The FBI regularly communicated with content moderators at Twitter to ask for tweets to be taken down, according to the latest instalment of the Twitter Files released by Matt Taibbi. The American author, journalist and podcaster claims that the FBI even asked for jokes to be taken down from the social media site if they contained what it felt was misinformation.
According to Taibbi, the Twitter Files reveal more each day about how the US government collects, analyses and flags social media content. He branded Twitter’s contact with the FBI as "constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary".
In posts shared by Twitter owner Elon Musk, Taibbi said: "Between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth."
Taibbi has been tracking FBI activity for several years. He revealed that the FBI created a social media-focused task force six years ago known as FTIF, which grew to 80 agents and corresponded with Twitter to identify alleged foreign influence and election tampering of all kinds.
He said that the FBI sent suspect social media content to Twitter through multiple entry points pre-flagged for moderation, quoting the example of the San Francisco office sending an email flagging four accounts that "may potentially constitute violations of Twitter's Terms of Service".
Taibbi admits that he was surprised to find a high number of requests for action on election misinformation which included joke tweets. He said many of these tweets were from users with very low follower counts who had engaged in satire or humour. He gave the example of the FBI flagging user Claire Foster, who had tweeted: "I'm a ballot counter in my state. If you're not wearing a mask, I'm not counting your vote. #safetyfirst" and, "For every negative comment on this post I'm adding another vote for the democrats."
Taibbi added on Twitter: "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.
"Once we had a standard in this country that the FBI had to at least have some indication of possible crime to initiate investigations. No longer. They can “pre-assess” at will, with no chargeable crime in sight."
When alerted to the FBI complaint by Taibbi, Claire Foster responded in a tweet: "Anyone who cannot discern obvious satire from reality has no place making decisions for others or working for the feds."
The New York Post reported a short statement from the FBI saying: "The FBI regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identified foreign malign influence actors' subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities. Private sector entities independently make decisions about what, if any, action they take on their platforms and for their customers after the FBI has notified them."
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