Tucker Carlson and Matt Taibbi

Matt Taibbi, one of the last working journalists in the west.

(03:22) The Rise and Fall of Journalism
(14:12) Putin's Rise to Power
(25:22) Western Media's Ties to Government
(36:40) Post-9/11 America
(51:04) The Twitter Files
(1:02:06) Donald Trump and Russiagate
(1:26:16)… pic.twitter.com/1SZWEVixD7

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 27, 2024

Twitter Files Extra: Trump 'Visibility Filtered' Before Election

"Why do we act more on Trump's tweets... and less on some clearly violating tweets from other world leaders?"

Twitter's Internal Communications head forwarded this from an employee to CEO Jack Dorsey on October 30, 2020. Trump was being "visibility filtered" before the vote. pic.twitter.com/Vd8DF5kypk

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) August 9, 2023

Rigged.

Matt Taibbi: 'MSNBC Sucks'

Excellent read here: "MSNBC Sucks," by @mtaibbi https://t.co/6OR6YbUHfI

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) April 6, 2023

Michael Shellenberger - 'Something Seriously Sinister Going On'

👀 Michael Shellenberger on the Moment the Twitter Files Investigation Revealed 'Something Seriously Sinister is Going On'

"It became clear to us over time that the U.S. Government had turned its propaganda and disinformation campaigns, that it had been waging abroad, against… pic.twitter.com/XNoA8Tef4I

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) March 30, 2023

"It became clear to us over time that the U.S. Government had turned its propaganda and disinformation campaigns, that it had been waging abroad, against the American people."

Remember when the media would eat up a story like this?

Now, they're eagerly taking orders from the government and helping in the oppression of the American people.

If that doesn't bother you, you don't care about freedom and American values.

What was taking place at Twitter is a massive scandal.

Since Carl Bernstein isn't going to say it, I will. This is worse than Watergate.

IRS Agent Goes to Matt Taibbi's House While Testifying Before Congress

IRS visited Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi’s home same day as congressional testimony https://t.co/9S5oVKnVhP pic.twitter.com/F4mtAw9TtZ

— New York Post (@nypost) March 28, 2023

While ⁦@mtaibbi⁩ & I were testifying before Congress on the weaponization of the federal government, an IRS agent showed up at his house. What an amazing coincidence https://t.co/gRGSIa3HRr

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) March 28, 2023

This was an effort by the government to intimidate a witness.

If this was a coincidence, it's the most unbelievable coincidence ever.

Biden employs the resources of government agencies to target his political enemies.

Twitter Files: The Great COVID-19 Lie Machine

2.“The release of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Spring 2020 emails… has been used to exacerbate distrust in Dr. Fauci.”
“Increased distrust in Fauci’s expert guidance.” pic.twitter.com/VX2NuONdOA

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

4.All were characterized as “potential violations” or disinformation “events” by the Virality Project, a sweeping, cross-platform effort to monitor billons of social media posts by Stanford University, federal agencies, and a slew of (often state-funded) NGOs.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

6.We’ve since learned the Virality Project in 2021 worked with government to launch a pan-industry monitoring plan for Covid-related content. At least six major Internet platforms were “onboarded” to the same JIRA ticketing system, daily sending millions of items for review.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

8.This story is important for two reasons. One, as Orwellian proof-of-concept, the Virality Project was a smash success. Government, academia, and an oligopoly of would-be corporate competitors organized quickly behind a secret, unified effort to control political messaging.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

10.THE BEGINNING: On February 5, 2021, just after Joe Biden took office, Stanford wrote to Twitter to discuss the Virality Project. By the 17th, Twitter agreed to join and got its first weekly report on “anti-vax disinformation,” which contained numerous true stories. pic.twitter.com/QbJuQ4mROH

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

12. March 2, 2021: "We are beginning to ramp up our notification process to platforms.” In addition to the top-7 platforms, VP soon gained "visibility" to “alternative platforms such as Gab, Parler, Telegram, and Gettr” – near-total surveillance of the social media landscape. pic.twitter.com/HEVXEtxuug

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

14.VP told Twitter that “true stories that could fuel hesitancy,” including things like “celebrity deaths after vaccine” or the closure of a central NY school due to reports of post-vaccine illness, should be considered "Standard Vaccine Misinformation on Your Platform." pic.twitter.com/nOyuw2r5cH

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

16.VP routinely framed real testimonials about side effects as misinformation, from “true stories” of blood clots from AstraZeneca vaccines to a New York Times story about vaccine recipients who contracted the blood disorder thrombocytopenia. pic.twitter.com/EJ9hxLkMI2

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

18. This echoed a report to Twitter by the Global Engagement Center re “Russia-linked” accounts: “While this account posts legitimate and accurate COVID-19 updates... it posts content that attacks Italian politicians, the EU, and the United States.” https://t.co/AtK6GIfTOs pic.twitter.com/mMtilEOgHz

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

20.The Virality Project helped pioneer the gauging of “disinformation” by audience response. If the post-vaccine death of a black woman named Drene Keyes in Virginia went unnoticed inspired mostly “anti-vaccine” comments on local media, it became a “disinformation” event. pic.twitter.com/R5zNyKkEQ3

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

22."ALMOST ALWAYS REPORTABLE" It encouraged platforms to target people, not posts, using Minority Report-style “pre-crime” logic. Describing “repeat offenders” like Robert Kennedy, Jr., it spoke of a “large volume of content that is almost always reportable.” pic.twitter.com/kHhFEZhN8D

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

24.The VP in April 2021 mistakenly described “breakthrough” infections as “extremely rare events” that should not be inferred to mean “vaccines are ineffective.” pic.twitter.com/tlACZeRkU5

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

26.A few months later: “Breakthrough cases are happening.” pic.twitter.com/zDlk8SrW4q

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

28.After about a year, on April 26, 2022, the VP issued a report calling for a “rumor-control mechanism to address nationally trending narratives,” and a “Misinformation and Disinformation Center of Excellence” to be housed within CISA, at the Department of Homeland Security. pic.twitter.com/YmWQtZmoL3

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

30.Even in its final report, VP claimed it was misinformation to suggest the vaccine does not prevent transmission, or that governments are planning to introduce vaccine passports. Both things turned out to be true.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

32. One of its four core partners, Pentagon-funded Graphika, explained in a report about “Fauxi” that because the public cannot be trusted to make judgements on its own, it must be shielded from truths that might undermine its faith in authority. pic.twitter.com/myoTkIysNW

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

34.For this reason, the CDC-partnered project focused often on disinformation “events” involving Fauci, saying “release of Fauci’s emails foments distrust,” and deriding assertions he “misled the public.” pic.twitter.com/ceQk57PiL9

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

36."OFTEN TRUE CONTENT" The Virality Project communications mirror those produced in the recent court case Louisiana vs Biden, which showed Facebook admitting to the WHO that it, too, was censoring true content. pic.twitter.com/2qqbWZROH7

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

38. In the last #TwitterFiles thread, we posted a video of EIP Director Alex Stamos describing that project as Stanford trying to “fill the gap of things the government couldn’t do” legally. (h/t Foundation for Freedom Online). https://t.co/G7xLxebDWM

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

40. By October 2020, Stamos was hinting at the direction of the future Virality Project, telling a national cybersecurity conference that the “Anti-Disinformation” mission needed a new focus.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

42.VP’s partners: DOD-funded Graphika, the National Science Foundation funded Center for an Informed Public (CIP), the GEC-funded DFRLab, and the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics, or CSMaP. pic.twitter.com/G4QsMQyr3h

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

https://t.co/6whUaYR1ja recap: America’s information mission went from counterterrorism abroad, to stopping “foreign interference” from reaching domestic audiences, to 80% domestic content, much of it true. The “Disinformation Governance Board” is out; but truth-policing is not.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 17, 2023

The crime is not that the vaccines are ineffective and cause injury.  

The crime is that there was an organized campaign to censor the truth, smear truth-tellers, and deceive the people.

Matt Taibbi - 'So-Called Journalist'

Taibbi fires back: "I'm not a so-called journalist. I've won the National Magazine Award, the I.F. Stone Award for Independent Journalism, and I've written 10 books." pic.twitter.com/8KrBqg5S4i

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 9, 2023

Democrat Stacey Plaskett disgraced herself and her party with her slimy remarks.

Democrat Stacey Plaskett Can't Handle the Truth

.@Jim_Jordan OBLITERATES Democrat on House Weaponization Committee after she has utter meltdown over Twitter Files authors testifying to expose Big Tech censorship🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/c5pJTCSxja

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 9, 2023

The Democrats believe in censorship. They promote it. They exploit it for their political advantage.

Democrats/Marxists/Leftists are against free speech.

I can't imagine fighting to stifle free speech, just as I can't imagine fighting to kill babies. But that's just me.

Matt Taibbi and the Censorship-Industrial Complex

Matt Taibbi's opening statement on the Twitter Files and the censorship industrial complex:

"Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other companies developed a formal system for taking in moderation requests from every corner of government, from the FBI, DHS, HHS, DOD, the Global… https://t.co/WiLeCYXmvx pic.twitter.com/BbMoSYNiR2

— kanekoa.substack.com (@KanekoaTheGreat) March 9, 2023

Freedom of speech is the foundation of the United States.

The government conspires to shut it down. Federal agencies are at war with Americans.

Thank you chairman @Jim_Jordan for inviting @ShellenbergerMD and me to speak today. It was an honor, and as Michael and I both worried this frightening issue would be ignored, we are very grateful you and your committee took the time to explore it. https://t.co/JIfmn4U6kt

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 9, 2023

Democrat Sylvia Garcia Confused by Substack

Stack around and find out https://t.co/iK4nipgkOl

— Substack (@SubstackInc) March 9, 2023

Did Sylvia Garcia prepare at all for this hearing?

She didn't know Bari Weiss. She doesn't understand Substack. It's like someone plopped her down in the chair and she didn't know why.

She's vice presidential if not presidential material.

Threesome - Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger

I am dead. Couldn’t get to D.C., but nothing but love for @ShellenbergerMD and @mtaibbi who do a heroic job of not completely breaking down here. https://t.co/Wpp41oiweX

— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) March 9, 2023

Awkward.

Wray Lies About FBI and Social Media

Wray: "The FBI is not in the business of being the truth police. We don't tell social media companies to censor anything." @BretBaier: "The Twitter files tell a different story... You're saying it doesn't happen but there's evidence it had." pic.twitter.com/f2D8TSLYhv

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 1, 2023

The FBI told social media companies to censor accounts. The FBI worked to make the accurate, truthful Hunter Biden laptop story disappear to get Biden elected. Christopher Wray is a liar.

Clean up the FBI or defund it.

Sen. Angus King Gave Twitter List of Accounts to Ban, Suppress

Maine senator gave Twitter a list of accounts to ban, suppress: Twitter Fileshttps://t.co/EMZprDo4ZN

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 19, 2023

This is government-backed censorship. The Democrat/Marxist/Leftist attack on free speech is chilling.

Twitter Files: The Russiagate Lies

1.THREAD: Twitter Files #14
THE RUSSIAGATE LIES
One: The Fake Tale of Russian Bots and the #ReleaseTheMemo Hashtag

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

3.Twitter officials were aghast, finding no evidence of Russian influence:

“We are feeding congressional trolls.”
“Not any…significant activity connected to Russia.”
“Putting the cart before the horse assuming this is propaganda/bots.” pic.twitter.com/r8O21QacME

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

5.On January 18th, 2018, Republican Devin Nunes submitted a classified memo to the House Intel Committee detailing abuses by the FBI in obtaining FISA surveillance authority against Trump-connected figures, including the crucial role played by the infamous “Steele Dossier”: pic.twitter.com/uhl7TXYsBC

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

7.Nonetheless, national media in January and early February of 2018 denounced the Nunes report in oddly identical language, calling it a “joke”: pic.twitter.com/IkTXRGrfaH

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

9b. Feinstein/Schiff said the Nunes memo "distorts" classified information, but note they didn't call it incorrect. pic.twitter.com/3ZMVM6XH9p

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

11.Feinstein, Schiff, Blumenthal, and media members all pointed to the same source: the Hamilton 68 dashboard created by former FBI counterintelligence official Clint Watts, under the auspices of the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD). pic.twitter.com/sifFJhBTn6

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

13.Inside Twitter, executives panned Watts, Hamilton 68, and the Alliance for Securing Democracy. Two key complaints: Hamilton 68 seemed to be everyone’s only source, and no one was checking with Twitter.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

15.“All the swirl is based on Hamilton,” said Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth. pic.twitter.com/xqJxVM3knb

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

17.Roth couldn’t find any Russian connection to #ReleaseTheMemo – at all. “I just reviewed the accounts that posted the first 50 tweets with #releasethememo and… none of them show any signs of affiliation to Russia.” pic.twitter.com/wJJ3rmI3Ks

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

19.A staffer for “DiFi” – Feinstein – agreed it would be “helpful to know” how Hamilton 68 goes by “the process by which they decide an account is Russian.”

But, only AFTER Feinstein published her letter about Russian influence. pic.twitter.com/ysPYDuEtOH

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

21.Added another: “It might be worth nudging Blumenthal’s staffer that it could be in his boss’ best interest not to go out there because it could come back to make him look silly.” pic.twitter.com/tP6VZF0PPC

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

23.Blumenthal published his letter anyway.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

25.They expressed this explicitly to Blumenthal’s camp, saying “Twitter spent a lot of resources” on this request and the reward from Blumenthal shouldn’t be round after round of requests.”

“We can’t do a user notice each time this happens.” pic.twitter.com/pcixoeYIyH

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

27.Ultimately senior executives talked about “feeding congressional trolls” and compared their situation to the children’s book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” pic.twitter.com/xk6reot1lf

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

29.The metaphor for the endless Russia requests was so perfect, one exec wrote, “I’m legit embarrassed I didn’t think of that first.” pic.twitter.com/MbI6XrnS18

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

31.Outside counsel from DC-connected firms like Debevoise and Plimpton advised Twitter to use language like, “With respect to particular hashtags, we take seriously any activity that may represent an abuse of our platform.” pic.twitter.com/DW5nO9Syh5

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

33.Russians weren’t just blamed for #ReleaseTheMemo but #SchumerShutdown, #ParklandShooting, even #GunControlNow – to “widen the divide,” according to the New York Times. pic.twitter.com/L7qZWwcyON

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

35.NBC, Politico, AP, Times, Business Insider, and other media outlets who played up the “Russian bots” story – even Rolling Stone – all declined to comment for this story.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

37. Who did comment? Devin Nunes. "Schiff and the Democrats falsely claimed Russians were behind the Release the Memo hashtag, all my investigative work... By spreading the Russia collusion hoax, they instigated one of the greatest outbreaks of mass delusion in U.S. history.”

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

39.For more, watch @ShellenbergerMD, @BariWeiss, @LHFang, @DavidZweig, @AlexBerenson, and more.

Read https://t.co/7BmQRqfy4p for more on why “America Needs Truth and Reconciliation on Russiagate.”

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

40.Twitter had no editorial input on this story. Searches were carried out by third parties, so the documents could be limited.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 12, 2023

Devin Nunes: VINDICATED

Federal Government Censored Political Speech of Americans

Thanks to new reporting from @mtaibbi, who’s spent weeks sifting through previously-secret Twitter files, we know that the federal government’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies enthusiastically joined the effort to censor the political speech of American citizens. pic.twitter.com/rtmuvt1Yhj

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) January 5, 2023

Twitter Files: The FBI 'Belly Button'

https://t.co/C7kGNwToWZ 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.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

4.The GEC flagged accounts as “Russian personas and proxies” based on criteria like, “Describing the Coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon,” blaming “research conducted at the Wuhan institute,” and “attributing the appearance of the virus to the CIA.” pic.twitter.com/a4xBotQZ2m

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

6.The GEC still led directly to news stories like the AFP’s headline, “Russia-linked disinformation campaign led to coronavirus alarm, US says,” and a Politico story about how “Russian, Chinese, Iranian Disinformation Narratives Echo One Another.” pic.twitter.com/iLEZVJ19rH

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

8.“WE’RE HAPPY TO WORK DIRECTLY WITH YOU ON THIS, INSTEAD OF NBC.” Roth tried in vain to convince outsider researchers like the Clemson lab to check with them before pushing stories about foreign interference to media. pic.twitter.com/AHg4DUbEql

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

10.When the State Department/GEC – remember this was 2020, during the Trump administration – wanted to publicize a list of 5,500 accounts it claimed would “amplify Chinese propaganda and disinformation” about COVID, Twitter analysts were beside themselves.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

11.The GEC report appeared based on DHS data circulated earlier that week, and included accounts that followed “two or more” Chinese diplomatic accounts. They reportedly ended up with a list “nearly 250,000” names long, and included Canadian officials and a CNN account: pic.twitter.com/GYi4YuPdyu

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

The government cannot be trusted.

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.

U.S. Government Silences Americans

Most people don’t appreciate the significance of the point Matt was making:

*Every* social media company is engaged in heavy censorship, with significant involvement of and, at times, explicit direction of the government.

Google frequently makes links disappear, for example.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 27, 2022

This story is huge.

Half the country is too clueless to see the problem or too brainwashed to care.

The Twitter Files: How Twitter Rigged the COVID Debate

2. So far the Twitter Files have focused on evidence of Twitter’s secret blacklists; how the company functioned as a kind of subsidiary of the FBI; and how execs rewrote the platform’s rules to accommodate their own political desires.

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

4. The United States government pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to elevate certain content and suppress other content about Covid-19.

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

6. At the onset of the pandemic, according to meeting notes, the Trump admin was especially concerned about panic buying. They came looking for “help from the tech companies to combat misinformation” about “runs on grocery stores.” But . . . there were runs on grocery stores. pic.twitter.com/duzk2I1Y7T

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

8. When the Biden admin took over, one of their first meeting requests with Twitter executives was on Covid. The focus was on “anti-vaxxer accounts.” Especially Alex Berenson: pic.twitter.com/yBNeF2YbD3

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

10. Berenson sued (and then settled with) Twitter. In the legal process Twitter was compelled to release certain internal communications, which showed direct White House pressure on the company to take action on Berenson.

​​https://t.co/CHt0s7ZqfQ pic.twitter.com/dFgRmyRB3z

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

12. Culbertson wrote that the Biden team was “very angry” that Twitter had not been more aggressive in deplatforming multiple accounts. They wanted Twitter to do more. pic.twitter.com/lZTQV3yKeZ

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

14. But Twitter did suppress views—many from doctors and scientific experts—that conflicted with the official positions of the White House. As a result, legitimate findings and questions that would have expanded the public debate went missing.

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

16. Second, contractors, in places like the Philippines, also moderated content. They were given decision trees to aid in the process, but tasking non experts to adjudicate tweets on complex topics like myocarditis and mask efficacy data was destined for a significant error rate pic.twitter.com/lTISX00mo7

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

18. With Covid, this bias bent heavily toward establishment dogmas.

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

20. Exhibit A: Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School, tweeted views at odds with US public health authorities and the American left, the political affiliation of nearly the entire staff at Twitter. pic.twitter.com/K3kwQIdzHG

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

22. But Kulldorff’s statement was an expert’s opinion—one which also happened to be in line with vaccine policies in numerous other countries. Yet it was deemed “false information” by Twitter moderators merely because it differed from CDC guidelines.

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

24. In my review of internal files, I found countless instances of tweets labeled as “misleading” or taken down entirely, sometimes triggering account suspensions, simply because they veered from CDC guidance or differed from establishment views.

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

26. Internal records showed that a bot had flagged the tweet, and that it received many “tattles” (what the system amusingly called reports from users). That triggered a manual review by a human who– despite the tweet showing actual CDC data–nevertheless labeled it “Misleading”

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

28. Whether by humans or algorithms, content that was contrarian but true was still subject to getting flagged or suppressed

This tweet was labeled “Misleading,” even though the owner of this account, @_euzebiusz_, a physician, was referring to the results of a published study pic.twitter.com/i1MeLFvYQt

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

30. A review of Twitter log files revealed that an internal audit, conducted after Bostom’s attorney contacted Twitter, found that only 1 of Bostom’s 5 violations were valid. pic.twitter.com/ohlmHFOuQX

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

32. That this tweet was not only flagged by a bot, but its violation manually affirmed by a staff member is telling of both the algorithmic and human bias at play. Bostom’s account was suspended for months and was finally restored on Christmas Day.

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

34. In a surreal exchange, Jim Baker, at the time Twitter’s Deputy General Counsel, asks why telling people to not be afraid wasn’t a violation of Twitter’s Covid-19 misinformation policy. pic.twitter.com/SxvOKcvaT7

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

36. Remember @KelleyKga with the CDC data tweet? Twitter’s response to her is clarifying: “we will prioritize review and labeling of content that could lead to increased exposure or transmission.” pic.twitter.com/0izri6Vrfb

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

38. Information that challenged that view, such as showing harms of vaccines, or that could be perceived as downplaying the risks of Covid, especially to children, was subject to moderation, and even suppression. No matter whether such views were correct or adopted abroad.

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

40. Thanks to @ShellenbergerMD, @lwoodhouse, @lhfang and the team @thefp for their help reporting this story.

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

41. An expanded version of this thread is available now @thefp! https://t.co/3QnsdJk40j

— David Zweig (@davidzweig) December 26, 2022

(Many of whom were, of course, actively suppressed on Twitter)

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 26, 2022

The liars on the Left would still be lying and silencing voices if Elon Musk had not bought Twitter.

These horrible people would still be keeping the truth from the people by serving the Biden Regime, the Deep State, the Uniparty.

The media's war on truth continues, but we now have access to the truth.

Twitter suppressed true information from doctors and public-health experts that was at odds with U.S. government policy.

This is a story, by @davidzweig, that impacted every American...whether or not they have ever logged onto Twitter.https://t.co/s9WhcFXVCf

— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 26, 2022

The FBI and Hunter Biden's Laptop

We don't know if the FBI agents who warned Twitter of "hack-and-leak" operation involving Hunter Biden knew that a) FBI had Biden's laptop, or b) Giuliani was giving it to NY Post

But they didn't need to know that. They could have simply been following orders.

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 21, 2022

It *appears* as though FBI employees and former employees worked together to cover up evidence of criminal activity on Hunter Biden's laptop, perhaps with political motivations, and interfered in an election. That *appearance* is enough for a Sp. Prosecutor & Cong. investigation.

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 21, 2022

But if FBI agents had, in fact, been engaged in a influence operation aimed at influencing the election, through the manipulation of mainstream reporters and senior execs. at Twitter & Facebook, we need to root them out, reckon with the implications, & de-politicize the FBI.

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 21, 2022

The evidence laid out in this Twitter thread is sufficient to trigger a Congressional investigation and/or a Special Prosecutor to DoJ. There is much more evidence out there. A large, independent, and professional team must go get it. https://t.co/FrAAdZHf6l

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 21, 2022

There's a lot of noise around Twitter right now but it's clear that @elonmusk has performed a vital public service in allowing thes Files to come to light. At a time when his legal team is swamped with other issues, they have taken time to get us all the docs we request.

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 21, 2022

Now it's back to work for me! 😅❤️🙏

/END

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 21, 2022