by Sharon Rondeau
(Dec. 18, 2022) — Early Sunday evening, independent journalist Matt Taibbi published what he termed a “supplemental” exhibit to his release of “Twitter Files 6” on Friday afternoon further demonstrating a close and even cordial working relationship with FBI agents regarding their requests for suspension of accounts they deemed to have purveyed “election misinformation” and other objectionable material.
The additional release contains 14 tweets, the last of which states that journalists Bari Weiss and Michael Shellenberger will be posting “more from the Twitter Files” on an unspecified date or dates.
“2.In July of 2020, San Francisco FBI agent Elvis Chan tells Twitter executive Yoel Roth to expect written questions from the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), the inter-agency group that deals with cyber threats,” Taibbi wrote following his introductory tweet, accompanied by Chan’s message, which referenced an upcoming “meeting” between Twitter and the FBI’s “Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF).”
An FBI missive pictured in Taibbi’s third tweet in the series shows an interrogation of sorts to Twitter executives concerning the company’s approach to “official propaganda actors” in light of the Bureau’s claim that “other sources” indicate “state media actors are prolific users of social media” and its apparent view that Twitter was not adequately flagging such accounts.
In a message to a coworker following the FBI’s questioning of its policing of accounts, then-head of Twitter Trust & Safety Yoel Roth, who is no longer with the company, wrote that “the entire premise seems flawed” and denied the FBI’s criticism with, “…in multiple follow-ups with Elvis…we’ve been clear that official state propaganda is definitely a thing on Twitter…”
“My recommendation is to get on the phone with Elvis ASAP and try to straighten this out…,” Roth wrote to his colleague, whose name is redacted from the reproduction.
After Taibbi contacted the FBI for comment on Friday’s revelations, a spokesman told him that the Bureau “regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identified foreign malign influence actors’ subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities,” to which Taibbi publicly responded in tweet #13:
That may be true, but we haven’t seen that in the documents to date. Instead, we’ve mostly seen requests for moderation involving low-follower accounts belonging to ordinary Americans – and Billy Baldwin.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk authorized the files’ release beginning December 2, with Taibbi publishing the first batch followed by Weiss and Shellenberger, then Taibbi again on Friday. Musk has described the platform for which he paid $44 billion in late October as “a crime scene” and often hinted at the upcoming publication of new evidence while unequivocally stating that U.S. government agencies wrongly “interfered” in elections.