The Twitter Files were released in December 2022 by Twitter CEO Elon Musk shortly after Musk's purchase of the company, exposing constitutional law violations on the part of the United States Government to interfere in elections. Musk declared Twitter offices a "crime scene". While a private entity does not have to respect free speech, the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the United States Government from silencing free speech. Twitter, under Jack Dorsey, prohibited free political speech at the behest of the United States Government.
Background
On December 2, 2022 journalist Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine began releasing the #TwitterFiles,[1][2] otherwise known as Twitter’s internal communications related to censorship, targeting, and political interference. Twitter was working in conjunction with then-Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden’s team, removing tweets that team Biden wanted deleted. According to Andrew Kerr of the Washington Free Beacon, those tweets were either drug-related photos of Hunter Biden or pornographic photos of him.[3]
Reminder: 2020 election outcome would differ with Hunter Biden laptop coverage: poll.[5] Andrew C McCarthy: "FBI Interference in the 2020 Election: The ‘Twitter Files’ Miss the Real Scandal."[6]
And Musk confirmed Bari Weiss to join Matt Taibbi in releasing ‘Twitter Files.'[7]
This initial document dump focused on the decision making process that Twitter invoked to suppress the Laptop from Hell in the run up to the 2020 Presidential election. The internal emails released show that Twitter was absolutely engaging in political manipulation and, after they suspended the New York Post, the oldest newspaper in the United States, looking for some sort of policy justification for their political actions.
According to Taibbi, "The problem with the ‘hacked materials’ ruling, several sources said, was that this normally required an official/law enforcement finding of a hack. But such a finding never appears throughout what one executive describes as a ‘whirlwind’ 24-hour, company-wide mess.” Twitter execs could not find a justification for blocking the New York Post esposé on Biden family corruption under its own rules, so it consulted with the Biden camp and Democrats in Congress and received the go ahead.
In one incredible exchange, Twitter execs receive a list of accounts from the Biden Administration to “review.” The accounts were reportedly later suspended. Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna was the only Democrat that expressed concern that it will backfire, trying to mediate with Twitter execs and reminding them the First Amendment prohibits government suppression of free speech. The Twitter files reveal collusion between government and private sector business to suppress human rights, which is the original and basic definition of fascism.
Twitter rules "were enforced against the right, but not against the left".[8]
The TwitterFiles also revealed familiar name in Hunter Biden laptop scandal: former FBI James A. Baker (DOJ). Baker has been featured repeatedly in the Russian investigations launched by the Justice Departmen It has been commented: "For many, James Baker is fast becoming the Kevin Bacon of the Russian collusion scandals."[9][10]
In a ridiculous but not so funny reaction: former Twitter executive who suppressed Hunter Biden Laptop Story, lumps two separate unrelated entities and calls them both the exposer of radical liberalism Libsoftiktok,[11] and the satire Christian site Babylon Bee 'Dangerous.'[12]
Rep. Kevin McCarthy stated: Google, Facebook should be investigated after Twitter files on Hunter Biden story.[13]
On the subject why major news outlets downplay the scandal, Musk stated "because they were complicit."[14][15]
CNN: Twitter employees were saying "this feels like Russian disinformation" when deciding to censor tweets about the Hunter Biden laptop story.[16]
On Dec 5, White House spokesperson dismissed the embarrassing scandal. KJP: "we see it as an incident...as a coincidence."[17][18]
On Dec 6, 2022, Musk announced, James Baker, former FBI counsel, was fired from Twitter after Hunter laptop revelations.[19][20]
On February 20, 2023 Taibbi posted that there is a massive amount of evidence that Sens. Richard Burr and Mark Warner, chair and vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee (SSCI) during the Russiagate hoax, had influence on Twitter policy in pushing the hoax.[21]
2020 Presidential election interference
- See also: 2020 Presidential election
Twitter imposed new dracoian censorship measures aimed at conservative users in October 2020.[22] One example is labeling criticism of mail-in balloting as ‘misinformation’. James Woods commented the new labeling is clear:
“They are closing down conservative voices completely now. Be prepared that you will no longer be able to see most of my communications, if indeed my account remains open at all. Sorry, folks, but it’s over. And they couldn’t care less what you think. This is the face of tyranny.”[23] |
For the first time in American history social media companies took direct action against a major U.S. publisher,[24] The New York Post when it published a story on Biden-Burisma scandal.[25] The Post is among the top five newspapers by circulation in the United States. Twitter locked the account of the New York Post, banning the paper from posting any content at all. The Post's remained locked out of its account for 16 days. account remained locked.[26] These actions raised serious questions about many social media platforms future Section 230 immunity status.
Twitter and Facebook interfered in the 2020 presidential election by blocking links to the article.[27][28] Twitter and Facebook both had many foreign stockholders.[29] Twitter banned people who posted The New York Post story,[30] including White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany for sharing the article,[31] locked the Trump Campaign account less than 3 weeks before the 2020 Presidential election.[32] Rep. Jim Jordan posted the Biden-Burisma story on a federal government website after Twitter censored the House Judiciary GOP, at which point the link was promptly censored by Twitter.[33] Wikipedia editors censored the Hunter Biden bombshell, and called the New York Post an ‘unreliable’ source.[34] Google also was reported to be meddling in U.S. Senate elections.[35] The Senate Judiciary Committee announced that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey would be subpoenaed to explain the meddling.[36] Former James Comey general counsel James A. Baker (DOJ), who was complicit in the Obamagate and FISA abuse scandals, is Twitter's lead counsel.[37] The RNC made a formal complaint to the Federal Elections Commission which reads in part,
"Respondent’s feud with President Trump is well known, as are its frequent efforts to censor the President’s tweets and the “shadow banning” of prominent Republicans, including RNC’s Chair, Ronna McDaniel, and several Republican Members of Congress. Respondent’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, and other senior executives are prolific donors to the Democrat party and other left-wing causes, with 98.7% of the company’s total political contributions going to Democrats. In addition, there appears to be a revolving door between the Biden campaign and the company, with Respondent’s Public Policy Director recently leaving to join the Biden transition team and Senator Kamala Harris’s former Press Secretary now serving as Respondent’s Senior Communications Manager."[38] |
Twitter failed to act on a viral message posted on its platform containing a doctored image purporting to be a text message between Rudy Giuliani and Ivanka Trump.[39] The New York Post, Gateway Pundit, and Big League Politics all were placed on Twitter's suspension hit list the final week before election day.[40]
Laptop from Hell
- See also: Laptop from Hell
Twitter justified blocking the New York Post's scoop on the Biden Burisma scandal claiming it violated Twitter's "Hacked Material Policy." The policy “prohibits the use of our service to distribute content obtained without authorization” because, they said, they “don’t want to incentivize hacking by allowing Twitter to be used as distribution for possibly illegally obtained materials.” That standard would result in the banning from the platform the Pentagon Papers which ultimately toppled Richard Nixon, the Snowden reporting, the Panama Papers, the DNC and Podesta emails that exposed corruption and forced the 2016 resignation of the top five officials of the Democratic National Committee, and President Trump's tax returns.
Shadowbanning
- See also: Shadowbanning
The second part of the TwitterFiles revealed the systematic shadowbannimg of those, liberals didn't like, blacklisting them, to make sure they do not trend. Which means they silent voices and de-facto censored. The DARK scary part is also that all that was done secretly without notifying the user. [41]
Vijaya Gadde, is noted at this censorship routine.
Charlie Kirk recalled that he was complaining already in 2018. And remarked[42] on the absurdity that, in contrast, (dangerous) Hamas and Iran were not taken steps against.
It also censored the very popular LibsOfTikTok (which was and is merely reporting factual videos exposing radical woke), under a guise of supposed "hate," yet, internal memo revealed that LibsOfTikTok did NOT engage in any hate.[43]Later in the night, Weiss further revealed that @libsoftiktok (LTT), a viral account documenting wokeness, was placed on a “trends blacklist” with a notice “DO NOT TAKE ACTION ON USER WITHOUT CONSULTING WITH SIP-PES.”
Although the account was repeatedly dinged with suspensions for allegedly violating company policy against “hateful conduct,” internal memos from October 2022 acknowledged that “LTT has not directly engaged in behavior violative of the Hateful Conduct policy.”
By comparison, when the home address of LTT’s founder, Chaya Raichik, was doxxed in November 2022, and she reported it to Twitter Support, the company did nothing to remove the tweet.
Political candidates were subject to shadowbanning while they were running for office or seeking re-election.[44]
Several Twitter engineers were filmed admitting to the practice of shadow banning by Project Veritas.[45] Many examples exist of Twitter banning or temporarily blocking conservative individuals.[46]
FBI subsidiary
- See also: FISA abuse and FBI scandal
What Matt Taibbi outlined showcases how various organizations could reach out to Twitter and request content removal. Taibbi concluding, “what most people think of as the “deep state” is really a tangled collaboration of state agencies, private contractors, and (sometimes state-funded) NGOs. The lines become so blurred as to be meaningless."[47]
The FBI’s social media-focused task force, known as FTIF, created in the wake of the 2016 election, swelled to 80 agents and corresponded with Twitter to identify alleged foreign influence and election tampering of all kinds. Federal intelligence and law enforcement reach into Twitter included the Department of Homeland Security, which partnered with security contractors and think tanks to pressure Twitter to moderate content. Social media platforms were enlisted as DHS partners under the auspices of ‘national security’, and suddenly there was a full-fledged surveillance state underway. That system is defended under the shield of ‘national security‘ as noted in the judicial ruling in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (the Trump Mar-a-Lago raid case).[48]
(1) The Patriot Act turned the intel surveillance radar from foreign searches for terrorists to domestic searches for terrorists. (2) Obama/Biden then redefined what is a “terrorist” to include their political opposition. (3) The DHS, ODNI, DOJ-NSD and FISC became the four pillars of this new surveillance system.
Banning Trump but not the genocidal Ayatollah
As Weiss pointed out, Twitter’s treatment of Trump stood in stark contrast to those of obvious bad actors — including Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who remains on the platform despite repeatedly calling for the destruction of Israel. Other world leaders, including the president of Nigeria and the prime ministers of India and Ethiopia, also have not been banned despite posting clear incitements to violence as well as threats to arrest Twitter’s own employees.
Weiss also pointed out that the ban of Trump was criticized by other world leaders, with then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling it “problematic” and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador comparing Twitter to a “court of censorship like the Inquisition to manage public opinion.”
“Ultimately, the concerns about Twitter’s efforts to censor news about Hunter Biden’s laptop, blacklist disfavored views, and ban a president aren’t about the past choices of executives in a social media company,” Weiss concluded her report. “They’re about the power of a handful of people at a private company to influence the public discourse and democracy.”
Ukraine war fake news
- See also: Ukraine propaganda war
When Musk took control of Twitter, he discovered that the Polish government was secretly funding a Twitter account notorious for spreading disinformation about the NATO war in Ukraine, and saw it reported: “One of the largest media outlets in Eastern Europe is pushing out fake news...Chances are that any active Twitter user over the past year [2022] will have seen a tweet or two from an account called Visegrad24 and, most likely, the information contained in those tweets will have been fake...the outfit appears to be funded by the office of Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki”.[50] When globalist Western governments asked Musk to block Russian news sources, he told them: “We will not do so unless at 'gunpoint', sorry to be a free speech absolutist”.[51]
References
- ↑ PETER ROFF: Musk’s ‘Twitter Files’ Confirm Everything We Already Knew, Daily Caller, Dec 3, 2022.
A former UPI political writer and U.S. News and World Report columnist, Peter Roff is a Trans-Atlantic Leadership Network media fellow - ↑ Jonathan Turley Media's Hunter Biden collusion: 'Twitter files' dump has them on defense, attacking the messenger, Fox News, Dec 4, 2022.
Media is too invested in suppression of Hunter Biden story to acknowledge extent of the scandal - ↑ https://www.dailywire.com/news/musk-releases-hunter-biden-files-tweets-deleted-at-behest-of-team-biden-exec-was-key-behind-censorship-decision
- ↑ https://youtu.be/2cxQcHbdWlw
- ↑ Bruce Golding, 2020 election outcome would differ with Hunter Biden laptop coverage: poll, NYPost, August 26, 2022.
79% say ‘truthful’ coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop would have changed 2020 election.
- ↑ Andrew C McCarthy, FBI Interference in the 2020 Election: The ‘Twitter Files’ Miss the Real Scandal, National Review, Dec 6, 2022.
- ↑ Caleb Howe, Elon Musk Confirms Bari Weiss to Join Matt Taibbi in Releasing ‘Twitter Files’ Info, Fox News, Dec 3, 2022.
- ↑ Elon Musk on Twitter: "@DavidSacks As @bariweiss clearly describes, the rules were enforced against the right, but not against the left" / Twitter. (Dec 8, 2022)
- ↑ Jonathan Turley, Twitter files reveal familiar name in Hunter Biden laptop scandal: James Baker, NYPost, December 3, 2022.
- ↑ Susan Ferrechio, Twitter lawyer who blocked Hunter Biden laptop story helped ignite Trump-Russia probe, The Washington Times, December 5, 2022.
A top Twitter attorney who supported censoring the bombshell story about the incriminating contents of Hunter Biden’s discarded laptop computer in the weeks before the presidential election also helped set into motion the FBI’s investigation into now-debunked claims that President Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election.
James Baker, who served as Twitter’s deputy general counsel and vice president beginning in June 2020, spent four years prior to that as the top lawyer for the FBI. It was in that post in 2016 that he linked up his friend, lawyer and Democratic operative Michael Sussmann, with top FBI investigators. Mr. Sussmann passed along claims that the Republican candidate was in contact with a Russian bank. - ↑ Tucker Carlson , Tucker: Libs of TikTok oust campaign was designed to shut down a highly effective Twitter feed,
Fox News, April 19, 2022.
Tucker calls out the intimidation campaign. - ↑ Caroline Downey, Former Twitter Executive Who Suppressed Hunter Biden Laptop Story Calls Libs of TikTok, Babylon Bee ‘Dangerous’, Yahoo, December 4, 2022.
- ↑ Google, Facebook should be investigated after Twitter files on Hunter Biden story: Rep. McCarthy, NYPost, Dec 4, 2022.
- ↑ Fox News Live : FOXNEWSW : December 4, 2022 10:00am-11:00am PST : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive.
"...they were complicit in deceiving the american public and admits that they lied to the public, they are trying to pretend that this is a nothing burger."
- ↑ Citizen Free Press @CitizenFreePres Tweeted (Dec 3, 2022):
@elonmusk criticizes legacy media for refusing to cover The Twitter Files: "The media is trying to turn this info into a nothingburger because they were complicit in deceiving the American public, rather than admit they lied to the public.” —
@elonmusk
- ↑ Townhall.com @townhallcom (Dec 5, 2022):
CNN: Twitter employees were saying "this feels like Russian disinformation" when deciding to censor tweets about the Hunter Biden laptop story. "Some want you to think...that this was censorship by big tech."
- ↑ Breaking911 @Breaking911 (Dec 5, 2022):
WATCH: KJP says Twitter censoring Hunter Biden laptop story is a "distraction" and "old news if you think about it."
- ↑ Bradford Betz, Musk's 'Twitter Files,' revealing censorship of Hunter Biden laptop story, is a 'distraction, White House says, FOXBusiness, Dec 5, 2022.
Musk outsourced his findings to Substack journalist Matt Taibbi who published a thread detailing Twitter’s censorship - ↑ BREAKING: Elon Musk confirms James Baker, former FBI counsel, FIRED from Twitter after Hunter laptop revelations, The PM, Dec 6, 2022.
On Tuesday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced that attorney Jim Baker had been "exited" from the company following recent revelations that he played a role in facilitating censorship on the platform.
- ↑ Paul Farrell, 'Oh, what a tangled web they weave': Elon Musk gets poetic after dramatically firing his Twitter lawyer for 'secretly vetting files on Hunter Biden's laptop' that delayed second tranche of revelations expected from ex-NY Times reporter Bari Weiss, Daily Mail, 07 Dec 2022.
- ↑ https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1627657264428457986.html
- ↑ https://markzuckerberg.news/2020-09-30-doj-targets-big-tech-censorship-election-meddling-racketeering.html
- ↑ https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/10/12/twitters-new-policy-sparks-sad-warning-from-james-woods-sorry-folks-but-its-over-983577
- ↑ https://www.theepochtimes.com/twitter-and-facebooks-assault-on-freedom-of-the-press_3540670.html
- ↑ *https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad/
*https://youtu.be/r4Kcc7a114I
*https://youtu.be/89ByR-vrnc4 - ↑ https://www.zerohedge.com/political/twitter-capitulates-reinstates-nypost-account-after-16-day-suspension
- ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/10/14/election-interference-facebook-suppressing-new-york-post-bombshell-story-of-damaging-hunter-biden-emails/
- ↑ https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/10/14/bookmark-todays-date-big-tech-has-crossed-the-event-horizon-to-protect-joe-biden/
- ↑ "Finalized January of 2011, the transaction included a $450 million investment from Goldman Sachs, $50 million from DST, and $1 billion from unnamed foreign investors." http://whoownsfacebook.com/#Goldman
*https://qz.com/519388/this-saudi-prince-now-owns-more-of-twitter-than-jack-dorsey-does/ - ↑ https://www.wnd.com/2020/10/twitter-now-banning-users-posting-ny-post-story-hunter-biden/
- ↑ https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/15/twitter-bans-white-house-press-secretary-for-sharing-hunter-and-joe-biden-corruption-article/
- ↑ https://creativedestructionmedia.com/news/politics/2020/10/15/twitter-locks-trump-campaign-account-less-than-3-weeks-before-presidential-election/
- ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/10/15/jim-jordan-posts-hunter-biden-burisma-story-twitter-censors-house-judiciary-gop/
- ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/10/15/wikipedia-editors-censor-hunter-biden-bombshell-call-new-york-post-unreliable-source/
- ↑ https://patriotdailypress.org/2020/10/13/google-researcher-warns-google-may-be-shifting-power-to-flip-senate/
- ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/10/15/senate-judiciary-committee-will-subpoena-twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-over-ny-post-censorship/
- ↑ https://nypost.com/2020/06/16/twitter-hires-former-fbi-chief-counsel-as-deputy-lawyer/
- ↑ https://www.scribd.com/document/480341244/RNC-Complaint-Against-Twitter-Inc-Web#from_embed
- ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/10/21/twitter-allows-rachel-maddow-and-an-army-of-leftists-to-spread-rudy-giuliani-misinformation/
- ↑ https://bigleaguepolitics.com/big-league-politics-gateway-pundit-new-york-post-among-news-outlets-placed-on-twitter-suspension-weeks-before-election/
- ↑ Joseph A. Wulfsohn, Elon Musk's second installment of 'Twitter Files' reveals 'secret blacklists,' Bari Weiss reports, Fox News, Dec 8, 2022.
Bari Weiss reported details of Twitter's censorship practices before the Musk takeover.
- ↑ Dec 8, 2022 on TCT show, Charlie Kirk speaks out after reportedly placed on Twitter's 'Do Not Amplify' list, Fox News.
Alex Oliveira, 'More censorship than Hamas': Charlie Kirk tells Tucker Carlson 'Twitter Files' part two confirm his suspicion that he was being censored after speaking out against pandemic lockdowns in 2020, Daily Mail, Dec 9, 2022. - ↑ Ari Blaff, Twitter Suppressed Prominent Right-Wing, Anti-Lockdown Users, Documents Show, National Review, Dec 8, 2022.
- ↑ Ian Miles Cheong on Twitter: "So here’s a question for @elonmusk and @bariweiss: were any political candidates — either in the US or elsewhere — subject to shadowbanning while they were running for office or seeking re-election?" / Twitter
Elon Musk on Twitter: "@stillgray @bariweiss Yes" / Twitter (Dec 8, 2022) [1].- Libs of TikTok on Twitter: "Wow! Elon confirms that Twitter shadowbanned and suppressed tweets from political candidates while they were running for office. ELECTION INTERFERENCE! [2] [3]" / Twitter.
- ↑ HIDDEN CAMERA: Twitter Engineers To "Ban a Way of Talking" Through "Shadow Banning"
- ↑ Kirkwood, R. Cort (August 17, 2018). Twitter Still Silencing the Right? The New American. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
- ↑ [Latest Twitter Files Bombshell: The Deep State Is Really a Tangled Collaboration of State Agencies, Private Contractors, and NGOs], JD Rucker, December 16, 2022.
- ↑ Release #6 – DHS and FBI Content Removal Requests to Twitter, December 16, 2022 | Sundance.
- ↑ Samuel Chamberlain and David Propper, [https://nypost.com/2022/12/12/fifth-twitter-files-installment-details-trumps-last-hours-on-platform/ Fifth ‘Twitter files’ release details furious debate to ban Trump — despite no policy violations], NYPost, December 12, 2022.
- ↑ https://www.sott.net/article/475154-Is-the-Polish-government-secretly-funding-a-Twitter-account-notorious-for-spreading-disinformation-about-Eastern-Europe
- ↑ https://news.yahoo.com/elon-musk-starlink-won-t-block-russian-outlets-165845001.html
External link
- US Political Misinfo Twitter Detection AI List, Kristen Ruby, Dec 12, 2022.