s on Twitter Files, cont’d // (Scott Johnson).
Yesterday afternoon, Matt Taibbi posted the sixth installment of Twitter Files in a 31-part Twitter discussion. The thread can be accessed here . This review was prompted by Taibbi’s Part 6.
* I have posted previous installments here (December 6th, on Taibbi’s part 1), hier (December 11th, on Taibbi’s part 2 and part 3 by Bari Weiss and part 4 respectively by Michael Shellenberger), here(December 14th, on part 5 of Weiss),
* Also see my post on Star Tribune’s representative silence regarding the Twitter Files (December 10), and Miranda Devine’s column in the New York Post on the = hier.
* Weiss had reported earlier this week on the modus operandi for journalists’ document review. It was cited in the relevant part here (December 15,).
* Elon Musk has enlisted prominent independent journalists to review Twitter’s internal communications. This shows his hostility towards the old Twitter’s censorship regime as well as his (perceptive?) understanding of mainstream media.
Musk supports the creation of a new Twitter that allows free speech. He has thus become a public enemy number one in the eyes the mainstream media, the Biden administration and the deep-state operatives at the behest of old Twitter.
* The Twitter Files threads focused on the 2020 election, the removal of Donald Trump from Twitter, and on the nature of Twitter’s censorship system and how old Twitter’s censorship system worked hand-in-hand alongside government authorities such as the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. Old Twitter’s suppression by the New York Post of Hunter Biden’s report on his laptop and the corruption in the Biden family in the weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election is the key episode. It is still in the background of part 6.
Jon Justice invited me to his Twin Cities News Talk/AM 1300 show yesterday morning to discuss my “Notes about the Twitter Files” Jon asked great questions and let me speak. The Twitter Files story is my favorite. It gives us a glimpse into the heart of the show. It gives us a glimpse into the future, both in 2020 and Biden’s heart. It is relevant to our current lives.
* Taibbi’s 6th part focuses on the collaboration between old Twitter and the FBI, as well as other government authorities within the intelligence agencies. Caroline Downey offers this (useful and useful) straight news article at NRO.
This summary is provided by Taibbi at the end of his thread. Twitter was used by the FBI as an arm to suppress “election misinformation” (even joke tweets from low follower accounts). Taibbi describes the relationship between Twitter and the FBI as “master-canine” in another tweet.
3. Twitter was in constant contact with the FBI, as if it were a sub-sidiary.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
* FBI increased its suppression task force to around 80 agents
8. The Department of Homeland Security was one of the federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies that accessed Twitter. It partnered with security contractors to press Twitter to moderate its content.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
* This was the FBI at Work.
11. The sheer number of government reports is what stands out. Some are aggregated from public hotlines: pic.twitter.com/cm9JjEXUSm
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
* Taibbi’s thread suggests the FBI’s work is incredibly intrusive, overbroad, but it doesn’t give much insight into what the FBI considered “tampering” and “misinformation.”
* A feeling that something is wrong descends like fog.
* FBI monitoring included jokes and parody. You can’t be too cautious.
14.Twitter personnel in that case went on to look for reasons to suspend all four accounts, including @fromma, whose tweets are almost all jokes (see sample below), including his “civic misinformation” of Nov. 8: pic.twitter.com/gwiDtPcWZv
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
* Twitter and the government authorities were a big happy family.
https://t.co/9IfX3IPzyi a letter to former Deputy General Counsel (and former top FBI lawyer) Jim Baker on Sep. 16, 2022, legal exec Stacia Cardille outlines results from her “soon to be weekly” meeting with DHS, DOJ, FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence: pic.twitter.com/oE8fDjomNP
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
* Is it a good time to insert the 1984 quote? It’s like this: “There won’t be any distinction between beauty or ugliness. There will be no curiosity or enjoyment of the process. All other pleasures will be eliminated. However, Winston-always there’ll be the intoxication power, which will continue to increase and become subtler. There will always be the thrill of victory, and the feeling of trampled on an helpless enemy. Imagine a boot stamping on the face of a human being to get a glimpse into the future.
