Twitter Files: How Twitter Let the Intelligence Community In

https://t.co/mz7AFonNSn August 2017, when Facebook decided to suspend 300 accounts with “suspected Russian origin,” Twitter wasn’t worried. Its leaders were sure they didn’t have a Russia problem.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

4.“KEEP THE FOCUS ON FB”: Twitter was so sure they had no Russia problem, execs agreed the best PR strategy was to say nothing on record, and quietly hurl reporters at Facebook: pic.twitter.com/O3JtmId6MJ

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

https://t.co/UDnxeU9IGx September, 2017, after a cursory review, Twitter informed the Senate it suspended 22 possible Russian accounts, and 179 others with “possible links” to those accounts, amid a larger set of roughly 2700 suspects manually examined.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

8.“#Irony,” mused Crowell the day after Warner’s presser, after receiving an e-circular from Warner’s re-election campaign, asking for “$5 or whatever you can spare.”

“LOL,” replied General Counsel Sean Edgett. pic.twitter.com/pJyeeGzLtG

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

10.“TAKING THEIR CUES FROM HILLARY CLINTON” Crowell added Dems were taking cues from Hillary Clinton, who that week said: “It’s time for Twitter to stop dragging its heels and live up to the fact that its platform is being used as a tool for cyber-warfare.” pic.twitter.com/hLvh9rTNeP

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

12.The “Russia Task Force” started mainly with data shared from counterparts at Facebook, centered around accounts supposedly tied to Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA). But the search for Russian perfidy was a dud: pic.twitter.com/UKjxyRTSnZ

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

14.OCT 18 2017: “First round of RU investigation… 15 high risk accounts, 3 of which have connections with Russia, although 2 are RT.” pic.twitter.com/MjtuvEZkYY

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

16.OCT 23 2017: “Finished with investigation… 2500 full manual account reviews, we think this is exhaustive… 32 suspicious accounts and only 17 of those are connected with Russia, only 2 of those have significant spend one of which is Russia Today...remaining <$10k in spend.” pic.twitter.com/Kkdyx4HDOr

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

18.The failure of the “Russia task force” to produce “material” worsened the company’s PR crisis.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

20.“Were Twitter a contractor for the FSB… they could not have built a more effective disinformation platform,” Johns Hopkins Professor (and Intel Committee “expert”) Thomas Rid told Politico. pic.twitter.com/J5Q3WYY3YI

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

22.“Hi guys.. Just passing along for awareness the writeup here from the WashPost today on potential legislation (or new FEC regulations) that may affect our political advertising,” wrote Crowell. pic.twitter.com/wbHK1s949y

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

24.Twitter “pledged to work with them on their desire to legislate”: pic.twitter.com/BxMSdG3aNC

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

26.“THE COMMITTEES APPEAR TO HAVE LEAKED” Even as Twitter prepared to change its ads policy and remove RT and Sputnik to placate Washington, congress turned the heat up more, apparently leaking the larger, base list of 2700 accounts. pic.twitter.com/ZydFYFSjLA

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

28.“IT WILL ONLY EMBOLDEN THEM.” Twitter internally did not want to endorse the Buzzfeed/Sheffield findings: pic.twitter.com/9xnr1mpHQo

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

30.“REPORTERS NOW KNOW THIS IS A MODEL THAT WORKS”

This cycle – threatened legislation, wedded to scare headlines pushed by congressional/intel sources, followed by Twitter caving to moderation asks – would later be formalized in partnerships with federal law enforcement. pic.twitter.com/DWSlHkk2cm

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

32.Twitter let the “USIC” into its moderation process. It would not leave.

Wrote Crowell, in an email to the company’s leaders:

“We will not be reverting to the status quo.” pic.twitter.com/T5LCoRrPRM

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

The Swamp gets what the Swamp wants.