{"id":1794276,"date":"2023-01-03T19:50:12","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T00:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1794276"},"modified":"2023-01-03T19:50:21","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T00:50:21","slug":"the-twitter-files-twitter-and-the-fbi-belly-button","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-twitter-files-twitter-and-the-fbi-belly-button\/","title":{"rendered":"The Twitter Files: Twitter and The FBI \u2018Belly Button\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-twitter-files-twitter-and-the-fbi-belly-button%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1794276&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>Matt Taibbi, Journalist, has released the 12th installment \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Twitter Files<\/a>\u201d Tuesday afternoon, the government agencies were able to document the relationship with the social media platform.<\/p>\n<p>About an hour after Taibbi published the eleventh installment, the latest batch of files arrived. \u201cThe Twitter Files\u201d This article explains what caused the Intelligence Community to become friendly with Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy 2020, Twitter was struggling with the problem of public and private agencies bypassing them and going straight to the media with lists of suspect accounts,\u201d Taibbi wrote. \u201cIn February, 2020, as COVID broke out, the Global Engagement Center \u2014 a fledgling analytic\/intelligence arms of the State Department \u2014 went to the media with a report called, \u2018Russian Disinformation Apparatus Taking Advantage of Coronavirus Concerns.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe GEC flagged accounts as \u2018Russian personas and proxies\u2019 based on criteria like, \u2018Describing the Coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon,\u2019 blaming \u2018research conducted at the Wuhan institute,\u2019 and \u2018attributing the appearance of the virus to the CIA,\u2019\u201d Taibbi wrote. \u201cState also flagged accounts that retweeted news that Twitter banned the popular U.S. ZeroHedge, claiming the episode \u2018led to another flurry of disinformation narratives.\u2019 [Zero Hedge] had done reports speculating that the virus had lab origin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Taibbi showed examples of how the GEC\u2019s report led to more explosive headlines that helped shape the narrative around the origins of the pandemic during its early days.<\/p>\n<p>Yoel Roth, Trust and Security Chief, even complained about media&#8217;s attempts to link pandemic misinformation\/disinformation back with Russia. \u201crevelatory of their motivations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">8.\u201cWE\u2019RE HAPPY TO WORK DIRECTLY WITH YOU ON THIS, INSTEAD OF NBC.\u201d Roth tried unsuccessfully to persuade outsider researchers such as the Clemson laboratory to verify Roth&#8217;s claims before he released stories about foreign interference to the media. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AHg4DUbEql\">pic.twitter.com\/AHg4DUbEql<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mtaibbi\/status\/1610394217855033346?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 3, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe GEC report appeared based on DHS data circulated earlier that week, and included accounts that followed \u2018two or more\u2019 Chinese diplomatic accounts,\u201d Taibbi continued. \u201cThey reportedly ended up with a list \u2018nearly 250,000\u2019 names long, and included Canadian officials and a CNN account.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRoth saw GEC\u2019s move as an attempt by the GEC to use intel from other agencies to \u2018insert themselves\u2019 into the content moderation club that included Twitter, Facebook, the FBI, DHS, and others,\u201d Taibbi continued.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">13.The GEC agreed quickly to loop in Twitter prior to going public. However, they were using a technique which had been used before. \u201cThe delta between when they share material and when they go to the press continues to be problematic,\u201d One comms official was written. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ONn9BfYybi\">pic.twitter.com\/ONn9BfYybi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mtaibbi\/status\/1610394232832905216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 3, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Taibbi claimed that Twitter disapproved of the Trump administration&#8217;s claim that communist China had spread misinformation about the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the FBI informed Twitter the GEC wanted to be included in the regular \u2018industry call\u2019 between companies like Twitter and Facebook and the DHS and FBI, Twitter leaders balked at first,\u201d Taibbi wrote. \u201cFacebook, Google, and Twitter executives were united in opposition to GEC\u2019s inclusion, with ostensible reasons including, \u2018The GEC\u2019s mandate for offensive IO to promote American interests.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA deeper reason was a perception that unlike the DHS and FBI, which were \u2018apolitical,\u2019 as Roth put it, the GEC was \u2018political,\u2019 which in Twitter-ese appeared to be partisan code,\u201d Taibbi continued. \u201c\u2018I think they thought the FBI was less Trumpy,\u2019 is how one former DOD official put it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter spending years rolling over for Democratic Party requests for \u2018action\u2019 on \u2018Russia-linked\u2019 accounts, Twitter was suddenly playing tough. Why? Because, as Roth put it, it would pose \u2018major risks\u2019 to bring the GEC in, \u2018especially as the election heats up,\u2019\u201d Taibbi stated. \u201cWhen senior lawyer Stacia Cardille tried to argue against the GEC\u2019s inclusion to the FBI, the words resonated \u2018with Elvis, not Laura,\u2019 i.e. with agent Elvis Chan, not Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) unit chief Laura Dehmlow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEventually the FBI argued, first to Facebook, for a compromise solution: other USG agencies could participate in the \u2018industry\u2019 calls, but the FBI and DHS would act as sole \u2018conduits,\u2019\u201d Taibbi continued. \u201cRoth reached out to Chan with concerns about letting the \u2018press-happy\u2019 GEC in, expressing hope they could keep the \u2018circle of trust small.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chan suggested that this industry could be \u201crely on the FBI to be the belly button of the USG,\u201d This would mean that it would obtain the information via Twitter and then distribute it to other agencies, as it saw fit.<\/p>\n<p>Many agencies demanded that Twitter be used to report on accounts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey also received an astonishing variety of requests from officials asking for individuals they didn\u2019t like to be banned,\u201d Taibbi wrote. \u201cHere, the office for Democrat and House Intel Committee chief Adam Schiff asks Twitter to ban journalist Paul Sperry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven Twitter declined to honor Schiff\u2019s request at the time,\u201d Taibbi continued. \u201cSperry was later suspended, however.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">28.\u201cWE DON\u2019T DO THIS\u201d Even Twitter declined to honor Schiff\u2019s request at the time. Sperry was suspended however. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9PX2Zw5Nzj\">pic.twitter.com\/9PX2Zw5Nzj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mtaibbi\/status\/1610394287992344576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Journalist Matt Taibbi released the twelfth installment of \u201cThe Twitter Files\u201d Tuesday afternoon that documented the relationship between government agencies and the social media platform. The latest batch of files came roughly an hour after Taibbi released the eleventh installment of \u201cThe Twitter Files\u201d which detailed what led up to the Intelligence Community cozying up &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":1762753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[13132,13131,6202,5591,5665,4253,6195],"class_list":["post-1794276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-belly","tag-button","tag-daily","tag-fbi","tag-files","tag-twitter","tag-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1794276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1762753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1794276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1794276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1794276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}