Matt Taibbi delivered part 9 of the Twitter Files as a Christmas Eve special last night. Part 9 is an important contribution to the series. I think readers can access the thread beginning with the tweet below, although I can only pull up the first 30 tweets at this point.
1.THREAD: The Twitter Files
TWITTER AND "OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES"— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 24, 2022
When I read the thread last night, it was rendered in reverse, running from numbers 51 (at the top) through 2 (at the bottom). I can’t say I understand how it works or what is going on. I can’t even be sure it has 51 parts (as I found the thread last night and as I see it given on Taibbi’s Substack site, linked below). I find them running through number 56 this morning. I can only say I’m doing the best I can and urge you to review it with your own eyes. It is worth your time.
I found the Twitter format a particularly difficult way to go on this thread. Take it in here via the Thread Reader App, or here as posted by Taibbi at his TK News site on Substack.
At his Substack site Taibbi calls his post of the part 9 thread “The spies who loved Twitter.” He sums it up in the subhead of his post “What we’ve learned so far.” The subhead obviates the need for my usual notes: “The bottom line? Federal law enforcement asserted primacy over all media distribution, a situation normally only found in tinpot regimes.”
The CIA is identified as the “OGA” (Other Government Organization or Other Government Agency) that is involved with “helping” Twitter moderate its platform. The CIA emerges as a prominent player in this respect. Still, it wasn’t the only one. It was only one of the many agencies from the government to “help” Twitter.
Here are a few tweets that caught my attention in the 56-part thread — beginning with Taibbi’s response to the drivel issued by the FBI last week.
3.They must think us unambitious, if our “sole aim” is to discredit the FBI. After all, a whole range of government agencies discredit themselves in the #TwitterFiles. Why stop with one?
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 24, 2022
5.The operation is far bigger than the reported 80 members of the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), which also facilitates requests from a wide array of smaller actors – from local cops to media to state governments.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 24, 2022
6.Twitter had so much contact with so many agencies that executives lost track. Is today the DOD, and tomorrow the FBI? Is it the weekly call, or the monthly meeting? It was dizzying. pic.twitter.com/C8d8jntnC0
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 24, 2022
17. These included Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, Reddit, even Pinterest, and many others. Industry players also held regular meetings without government.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 24, 2022
27.“They have some folks in the Baltimore field office and at HQ that are just doing keyword searches for violations. This is probably the 10th request I have dealt with in the last 5 days,” remarked Cardille. pic.twitter.com/asTlMhs2if
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 24, 2022
The conclusion of Taibbi’s thread (the conclusion, I think) is particularly important.
56.The CIA has yet to comment on the nature of its relationship to tech companies like Twitter. Twitter had no input into anything I did or wrote. The searches were carried out by third parties, so what I saw could be limited.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 24, 2022
Just to make it a little more complicated, Taibbi’s Twitter account includes additional notes and comments on his numbered thread.
It was so obvious the FBI was assigning personnel specifically to look for Twitter term-of-service violations — an effort funded by taxes, instead of fighting crime — that two of the company’s top lawyers wondered what the hell was going on: https://t.co/6fVet54J2z pic.twitter.com/Wyjr7ltFTQ
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 25, 2022
Here is one more.
Here a top Twitter staffer admitted the government’s “aggressive” demands for validation of foreign influence theories could no longer be resisted: “Our window” on independence is closing, he said. https://t.co/9X6nzKtdFG
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 24, 2022
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