counter-intelligence/counter-espionage (CI/CE) models.” Zatko’s work for DARPA focused heavily on ways to prevent government employees and contractors from leaking information, including ways of directly and invasively monitoring them physically. From 2013 to 2015, in response to Edward Snowden’s revelations of mass surveillance, Zatko worked at Google to engineer software. Afterward, Zatko started advising Sen. Mark Warner, one of the Senate’s leading proponents of social media censorship. During the same period Zatko was helping track whistleblowers for DARPA, President Barack Obama was pursuing more leakers for prosecution than all previous presidential administrations.
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“There are deep cover people who are known to be CIA and who go to DARPA and then wherever.” Pieter Mudge Zatko (Getty Images) We asked a senior intelligence analyst who has worked for decades within both the US military and the IC if the Alethea-Twitter operation looked like a “clandestine information operation.” The person laughed. “You just laid it out. DARPA fits the pattern. There are deep-cover people who are known to be CIA and who go to DARPA. They have assumed a mantle that they are no longer aligned in that world. They try to portray themselves as separate and apart. That works to their favor. But they are still inside.” Front groups and intermediaries, or “cut-outs,” are the bread and butter of clandestine operations and have been since World War II. “We front monies through different shell companies and nobody knows there are governments behind them,” the person said. “That’s a lot of what we did in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and the Arab Spring… with disinformation, censoring, and manipulating.” Given this context, Zatko’s efforts to share information with intelligence agencies and bring in the IC-linked Alethea Group may have been a deliberate operation by the IC to infiltrate and control Twitter.
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“Twitter can’t afford to be one of the world’s most influential websites.” The news media lavished praise on Zatko and used his denunciation to demand for greater government regulation of the company. “Twitter can’t afford to be one of the world’s most influential websites,” declared the Washington Post. “The audit report by the Alethea Group, a company that fights disinformation threats,” wrote the Post approvingly, “confirms that sense, depicting a company overwhelmed by well-orchestrated disinformation campaigns and short on engineering tools and human firepower while facing threats on par with vastly better-financed Google and Facebook.” Other advocates of censorship chimed in to support Zatko. Twitter “has this outsized role in public discourse but it’s still staffed like a midsize platform,” said Graham Brookie, who ran DHS’s mass censorship program with Stamos and DiResta of Stanford Internet Observatory. “They struggle to do more than one thing at one time.” In an internal Atlantic Council email sent on July 21 2020, Brookie wrote to a colleague to say, "I know the Council has a number of efforts on broad policy around the elections, but we just set up an election integrity partnership at the request of DHS/CISA and are in weekly comms to debrief about disinfo, IO, etc.”
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
New Documents Reveal US Department Of Homeland Security Conspiracy To Violate First Amendment And Interfere In Elections Emails released by the U.S. House of Representatives, when combined with the Twitter Files, reveal a sweeping and secretive effort by Stanford and DHS…
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
“The Big Boss” In her April 2023 testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, Nina Jankowicz described herself as a low- to mid-level official at the Department of Homeland Security who was thrown under the bus in the wake of a bipartisan backlash against the “Disinformation Governance Board” that she was nominated to lead. But others treated Jankowicz as though she were more senior than that. Four years ago, in February 2020, former Congressperson Jane Harman, the CEO of the influential US government-funded Wilson Center, referred three times to Jankowicz as “the big boss.” Later Harman called Jankowicz the “ringleader.” “Jane has a very colorful way of speaking,” said Jankowicz about Harman’s statements. “This is her way of acknowledging the work I did to organize that event, not ‘for my sweeping vision for government censorship and disinformation.’” From 2022 to April 2024, Jankowicz worked for the Center for Information Resilience, which receives funding from US, UK, and Australian governments. The work was an extension of what she has done since 2013, when Jankowicz worked as a Program Officer for the National Endowment for Democracy’s National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Eastern Europe. Her LinkedIn says she ”Managed six active projects supporting democracy assistance to Russia and Belarus.” Independent journalists, analysts, and most in the IC understand that the NDI and its broader organization, the National Endowment for Democracy, are US government-funded intermediaries or “cut-outs” working alongside the CIA. This relationship has been well-understood for over three decades: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1991/09/22/innocence-abroad-the-new-world-of-spyless-coups/92bb989a-de6e-4bb8-99b9-462c76b59a16/ Jankowicz disagrees. “This is a false assertion,” she told us over email, “and — during my time at NDI — it was an assertion most frequently made by the Kremlin. The only linkage I am aware of between the U.S. intelligence community and NDI is that they both broadly support U.S. foreign policy goals.” Jankowicz told us that she’s "vehemently opposed to censorship." “My first piece of published work as Disinformation Fellow at the Wilson Center was this report, which explores the many antidemocratic pitfalls of regulating disinformation. The opening of the paper states clearly: ‘While the American response to online disinformation has been marked by partisanship and gridlock, at least 50 other nations have taken action against it, often to the detriment of human rights and democratic standards.’ (Emphasis added).” But Jankowicz also acknowledged to us that she supported social media censorship of COVID-19 posts (see video below.) “Yes,” she said over email yesterday, “I commended the social media companies for removing posts that claimed that COVID-19 was something Brazilians should not treat seriously at the height of a deadly pandemic that ended up claiming 700,000+ Brazilian lives. “I still believe that was the right decision,” she said, “and it was the platforms’ decision to make. When we sign up to use social platforms, whether we are presidents or private citizens, we agree to their terms of service, including that they may moderate content.” In February 2020, Jankowicz urged global social media “regulation” by governments and touted the “International Grand Committee” [on Disinformation]’s work to find principles of regulation. The goal of the Wilson Center meeting was to tout what other governments, including France and Brazil, were doing to demand censorship and suggest that the US was lagging behind. At that meeting, Sen. Mark Warner advocated global social media regulation through a military alliance framework, saying, “We can’t do this [fight misinformation] without — well, even beyond — the Five Eyes. And even well beyond NATO.” On April 7, 2020, Jankowicz once again praised social media censorship and agreed with Anya Prusa, who praised social media companies for “removing posts” by Brazil’s president. The US IC, specifically the FBI, has advised Brazil on censorship. The TWITTER FILES - CIA offer more proof that Jankowicz got over her skis in the "information war." And in that sense, she was a victim, but of passion. Indeed, it was only thanks to Jankowicz’s recent efforts to rehabilitate her image that we discovered her role in the Alethea Group, the firm’s links to the CIA, and Zatko’s work for intelligence agencies. Without Jankowicz, the whole episode would have been lost to history.
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
First Amendment vs. “Information War” The paradigm promoted by Jankowicz, Harman, Zatko, Kaplan, Schlein, Otis and many others within the IC and its cut-outs is fundamentally a military communications paradigm, not a peaceful civilian one. The peaceful civilian approach to “fighting misinformation” is free speech, as enshrined in the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The three of us and hundreds of other journalists, authors, and artists last year described our peaceful approach to fighting misinformation in "The Westminster Declaration." https://westminsterdeclaration.org Free people in free societies do not and should not want their governments waging “hybrid warfare,” “information warfare,” or “information operations” against them. They do not want the leaders of their IC agencies demonizing and seeking to de-platform or de-monetize domestic voices, no matter how annoying or wrong those voices may be. The American people and the American courts, including the Supreme Court, have repeatedly sided with the strongest protections of free speech in the world. Whether or not the CIA or another IC agency controlled the Alethea Group, it behaved as either a front group or an intermediary of the IC. It could be that individuals in the Alethea Group with ties to the IC were acting more through a common ideology, or in service of a political party. We may never know. What we do know is that their goals and behaviors are unAmerican in spirit and unconstitutional in the law. CIA and US military employees or contractors must never spy upon or run clandestine operations against American citizens on US soil. That so many of them apparently did so in order to bring America’s most influential social media company under the authority of the IC is a dark moment in American history. https://westminsterdeclaration.org
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
CODA Unfortunately, the dark moment is not behind us. Governments around the world are cracking down on free speech more than they have at any other time since Twitter was founded in 2006. In 2019, Twitter published an internal report, “Content Regulation: Global Regulatory Update,” on demands by various governments for more censorship. “The challenges these types of content laws present are numerous,” company executives wrote. “The laws may, as applied to specific situations, challenge Twitter’s longstanding commitment to increasing conversation and dialogue on the platform.” Government censorship demands have become increasingly severe in just the last five years: — The 2019 report barely mentions Brazil, noting that its data privacy law "will be subject to ongoing discussions..." Today, Brazil is demanding that disfavored journalists and politicians be de-platformed and blocked entirely, at a global level, from social media platforms. https://t.co/gADT5aawFc — The 2019 report talks about the French government demanding that posts be taken down; last week, the French government blocked a social media platform entirely in a foreign territory. https://t.co/v9adq5Q3iF — The 2019 report talks about the demands of the “Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material Act” law in Australia; last month, the Australian government demanded a global ban on such material, not just in Australia. https://t.co/zOCcP8Rxgk For many years to come, powerful voices in Western societies will likely continue to demand more censorship by social media platforms. From now on, the CIA, military, intelligence, and other security agencies must not be among them. /END
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
French President @EmmanuelMacron says he supports free speech, but he doesn't. His government blocked an entire social media platform in an overseas territory. It's a blatantly illegal act done without justification. Macron has dragged the West one step closer to totalitarianism.
@shellenberger - Michael Shellenberger
A CORRECTION AND AN ADDITION: — Three people, Jankowicz, Schlein, and Kaplan, not just one, got back to us. We incorporated their comments in the thread above, but the first post incorrectly says only one person did. — Attached is Zatko's email pushing the Harvard pro-censorship white paper, aimed at the Biden administration, to Twitter staff, which I neglected to include above.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/1🚨🗣️EXCLUSIVE — FOREIGN COLLUSION TO CENSOR AMERICAN SPEECH: New docs from litigation against the CDC reveal the Biden-Harris White House hosted the “Counter Disinformation Unit” from the U.K. gov’t in 2021 to learn about their recommendations to censor speech. 🧵THREAD:
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/2 As a part of the NSC’s regular interagency meetings on censoring COVID-related speech in the United States, the White House hosted the Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU) from the U.K. government in 2021 to learn about their most effective censorship techniques.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/3 This meeting was attended by high-level staff from: 🚨White House 🚨NSC 🚨CIA 🚨FBI 🚨State Department 🚨Treasury 🚨Department of Defense 🚨Homeland Security 🚨Health and Human Services 🚨USAID 🚨Global Media 🚨Office of the Director of National Intelligence as well as high-ranking officers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/4 At this meeting, the CDU outlined how they have been censoring the British public, and these documents expose how left-wing authoritarian governments across the globe are working together to attack free speech.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/5 During the censorship meeting, the Biden-Harris NSC invited the British government to share its censorship playbook. They recommended: 🚨Creating a dedicated hub to lead government-wide censorship efforts 🚨Passing legislation to enable the government to coerce social media companies 🚨Enlisting the Department of State to partner with foreign allies and multilateral institutions to coordinate the global censorship agenda Keep reading…
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/6🚨A centralized hub to lead government-wide censorship efforts: The Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU) is a British “cross-departmental” body that coordinates censorship programs across the whole of the British government. They “support formulation of a coordinated Government response” to the “threat” of misinformation (anything the government deems false).
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/7 The CDU coordinates the British censorship program with private companies such as social media platforms and non-profits. The CDU includes components of the U.K.’s foreign policy apparatus, domestic and foreign intelligence services, and individuals working directly for the Prime Minister in the Cabinet Office’s National Security Unit.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/8 Our separate litigation previously uncovered that the Biden-Harris Admin convened similar public-private censorship partnerships in the U.S. well into 2024.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/9 Around election time, the CDU stood up a “Central Election Cell” to kick censorship efforts into overdrive.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/10 During the U.S. 2022 Midterm elections, the Biden-Harris Administration similarly set up a National Election Command Post within the FBI.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/1🚨FBI SURVEILLANCE EXPOSED: Our lawsuit just exposed that the FBI implemented extensive nationwide social media monitoring ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. The FBI’s National Election Command Post received lists of “multiple Twitter accounts posting misinformation.” 🧵
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/11🚨Enacting censorship laws In the meeting, the CDU shared how their proposal would allow them to directly coerce social media platforms to ensure that the government’s censorship demands were followed. By creating a new duty of care, the proposed legislation empowers a British regulatory agency to demand the censorship of content that the U.K. government deems harmful.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/12 The U.K. Online Safety Act came into force in October of 2023 and is the basis under which U.K. law enforcement officials have threatened to extradite and jail U.S. citizens.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/13 The law parallels recently resurfaced comments made by then Senator Kamala Harris in 2019, which called for the DOJ to punish social media companies that allowed “disinformation” and “misinformation.”
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/14 One of our separate investigations confirmed that the Biden-Harris White House solicited policy recommendations from the British-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH)—the group behind the U.K. Online Safety Act—and adopted commitments to hold companies accountable through DOJ prosecutions and FTC enforcement actions for allowing “online harassment” on their platforms.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/15🚨Establish regular lines of communication between government and social media platforms The CDU also relies heavily on “trusted flagging relationships.” Effectively, this means when the government directs social media companies to censor specific posts and individuals. This behavior of flagging posts led us to initially file the lawsuit, which resulted in the production of these documents and is at the heart of the Missouri v. Biden case, in which we filed two key Amicus Briefs on behalf of dozens of members in the House of Representatives.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/16 Prior doc releases we obtained in this litigation revealed that the Biden-Harris admin had also engaged in this sort of “trusted relationship” partnership with social media companies even before this meeting.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/17🚨International government pressure The presentation appears to show that the U.K. government engages its foreign policy apparatus to further its censorship agenda and encouraged the U.S. to do the same. One of the so-called “significant benefits” of this approach would be, according to the presentation, that this unified front of government pressure would “encourag[e] cooperation from platforms.”
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/18 The U.K. Foreign Office and the U.S. Department of State appear to play important similar roles in this international government censorship partnership. By coordinating across left-wing authoritarian governments, they can manipulate the global population into believing that there is no alternative to massive government censorship of social media, and “industry” would “efficiently implement[] new systems and processes.” In 2021, the U.K. boasted of a close working relationship with the U.S., Australia, and Canada, as well as bilateral relationships with 20 additional countries. This begs the question: how many nations have come on board with this initiative by now?
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/19 The CDU presentation also highlights the role of multilateral institutions in this international engagement, specifically identifying the G7’s Rapid Response Mechanism and the United Nations Interagency Platform on Culture for Sustainable Development (IPCSD) under the heading: “Multilateral cooperation to counter disinformation.” The logos of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the European Center for Excellence of Countering Threats are visible under the heading, “International training and capability.”
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/20🚨Promote leftist dogma Part of the U.K. government’s presentation included a description of a U.K. initiative called the “Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme,” which was active in Eastern Europe from 2016 to 2021. According to their “Theory of Change,” one of the outcomes of this scheme was that the targeted populations would “reduce identification with pre-existing social biases” and increase “support for gender equality” and “liberal democratic values.”
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/21 These terms may sound innocuous, but in practice, they are covers for left-wing social re-engineering experiments. For instance, money from the CDMD Programme was used to fund the “Global Disinformation Index,” which runs an “advertising blacklist” for websites that they allege push “anti-trans narratives.”
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/22 These slides expose the Biden-Harris Administration’s cooperation with ideologically aligned leftist allies to push woke progressive dogmas while monitoring and censoring what Americans think and say.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/23 This release comes on the heels of calls from House Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairwoman, @RepNancyMace, to ensure that the 2024 election is protected from the deep state censorship that was prevalent in the 2020 election.
@GOPoversight - Oversight Committee
🚨BREAKING: Rep. Nancy Mace is calling on President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris to provide all White House communications with social media companies and between federal employees about efforts to pressure social media platforms to censor online content. @RepNancyMace
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
@RepNancyMace /24 Find the full slide deck linked at the bottom of our release here: https://aflegal.org/exclusive-america-first-legal-obtains-new-internal-cdc-documents-revealing-foreign-collusion-in-biden-harris-government-censorship-regime/
@WallStreetApes - Wall Street Apes
Michael Shellenberger says they found a “CIA effort to take over the content moderation at Twitter” “It basically was on track to happen and then Elon buys Twitter” “I do feel like what we're seeing is totalitarianism” America is DANGEROUSLY close to losing all our freedoms. If Kamala Harris wins, Free Speech is over. Our own government is behind The Censorship Complex.
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
10 Shocking Stories the Media Buried Today #10 - British advisors to Kamala Harris have been caught plotting to "kill Musk's Twitter," and now @ElonMusk is saying, "This is war." This damning discovery was uncovered by Paul D. Thacker and Matt Taibbi. The report reveals that it’s England—not Russia—involved in real election interference. It starts with leaked documents from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a group linked to the British Labour Party, showing a plan to take down X. Their "annual priorities" mission is: "Kill Musk's Twitter." Alongside that is "advertising focus," which means a harassment and shaming campaign to scare away advertisers and drain X's revenue. Morgan McSweeney, a key figure behind British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's rise to power, is leading this effort. The report suggests that he is aiming to replicate the success he had in the U.K., using narrative control, political influence, and censorship to shape the outcome of the 2024 election. The leaks also show that CCDH is pushing for new laws to control "misinformation"—all under the guise of combating disinformation, while actually trying to manipulate U.S. legislation. This report is damning, and it shows how much the world's most powerful people hate free speech and the open flow of ideas. Anyone claiming to combat "misinformation," at this point, is clearly your enemy, not your friend. For more details, check out @thackerpd’s thread: https://x.com/thackerpd/status/1848755448674934836 (See 9 More Revealing Stories Below)
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
1) EXCLUSIVE DOCUMENTS: Working w/ @mtaibbi we report on @CCDHate documents showing the Labour Party's political front's objective is "Kill Musk's Twitter" thru "Advertising focus" meaning harass his advertisers. See internal documents provided by a whistleblower. https://x.com/thackerpd/status/1848755448674934836/photo/1
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
Bill Maher just got dinged by one of Donald Trump's most ardent supporters ... he's being sued for a whopping $150 million by Laura Loomer for saying on national TV that she slept with the 45th president. According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ ... Loomer named Maher and HBO as defendants in her suit filed in Sumter County, Florida, claiming that the "Real Time With Bill Maher" host besmirched her good name on his HBO show. Loomer -- a conservative investigative journalist and close Trump ally -- says Maher made the "false, malicious, and defamatory" statements about her during his 'Real Time' broadcast on September 13, 2024. In the episode, Maher told his viewers, "I think maybe Laura Loomer’s in an arranged relationship to affect the election because she’s very close to Trump. She's 31, looks like his type. We did an editorial here a few years ago ... it was basically, who's Trump f***ing? Because I said, you know, it's not nobody. He’s been a dog for too long, and it’s not Melania. I think we may have our answer this week. I think it might be Laura Loomer." Read More: https://www.tmz.com/2024/10/22/bill-maher-hbo-sued-laura-loomer-donald-trump-defamation/
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
#8 - Elon Musk breaks his silence on abortion. He says if the baby is viable outside the womb, then aborting it is “murder.” He called out the fearmongering that tells women that getting pregnant is one of the worst things that can happen to them in life. In reality, Musk says that having children is a blessing, and it “will make you happier than anything else in your life ever.”
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
While you’re here, don’t forget to follow (@VigilantFox) and hit the bell 🔔 for more threads like this one.
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
#7 - Judges Allow Overseas Voters to Cast Ballots in Swing States Despite Never Living There https://vigilantnews.com/post/judges-reject-rnc-lawsuits-allowing-overseas-voters-to-cast-ballots-in-michigan-and-north-carolina-despite-never-living-there/
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
#6 - WHO Chief Doubles Down on Free Speech Crackdown https://reclaimthenet.org/who-chief-doubles-down-on-free-speech-crackdown
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
#5 - John Stewart shuts down Tim Walz after he says Taylor Swift and Dick Cheney in the same breath.
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
#4 - CNN drops brutal fact check on Tim Walz. Walz claimed that Trump “lost more manufacturing jobs than any president in American history.” Daniel Dale responded to Walz’s comments, saying, “If you’re going to say something is simply factual, it should be factual. This is NOT true.” Clip: @GuntherEagleman
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
#3 - Kamala’s Plagiarism Scandal Takes a Shocking Turn https://vigilantnews.com/post/more-kamala-plagiarism-uncovered-as-scandal-widens/
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
#2 - Voters in Tarrant County, Texas, are reporting that the voting machines are flipping their votes from Trump to Kamala Harris. "Reports were that people who selected Trump on the screen were seeing Harris on the printed ballot." - This is according to Tarrant GOP Chair @Bo_French_TX. Credit: @BehizyTweets
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
#1 - Donald Trump will appear on Joe Rogan’s show, which is set to be filmed in Austin, Texas on Friday, according to Politico. During a previous episode, Rogan admitted that life was better off under Trump. Credit: @CollinRugg
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
@CollinRugg BONUS #1 - Something Stinks About the Upcoming Election, and Jesse Watters Can Smell It https://vigilantnews.com/post/something-stinks-about-the-upcoming-election-and-jesse-watters-can-smell-it/
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
@CollinRugg BONUS #2 - Trump Reveals Who’s REALLY Running the Country https://vigilantnews.com/post/trump-reveals-whos-really-running-the-country/
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
@CollinRugg BONUS #3 - How to Get Fluoride Out of Your Water https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/fluoride-free-your-guide-to-water-filtration-and-health-5741827?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=vigilantf&src_src=partner&src_cmp=vigilantf
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
@CollinRugg BONUS #4 - How to Get Ivermectin, Z-Pak and More https://vigilantnews.com/post/how-to-get-ivermectin-z-pak-and-more/
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
@CollinRugg BONUS #5 - The Quiet Killer in Your Medicine Cabinet https://vigilantnews.com/post/the-quiet-killer-in-your-medicine-cabinet/
@VigilantFox - The Vigilant Fox 🦊
@CollinRugg Thanks for reading! If you found this thread helpful, please do me a quick favor and follow this page before you go. While you're here, check out @RealAlexJones' terrifying post-election prediction. https://t.co/iLNgS7DHCx
@AutismCapital - Autism Capital 🧩
🚨MIKE BENZ: "A company called Graphika, which is a pentagon funded censorship organization, received $7M from the Government to make an AI generated network map of people talking about the origins of COVID-19 and used that as a reason to censor conservative voices under the guise of misinformation and protect the interests of Bill Gates and George Soros."
@nataliegwinters - Natalie Winters
Microsoft blatantly lied to @SenTedCruz about its deep ties to Newsguard. Not only do they think they have the right to censor you, but they think you’re dumb enough that they can lie and get away with it. https://t.co/DGhtTtpR1Z
@MikeBenzCyber - Mike Benz
One month ago, Microsoft promised @SenTedCruz it would disavow NewsGuard, the for-profit censorship software firm that singlehandedly decimated or bankrupted 100s of conservative news sites. Yet since the disavowal, Microsoft is still recommending NewsGuard. Why? https://t.co/2Bimt1kpEl
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Across the West, our civilization is threatened by a radical network of NGOs. These groups lie behind almost every crisis of our time—from mass censorship to mass migration. Tomorrow, we're going to expose their war on freedom of speech. 🧵 https://t.co/f2my8f4yxJ
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
In the internet age, information is power. The Left knows the stakes. That's why they've waged a decade-long, multi-billion-dollar campaign to control what you see and say online. I explained how their censorship operation works earlier this month: https://t.co/vNDBYyzQiT
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The Left spent the past decade building a vast censorship enterprise. A shadowy network of NGOs, tech groups and governments working to censor the Left's enemies—not just in America, but across the West. Over the next four years, the GOP must expose + dismantle this system. 🧵 https://t.co/XH2EkdGaoM
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
This operation is a dangerous marriage of public and private power—a global system of security agencies, tech firms, activist groups, nonprofits, media orgs and government bureaucracies taking what they describe as a "whole-of-society" approach to censoring disfavored speech. https://t.co/L6mLLdhyTt
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
All of this is completely unprecedented. It's an entirely new, sprawling system of speech and thought control—far more powerful and far-reaching than anything we've seen the past, built with and for the new technology of the digital age. And most of it operates in the shadows. https://t.co/wzUlFSCaYx
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The censorship enterprise is enabled by a vast ecosystem of "non-governmental organizations" (NGOs). These groups represent a fifth column in American politics—a shadow state that serves the interests of the ruling elite, with no accountability to the society it wields power in. https://t.co/RWL0w9nv5F
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
I went into detail about who these groups are, what they do, and how they coordinate with elites in government and elsewhere in my thread earlier this month. We'll get into it much more in tomorrow's hearing too. But let me briefly tell you why this is of such urgent importance.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
In the 21st century, the internet is the new public square. This is where people get the information they need to understand the world. It's where they read, write, argue, and learn. It's where they shape the ideas that will define the future. It's where politics happens. https://t.co/oJ4xGrtP7E
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
That's why this fight matters. The fight for freedom of speech online is the fight for a free people's right to access, analyze, share and discuss information on their own terms, and to draw their own conclusions. In that sense, it's the fight for self-government itself.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The assault on free speech across the West isn't happening in a vacuum. It's inextricably connected to the war on our shared history, heritage, and identity. In other parts of the West—where the crisis is much further along—politicians admit this openly: https://t.co/wYgCtgEfr0
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
You heard the Australian Premier above: They need censorship to carry out their entire social agenda. In America, too, this is part of a much deeper war on *who we are.* It's a tool to silence the critics of the disastrous social transformation that the Left wants to carry out.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
And—as we'll discuss tomorrow—it's all funded by your tax dollars. The sprawling labyrinth of leftist NGOs, nonprofits, foundations and activist groups that drive this agenda don't just work hand-in-glove with their friends in the federal bureaucracy; they're paid by them, too.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
At our hearing, we'll be exposing all of this with three of the world's leading experts on the vast censorship enterprise—all of whom have been warriors for free speech: @MZHemingway, @JonathanTurley and @bhweingarten. Tomorrow. 2 PM. You won't want to miss this one. — End
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/1🚨NEW: AFL is urging Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to declassify and release the Biden Admin’s classified domestic surveillance and censorship strategy. The Biden Admin’s weaponization of the intelligence apparatus against Americans must be fully exposed.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/2 In June 2021, the Biden Admin released an unprecedented 20-page “strategy” for a “whole-of-society approach” to “countering domestic terrorism.”
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/3 AFL launched an investigation into the Biden Admin’s censorship plan — and the revelations are shocking. AFL’s investigation exposed how “domestic terrorism” was used to justify the administration’s censorship agenda targeting its political and social opponents.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
America First Legal vows to shed light on this unholy marriage and fight for the privacy and the constitutional rights of all Americans. https://www.aflegal.org/news/afl-files-foia-demanding-answers-about-the-biden-administrations-domestic-surveillance-of-americans-and-collaboration-with-big-tech-companies
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/4 As part of the #DeepStateDiaries, AFL exposed how the Biden Admin had drafted a classified implementation plan — described by one official as “crisp and clear,” with “defined responsibilities” across the intelligence community.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/5 This request is another step in AFL’s ongoing efforts to protect the American people from the Deep State and expose how the Biden Admin weaponized intelligence services and law enforcement against: ➡️ Conservatives ➡️ Military veterans ➡️ People of faith ➡️ President Trump
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/6 Here’s what AFL has already exposed…
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/7 The Biden Admin coordinated with tech companies to censor so-called “misinformation.” AFL’s findings were included in amended pleadings in Missouri v. Biden and served as the basis for significant factual discovery in the case and subsequent congressional investigations.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/1 🚨💉THREAD: AFL lawsuit has revealed shocking documents from the CDC, revealing government collusion with Big Tech to censor free speech & promote Biden Admin propaganda. Twitter & CDC collusion⤵️: CDC sends Twitter officials a chart of tweets it deemed to be”misinformation”
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/8 The Biden Admin labeled “pro-life mothers” as potential “radicalization suspects.”
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
We obtained stunning documents from the Office of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention at DHS. They’re describing pro-life Americans as being “radicalization suspects.” You won’t want to miss these… 👀
@JustTheNews - Just the News
DHS 'bystander' training singles out pro-lifers, government critics as 'radicalization' suspects https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/dhs-bystander-training-singles-out-pro-lifers-government-critics?utm_source=mux&utm_medium=social
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/9 The Biden Admin blamed “Trump supporters” for “most of the domestic terrorism threat.”
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/1🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨 Internal docs from Biden’s DHS show their plans to target Trump supports as domestic extremists. The Brennan-Clapper intel group discussed how “most of the domestic terrorism threat now comes from supporters of the former president.” #DeepStateDiaries PART 2:
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/10 The Biden Admin planned efforts to condition Americans to “get into local communities” in “non-threatening” ways and report their neighbors to the federal government.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/1🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨 New docs reveal DHS intel group proposed: ✔️Americans should report their neighbors to the feds ✔️Reclassifying political dissent under the guise of “public health” so that “mothers and teachers” feel comfortable coming forward #DeepStateDiaries PART 1:
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/11 The Biden Admin coordinated the Mar-a-Lago raid — then told Americans it was simply “routine law enforcement” — and used people speaking out against the raid as a basis to justify spying on them.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/1🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨 Docs show Biden’s DHS intel group used Jan. 6 & the Mar-a-Lago raid to justify expanding surveillance of political dissent. The group advocated for “collection based on speech” — as in spying on Americans for criticizing their gov’t. #DeepStateDiaries PART 3:
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/12 The Biden Admin ran classified censorship strategy calls out of the White House Situation Room.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/13 The Biden Admin coordinated with the UK government to censor Americans.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/1🚨🗣️EXCLUSIVE — FOREIGN COLLUSION TO CENSOR AMERICAN SPEECH: New docs from litigation against the CDC reveal the Biden-Harris White House hosted the “Counter Disinformation Unit” from the U.K. gov’t in 2021 to learn about their recommendations to censor speech. 🧵THREAD:
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/14 AFL urges DNI Gabbard to declassify and release the Biden Admin’s classified surveillance and censorship strategy plan in order to restore trust and confidence in the federal government. The Biden Admin’s weaponization of national security authorities must be fully exposed.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/15 AFL will keep fighting to protect Americans from the Deep State and combat the left’s weaponization of our intelligence services and law enforcement against political and social conservatives, military veterans, people of faith, and President Trump.
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Until yesterday, the Biden Administration's "Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism" was classified. Now, thanks to @DNIGabbard, it's public. It's a roadmap for left-wing ideological warfare. 🧵 https://t.co/gKgfob43Xh
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
In June 2021, the Biden admin released its public strategy for "countering domestic terrorism." In a lawsuit, @America1stLegal discovered that there was a separate, classified version of that plan. But the private version wasn't public—until now. https://t.co/eQ6fJtwaGZ
@DNIGabbard - DNI Tulsi Gabbard
As promised, I have declassified the Biden Administration’s Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism. Read it here: https://www.odni.gov/index.php/newsroom/dig/4064-dig-strat-impl-plan-ct-biden https://t.co/p9co00Scge
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
This was written in the early months of the Biden presidency. But it lays out, in detail, exactly what they would go on to do—and how they justified it. By adopting the framework of "domestic terrorism" (DT), they could effectively treat their critics as enemies of the state.
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
What's remarkable about the document is that it's an explicitly ideological vision. Its scope extends far beyond criminal violence—it encompasses online speech, education, gun control, even election participation. It's a strategy to suppress not just individuals, but IDEAS. https://t.co/pHt7f1CjkZ
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The plan lays out a four-pillar strategy: 1) Understand and Share DT-Related Information 2) Prevent DT Recruitment and Mobilization to Violence 3) Disrupt and Deter DT Activity 4) Confront Long-Term Contributors to DT That's a lot of jargon. Here's what it actually means. https://t.co/tVUSssdfuO
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Pillar One is information-sharing—that's the "whole-of-government" strategy in practice. They wanted every arm of the government to be a partner in this. Remember, when this document refers to "domestic terrorism" (DT), we know what they mean—because they publicly told us: https://t.co/5pMXXZfSlu
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Pillar Two is preventing "recruitment" and "mobilization." In practice, this meant mobilizing the security state to censor and suppress right-wingers. We know this, because it was detailed in the thousands of pages of documents we unearthed when I sued the Biden admin in 2021. https://t.co/p5sPcr3EJ1
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The plan lays out the roadmap for how the Biden administration would partner with powerful "third-party" actors—Big Tech, left-wing NGOs, anti-"hate" groups, etc—to implement this censorship regime. I explained exactly how that system worked here: https://t.co/vNDBYyAo8r
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
The Left spent the past decade building a vast censorship enterprise. A shadowy network of NGOs, tech groups and governments working to censor the Left's enemies—not just in America, but across the West. Over the next four years, the GOP must expose + dismantle this system. 🧵 https://t.co/XH2EkdGaoM
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Pillar Three is about transforming the mission of the security state to place a higher priority on prosecuting "domestic terrorism," and pushing for expanded power to pursue that agenda. And that's what they did. In Biden's first year, the FBI more than doubled its DT caseload. https://t.co/FNDCoRdacN
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Once again, we know what "DT" meant, because we saw it in practice. Pro-life activists, parents, traditional Catholics, conservatives in the military—all were targets. The plan goes so far as to discuss putting Americans with no ties to foreign terrorism on terror watchlists: https://t.co/KQUcl8QwOz
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Pillar Four is just openly advocating for the entire federal government to become a vehicle for leftism. It calls for funding "civics education" to teach "action civics" (read: left-wing activism) and wielding law enforcement to "mitigate xenophobia and bias" in COVID policy. https://t.co/OQ3f65tspR
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
Finally, as you can see above, it calls for a ban on "assault weapons and high-capacity magazines." Once again, this was a preview of how they would operate—the Biden admin regularly used the specter of "domestic terror" as a pretext to push for crackdowns on gun rights. https://t.co/mHzulFfeY9
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
When it dropped in 2021, the public version of this "domestic terrorism" plan generated a huge backlash. It was the first time in U.S. history that a president had ever come out with a national plan to combat "domestic terrorism." Even the hard-left ACLU came out against it. https://t.co/dczwcvzxmq
@Eric_Schmitt - Eric Schmitt
But the private, internal one is worse. It's specific, direct, and doesn't hide behind vague, sweeping generalities. When read in light of everything the Biden administration went on to do, their overarching goals are crystal clear. We can never let this happen again. End 🧵
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
🧵 X The Digital Devil's Den 🧵 The place we call X, formally Twitter the Social Media Platform, is anything but that. What lies on the surface is the censorship, propaganda, grifts, scams, and lies, imposing psychological manipulation of the public. What's below is far worse! https://t.co/eaY4nlFiU5
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
As most probably already know, I shed light on some incredibly uncomfortable horrors that exist on X hidden casually in hashtags. These hashtags allowed predators to communicate and mass distribute amongest each other. To make matters worse X is completely aware and complict. https://t.co/v17bN7w0Jt
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
This disturbing material is not there by accident. It had ZERO Guardrails unlike what you see on the surface level of X's Moderation. Many posts are labeled by different categories and some are even given the sensitive content warning, however none of it was implemented here. https://t.co/0MX9CTkIUX
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
The lack of Guardrails in place and the fact it was so easily roaming free looks intentional rather than neglectful. They have the technology to remove all of this right now, but they do not, even when they know it exists. If that doesn't have you saying WTF, brace yourself. https://t.co/noUD4f42tp
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Many kept wondering why the algorithm was never changing regarding censorship. It's because this algorithm is not only used to just control narratives, but also to hide what's below. It's all part of the same system created by Twitter that's now doing the exact same thing. https://t.co/3wM7NX2xvy
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
It's safe to assume that this stuff has been going on for a very long time. This isn't some nightmare shadow part of internet that they tell people about. It is downloadable right from the app store, disguised as social media, and hidden right under your noses using hashtags. https://t.co/8FDMYE9Qtc
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
If your not completely disgusted yet, well it gets worse. Notice how all your "Save the Children" Grifters have been silent. This is because X is their Gravy Train and they don't want to disrupt that. For them the money and the clout are more important, some even defending X. https://t.co/HcW1uaitHO
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
While you are reading this and others scroll their timeline oblivious to what is sitting right below the surface, these illegal activities continue. If anyone says these things cannot be combated they are completely ignorant. Truth Social has none of this grotesque content. https://t.co/SfIcgb3VOH
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Other social media platforms, not just X, have the capabilities to remove all of it too. This problem is likely much greater on larger platforms like Facebook who have also been scrutinized for similar reasons. They all seem to share the same business model, profits over kids. https://t.co/AicommM9k9
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Here's the thing though, it's not just about the profits, there has to be a more important reason not to remove it. I greatly suspect there are some high levels of blackmail going on which allow this to continue so blatantly. All of this can't possibly be true though, right? https://t.co/5SXNQq1tv1
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Let me remind of all the corrupt things they used social media for in the past like swaying elections, suspending a sitting President, censorship of information, psychological manipulation of the public, and getting rich doing all of that. They are very capable of all of this! https://t.co/f0J75j17g3
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
Now X has swiftly implemented Xchat, not as a tool for your security, but as a tool of obscurity for these continued nefarious activities. Once they have their Xmoney implemented then then this place becomes a 1 stop shop for all types of criminal activity. A Virtual Cesspool! https://t.co/uK69ESg73b
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
X has quite literally become the Mark of the Beast not just by name, but by how it operates. You need to pay into the system through the Blue Check in order to make money in the System. You must then have certain numbers to show your commitment to being part of the System. https://t.co/Uvlp2pEsii
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
If this whole thing isn't screaming out the big picture for you yet, let me make it simple. There exists a Digital Epstein Island below the surface level world on X and it's being funded by just you being on here. These dark corners must be scrubbed from existence forever. https://t.co/b3WnWkSzLV
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
If social media platforms continue to go unpunished for this illegal activity happening on their platform, then the existence of it will remain for eternity. Are you willing to remain using this platform knowing what you know now? At what point are you willing draw the line?? https://t.co/IEGUb3IjVd
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
MAGA was willing to boycott Budlight because of Dylan Mulvaney, yet they won't boycott X for far worse. For me, I can no longer stay here in good conscience. The profound depths of evil things that exist on this platform is something I want no part of, so I must leave for good. https://t.co/wuM0dHS6oJ
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
I know I have shared a lot of uncomfortable truths with everyone over the last few years. Hopefully it has been enlightening for you. My work here is now done, but if you wish to continue the conversation, please join me on Truth Social where these terrible things do not exist. https://t.co/1qEvdoxycI
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
🚨BREAKING: Due to our oversight efforts, GOOGLE commits to offer ALL creators previously kicked off YouTube due to political speech violations to return to the platform. BUT THAT’S NOT ALL. Thread: https://t.co/60SsoCK2Yk
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
YouTube also: -Admits the Biden Admin censorship pressure was “unacceptable and wrong” -Confirms that the Biden Admin wanted Americans censored for speech that did not violate YouTube’s policies -Details when YouTube began rolling back its censorship policies on political speech after @JudiciaryGOP began its investigation -States that public debate should NEVER come at the expense of relying on “authorities” -Promises to NEVER use third-party “fact-checkers” -Warns that Europe’s censorship laws target AMERICAN companies and threaten AMERICAN speech
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
Over the past few years, we have uncovered massive scandals relating to Big Tech censorship. https://t.co/aUgWllkPUv
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
During the Biden-Harris years, under White House pressure, YouTube changed its policies to censor political debate on COVID and elections. TODAY, YouTube admits that the censorship pressure from Biden Admin was “unacceptable and wrong.” https://t.co/dGfJK0T0oD
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
Now, to make amends to the American people, and because of our work, YouTube is rolling back its censorship policies on political speech, including topics such as COVID and elections. https://t.co/ni42Ze9dR4
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
What does that mean? Whether you were an established YouTube presence with a massive following like @dbongino or just were starting out to express political views there, YOU will have an opportunity to come back onto the platform if you were censored for engaging in political speech.
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
This is another victory in the fight against censorship. In Aug 2024, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote the Committee a letter admitting: 1. Biden Admin “pressured” Facebook to censor Americans. 2. Facebook censored Americans. 3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story. https://t.co/m2KqiWbY1A
@JudiciaryGOP - House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things: 1. Biden-Harris Admin "pressured" Facebook to censor Americans. 2. Facebook censored Americans. 3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story. Big win for free speech.
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
Even as Meta admitted the Biden-Harris censorship was wrong, others in Big Tech were reluctant to go on the record. Now Google is acknowledging, for the first time, that it too faced censorship pressure from the Biden White House and that pressure was “unacceptable and wrong.”
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
But that’s not all. YouTube is making changes to its platform to prevent future censorship. YouTube is committing to the American people that it will NEVER use outside so-called “fact-checkers” to censor speech. No more telling Americans what to believe and not believe. https://t.co/MFIk0NIAiV
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
YouTube also is trying out Community Notes. @elonmusk was ahead of the curve. Meta followed suit. And now YouTube. https://t.co/1IHDqOKREY
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
And YouTube confirms that Europe is targeting American speech and innovation. Here it admits that European social-media laws place a “disproportionate regulatory burden on American companies.” https://t.co/bbuVnVseqJ
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
YouTube warns that Europe could force companies to remove LAWFUL social-media content and could risk freedom of expression “within and OUTSIDE of the EU.” That’s right. Europe wants to censor your online speech even if you aren’t in Europe! https://t.co/aRBvErnQ61
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
Google and YouTube credit @JudiciaryGOP for bringing transparency of and accountability for Big Tech’s censorship. We will continue to hold Big Tech accountable. https://t.co/lJiEalQZeE
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
Read GOOGLE’s whole letter to the Committee here: https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2025-09-23-letter-to-hjc.pdf
@Jim_Jordan - Rep. Jim Jordan
All the above are MASSIVE wins for the American people, the First Amendment, and freedom. We won’t stop fighting to protect free speech.
@The1Parzival - THE PARZIVAL
🧵 TWITTER ALGO FINALE THREAD 🧵 This thread will serve the purpose of providing a mountain of evidence to @realannapaulina for her congressional hearing against Twitter 1.0 employees for their role in mass censoring Conservative Americans. https://t.co/6Qf24tjJei
@America1stLegal - America First Legal
/1🚨🗣️EXCLUSIVE — FOREIGN COLLUSION TO CENSOR AMERICAN SPEECH: New docs from litigation against the CDC reveal the Biden-Harris White House hosted the “Counter Disinformation Unit” from the U.K. gov’t in 2021 to learn about their recommendations to censor speech. 🧵THREAD: https://t.co/bZ9H8gYQec
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
1) Twitter Files #FauciPharmaFiles Last December, @elonmusk sent out his viral tweet about Fauci. Fauci went on Fox News and said he had "no clue what [Elon] was talking about."
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
2) "A lot of people are spouting out a lot of things about me and Twitter," Fauci told @FoxNews. "I've never had a Twitter account. I don't intend on having a Twitter account, and I've had nothing to do with Twitter. So I don't know what they're talking about when they say that."
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
3) Fauci made similar claims, during multiple exchanges, in a 7-hour deposition, where he denied using Twitter or even knowing how to access a tweet.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
4) But in an internal Twitter report in March 2021, the company revealed "Dr. Anthony Fauci did an account takeover for @WHOCOVIDResponse." This runs contrary to Fauci's public statements and sworn deposition given on Nov 23, 2022.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
5) According to this tweet, Fauci took over the White House COVID-19 Response account again, in April 2021.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
6) Fauci was beloved by Twitter 1.0 Elon Musk tweeted last December that former employees had an internal Slack channel unironically called "Fauci Fan Club." (pssst, don't disagree w/ Fauci)
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
7) Attorney Angela Sherrer, who left when Musk sought to buy Twitter, praised Fauci as "the leading trusted voice about the COVID-19 response in the United States."
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
8) Angela Sherrer was no small fry at Twitter. According to a deposition by FBI agent Elvis Chan, Sherrer was one of the attorneys he interfaced with on "disinformation" at Twitter.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
9) Twitter didn't just rely on the voices of prominent physicians like Fauci. Oddly enough, they also worked with Big Pharma companies and pharmacy chains to shape vaccine marketing campaigns.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
10) In December 2020, Twitter announced they would begin removing and labelling tweets that contained vaccine "misinformation" especially concerning COVID-19 vaccines.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
11) During that same time frame, Twitter began working with Johnson and Johnson on a COVID-19 vaccine "marketing strategy" and with CVS pharmacy to promote approved narratives.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
12) By the summer of 2021, Johnson and Johnson began a full court press to market a ton of their products on Twitter, including a controversial antidepressant.
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
13) Much thanks to @TexasLindsay_ who helped collect and organise #TwitterFiles. We read and read, until our eyes bled. More to come!
@thackerpd - Paul D. Thacker
14) Harvard's @MartinKulldorff who is suing the federal government for colluding w/ social media companies on censorship "Twitter should be a place for people to exchange ideas without censoring." https://disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/twitter-files-twitter-loves-dr-fauci