creeping enmeshment is a 1st amendment violation of freedom of the press .
and is something the left is ignoring but should be very concerned about . The most important revelation about the Twitter files release is not the opaque nature of their censorship regime within the company . The most important revelation is which government agencies (many ) were directing the censorship.
Twitter and other tech giants were having sometimes daily meetings with the FBI especially it's its Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) a subgroup of the agency to combat foreign disinformation campaigns The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regularly attended ,as did the Office of the Director of National Intelligence(DNI) ,the National Security Agency (NSA) ,state governments and “Other Government Agency,” (OGA)...a cover for the CIA . Matt Taibbi writes that OGA was “nearly always” present at regular FITF meetings . The CIA often directed the meetings
Matt Taibbi on Twitter: "42. “Other Government Agencies” ended up sharing intelligence through the FBI and FITF not just with Twitter, but with Yahoo!, Twitch, Clouldfare, LinkedIn, even Wikimedia: https://t.co/HH5PqKO4Bl" / Twitter
Quote:
The idea of the FBI acting as conduit for the Intelligence Community is interesting, given that many agencies are barred from domestic operations.
Matt Taibbi on Twitter: "8.He added he was not “comfortable with the Bureau (and by extension the IC) demanding written answers.” The idea of the FBI acting as conduit for the Intelligence Community is interesting, given that many agencies are barred from domestic operations." / Twitter
Yoel Roth the former Head of Trust & Safety at.Twitter texted that he regarded giving information to the FBI as giving information to the IC [“intelligence community”] by proxy.
Matt Taibbi on Twitter: "7.Roth, receiving the questions, circulated them with other company executives, and complained that he was “frankly perplexed by the requests here, which seem more like something we'd get from a congressional committee than the Bureau.” https://t.co/SrLrdZLREa" / Twitter
Twitter employed so many ex-FBI personnel that they had their own private Slack channel at Twitter . (there was also one discussing covid that was called the Fauci Fan Club...but that is for a different discussion sorta ) They created a chart that translated Bureau speak so that the rest of Twitter could understand the language.
Michael Shellenberger on Twitter: "29. As of 2020, there were so many former FBI employees — "Bu alumni" — working at Twitter that they had created their own private Slack channel and a crib sheet to onboard new FBI arrivals. https://t.co/prVhPGohOC" / Twitter
In return the FBI gave Twitter employees temporary security clearance so they could share sensitive information
So when Twitter censored the NY Post for releases of Hunter Biden's laptop it was dismissed because it was believed that no government agencies were involved and therefore could not be a 1st amendment violation. In fact multiple government agencies were involved in censorship through proxies. This included agencies that are clearly barred from domestic operations .
The FBI also repeatedly tried to link domestic events and to foreign interference . The FBI repeatedly alleged sinister foreign hands were involved in some of Twitter's accounts . They tried to tie pro Trump African Americans to foreign sources . They even tried to link the George Floyd riots to foreign interference.
They tried to get Twitter to relax it's terms of service to give them access to accounts information outside of the legal warrant process.
Michael Shellenberger on Twitter: "18. It's not the first time that Twitter's Roth has pushed back against the FBI. In January 2020, Roth resisted FBI efforts to get Twitter to share data outside of the normal search warrant process. https://t.co/NAssnLMpds" / Twitter
Michael Shellenberger on Twitter: "21. Despite Twitter’s pushback, the FBI repeatedly requests information from Twitter that Twitter has already made clear it will not share outside of normal legal channels. https://t.co/WyI03iZ0WF" / Twitter
Michael Shellenberger on Twitter: "19. Pressure had been growing: “We have seen a sustained (If uncoordinated) effort by the IC [intelligence community] to push us to share more info & change our API policies. They are probing & pushing everywhere they can (including by whispering to congressional staff).” https://t.co/HWeaYdvNqo" / Twitter
This was ongoing as late as August of this year .
On top of that . Clueless' White House had it's own pressure campaign for social media sited to deplatform users who they disagreed with . This included Alex Berenson a reporter from the NY Slimes who's covid reporting went counter to the official government narrative .
David Zweig on Twitter: "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 https://t.co/dFgRmyRB3z" / Twitter
Berenson's account was suspended at the request of the White House.
The problem is that many in Twitter were comfortable with the arrangement if the goal was to get Trump. But a dangerous precedence was set. As I mention in other postings ;once the barn door is open it is hard to close . The misuse could just as easily turn on the Dems .
