OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The FBI has responded to the most recent installment of the Twitter Files that shows that it was in communication with he staff of the Internet giant regarding posts it believed could be an issue, and people are furious.
“It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency,” the FBI said to Fox News.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, a said that the agency’s response was “chilling.”
“It is not clear what is more chilling: the menacing role played by the FBI in Twitter’s censorship program or its mendacious response to the disclosure of that role. This week saw another FBI ‘nothing-to-see-here’ statement to the Twitter files,” he said.
“Rather than acknowledge the concerns and pledge to work with Congress to guarantee transparency, the FBI is attacking free speech advocates who are raising the concern that Twitter had become an agent of the government in censorship,” the professor said.
“There are some who would question whether ‘working every day to protect the American public’ should include censoring the public to protect it against errant or misleading ideas. There was a time when that was not a ‘conspiracy theory,’” he said.
It is not clear what is more chilling: the menacing role played by the FBI in Twitter’s censorship program or its mendacious response to the disclosure of that role. This week saw another FBI “nothing-to-see-here” statement to the Twitter files …https://t.co/n1XoYuPbTL
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) December 22, 2022
And he was not the only one.
“Anyone who questions the FBI — or finds it disturbing that they’re ‘partnering’ with Big Tech on what should and should not be permitted to be said on the internet — is a hateful, crazy, unhinged anti-American conspiracy theorist,” journalist Glenn Greenwald said.
“If there’s anything taught by history – both distant and recent – it’s that the FBI is the embodiment of law-abiding nobility, and the only way to distrust it or its abuses of power is to be a crazed conspiracy theorist, like the FBI just said,” he said.
Anyone who questions the FBI — or finds it disturbing that they're "partnering" with Big Tech on what should and should not be permitted to be said on the internet — is a hateful, crazy, unhinged anti-American conspiracy theorist, says the FBI.🇺🇸🇺🇸 https://t.co/RGX6nNYE7B
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 22, 2022
“When you thought the world couldn’t get any crazier, the FBI now claims that the words of its own agents in tons of emails revealed by #TwitterFiles are conspiracy theories and misinformation,” Kim Dotcom said.
When you thought the world couldn’t get any crazier, the FBI now claims that the words of its own agents in tons of emails revealed by #TwitterFiles are conspiracy theories and misinformation. pic.twitter.com/Hx9uk5oAmP
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) December 22, 2022
“FBI threatens critics with dog whistle of ‘misinformation’: essentially invites Big Tech and allied media to censor, investigate, and suppress critics of FBI abuse,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.
FBI threatens critics with dog whistle of "misinformation": essentially invites Big Tech and allied media to censor, investigate, and suppress critics of FBI abuse. https://t.co/6fl6mmUCzS
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) December 21, 2022
The files showed that messages were sent on Teleporter, which is a one-way communications platform where the FBI sends messages to Twitter, by FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan prior to the Hunter Biden laptop story being buried.
The message was sent to the man who was Twitter’s head of site integrity, Yoel Roth. And it came hours after Hunter Biden’s attorney, George Mesires, contacted Delaware computer store owner John Paul (J.P.) Mac Isaac, who had Hunter Biden’s laptop.
“The next day, October 14, 2020, The New York Post runs its explosive story revealing the business dealings of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. Every single fact in it was accurate,” reporter Michael Shellenberger revealed in a dump of files last week.
The reporter said that those researching the Twitter files have found evidence of “an organized effort by the intel community to influence Twitter & other platforms.”
“During all of 2020, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies repeatedly primed Yoel Roth to dismiss reports of Hunter Biden’s laptop as a Russian ‘hack and leak’ operation,” he said.
12. And yet, during all of 2020, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies repeatedly primed Yoel Roth to dismiss reports of Hunter Biden’s laptop as a Russian “hack and leak” operation.
This is from a sworn declaration by Roth given in December 2020.https://t.co/IvTjyYw9iR pic.twitter.com/5iq2ATB3bW
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
Additional files that have been released show that the platform’s former executives met often — at times, on a weekly basis — with federal agencies, including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, to flag stories as ‘misinformation’ and to limit the reach of other accounts and users during the 2020 election cycle.
“The information released showed that Twitter had special Slack channels set up where they monitored Trump’s tweets and made rapid decisions about whether to censor the president or add warning labels to his tweets,” the Daily Wire reported.
Much of one thread dealt with the platform’s decision to ban then-President Donald Trump, but there were also revelations that some government agencies, namely the FBI and DHS, were regularly in contact with Twitter officials.
