8. Federal intelligence and law enforcement reach into Twitter included the Department of Homeland Security, which partnered with security contractors and think tanks to pressure Twitter to moderate content.
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9. It’s no secret the government analyzes bulk data for all sorts of purposes, everything from tracking terror suspects to making economic forecasts.
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10. The #TwitterFiles show something new: agencies like the FBI and DHS regularly sending social media content to Twitter through multiple entry points, pre-flagged for moderation.
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11. What stands out is the sheer quantity of reports from the government. Some are aggregated from public hotlines:
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12.An unanswered question: do agencies like FBI and DHS do in-house flagging work themselves, or farm it out? “You have to prove to me that inside the fucking government you can do any kind of massive data or AI search,” says one former intelligence officer.
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“HELLO TWITTER CONTACTS”: The master-canine quality of the FBI’s relationship to Twitter comes through in this November 2022 email, in which “FBI San Francisco is notifying you” it wants action on four accounts:
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14.Twitter personnel in that case went on to look for reasons to suspend all four accounts, including fromma, whose tweets are almost all jokes (see sample below), including his “civic misinformation” of Nov. 8:
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15. Just to show the FBI can be hyper-intrusive in both directions, they also asked Twitter to review a blue-leaning account for a different joke, except here it was even more obvious that Claire Foster PHD, who kids a lot, was kidding:
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16. “Anyone who cannot discern obvious satire from reality has no place making decisions for others or working for the feds,” said Claire Foster PHD, when told about the flagging.
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17.Of the six accounts mentioned in the previous two emails, all but two – ClaireFosterPHD and FromMa – were suspended.
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18. In an internal email from November 5, 2022, the FBI’s National Election Command Post, which compiles and sends on complaints, sent the SF field office a long list of accounts that “may warrant additional action”:
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20. Twitter then replied with its list of actions taken. Note mercy shown to actor Billy Baldwin:
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21.Many of the above accounts were satirical in nature, nearly all (with the exceptions of Baldwin and RSB Network) were relatively low engagement, and some were suspended, most with a generic, “Thanks, Twitter” letter:
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22.When told of the FBI flagging, Lexitollah replied: “My thoughts initially include 1. Seems like prima facie 1A violation 2. Holy cow, me, an account with the reach of an amoeba 3. What else are they looking at?”
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23.“I can't believe the FBI is policing jokes on Twitter. That's crazy,” said Tiberius444.
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24.In a letter to former Deputy General Counsel (and former top FBI lawyer) Jim Baker on Sep. 16, 2022, legal exec Stacia Cardille outlines results from her “soon to be weekly” meeting with DHS, DOJ, FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence:
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