Twitter, Media, And Democrats Are All Guilty In The Hamilton 68 Scandal

The most recent chapter of “The Twitter Files” Friday’s break was marked by the release internal communications. Takedown Hamilton 68 falsely claimed it was exposing Russian disinformation via social media. The details revealed prove to be equally destructive for the corrupt media and dishonest Democrats as well as Twitter. 

Independent journalist Matt Taibbi’s most recent exposé provided more details of the internal angst at Twitter caused by Hamilton 68, which Taibbi described as “a computerized ‘dashboard’ designed to be used by reporters and academics to measure ‘Russian disinformation.’” Taibbi explained that Taibbi was a former FBI counterintelligence agent Clint Watts The dashboard was created by the Alliance for Securing Democracy think tank. It was used then as “the source of hundreds if not thousands of mainstream print and TV news stories in the Trump years.”

“Virtually every major news organization in America is implicated, including NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times and the Washington Post. Mother Jones alone did at least 14 stories pegged to the group’s ‘research,’” Taibbi stressed, adding, “Even fact-checking sites like Politifact and Snopes cited Hamilton 68 as a source.”

But there was a problem — a huge problem: “The Twitter Files expose Hamilton 68 as a sham.”

Exposed

In internal communications, it was revealed that Twitter reverse-engineered Hamilton 68’s alleged tracking of online Russian influence. The methodology relied upon a list containing 644 accounts. The Twitter executives ordered a forensic analysis to those accounts. They found that only 36 of them were registered in Russia. Many of these accounts were also connected with Russia Today, which was the government. “news” service.

Taibbi said that “the accounts Hamilton 68 claimed were linked to ‘Russian influence activities online’ were not only overwhelmingly English-language (86%), but mostly ‘legitimate people,’ largely in the U.S., Canada, and Britain.” 

Twitter insiders and email exchanges captured the problem. It is possible to sayAmong other things: “No evidence to support the statement that the dashboard is a finger on the pulse of Russian information ops.” “Hardly evidence of a massive influence campaign.” “These accounts are neither strongly Russian nor strongly bots.” 

Yoel Roth, a Twitter executive, synthesized the following: “I think we need to just call this out on the bullsh-t it is.” But while Twitter brushed reporters and politicians off Hamilton 68’s Russian-bots storyline, the tech giant’s concern about “playing the long game” The project was kept from being called BS.

[READ: The Astounding Saga Of Hamilton 68 Illustrates Scope Of America’s Institutional Rot]

In a terrible Friday thread, and subsequent Article, however, Taibbi did. It was so devastating that Hamilton 68 had to respond with a reply titled “A “FACT SHEET: Hamilton 68 Dashboard (2017-2018).”

Taibbi had basically begged Watts and all those who are connected to the Alliance for Securing Democracy, (ASD), to meet with him before his funeral “Twitter Files” Reporting went live. He was neither amused nor persuaded. He responded with his own response. It is possible to say: “After refusing to answer questions pre-publication, Hamilton 68 and Clint Watts printed a response to the Twitter files that’s both laughable and damning.” He added an addendum Highlighting the changes