Leaders met with federal agencies over Hunter Biden laptop scandal, authorized FBI to flag tweets

Elon Musk’s Twitter posted another round of internal discussions on Friday, which revealed that the social media company’s executives met with federal agencies amid the Hunter Biden laptop story, and that the FBI had flagged tweets it disliked to company workers.

On Friday evening, journalist Matt Taibbi posted a lengthy Twitter thread – the third version of what is being called “Twitter Files”, which includes revelations that federal agencies have interfered in messages on the platform, between other notable issues.

1. THREAD: The Twitter Files
THE DISPLACEMENT OF DONALD TRUMP
First part: October 2020-January 6

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022

Internal conversations via the Slack messaging program showed Twitter executives “enjoying scaling up relationships with federal agencies,” Taibbi noted.

“I’m a big proponent of scheduling transparency. But I got to a point where my meetings got…very interesting…to people and there weren’t pretty generic meeting names,” Yoel said. Roth, former head of Twitter “Trust and Safety”, in an internal conversation.

In a follow-up post, a seemingly amused Roth went on to suggest that his meetings should be titled “Very boring business meeting that’s definitely not about Trump :)” and “DEFINITELY NOT a meeting with the FBI, I SWEAR”.

11. After D6, internal Slacks show that Twitter executives appreciate the increased relationship with federal agencies. Here’s Trust and Safety Chief Yoel Roth lamenting a lack of “generic enough” calendar descriptions to hide his “very interesting” meeting partners. pic.twitter.com/kgC4eGykcO

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022

Other documents suggest that the FBI, DHS and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) met with Roth about the New York PostThe story of Hunter Biden’s bombshell laptop, which Twitter – and Facebook – infamously censored during the 2020 presidential election.

“We blocked the NYP story, then we unblocked it…and now we’re in a mess where our politics are in shambles, comms are angry, reporters think we’re idiots,” lamented Roth in an internal conversation. “In short, FML [Fuck My Life].”

20. This article on the Hunter Biden laptop situation shows that Roth not only met weekly with the FBI and DHS, but also with the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI): pic.twitter.com/s5IiUjQqIY

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022

“Some of Roth’s latest Slacks indicate that his weekly confabs with federal law enforcement involved separate meetings,” Taibbi said. addedsharing another document in which Roth “ghosts the FBI and DHS, respectively, to go on an ‘Aspen Institute thing’ first, then take a call with Apple.”

In another document, the FBI can be seen reporting tweets to Twitter executives, who then sent the tweets to their internal Slack channel called “app.”

“Here the FBI sends reports on a pair of tweets, the second of which involves a former Tippecanoe, Indiana County Councilman and Republican named @JohnBasham claiming “Between 2% and 25% of mail-in ballots are rejected for errors “.

“We just received a report from the FBI regarding 2 tweets,” an internal Twitter chat read.

24. Here the FBI sends reports on a pair of tweets, the second of which involves a former Tippecanoe, Indiana County Councilman and Republican named @JohnBasham claiming “Between 2% and 25% of mail-in ballots are rejected for errors.” pic.twitter.com/KtigHOiEwF

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022

“The tweet reported by the FBI was later played in the Slack app,” Taibbi said. Explain. “Twitter quoted Politifact to say the first story was ‘turned out to be false’.”

Taibbi added that although he was told that the Trump campaign and Republicans had also flagged content, he found nothing mentioned in Twitter’s “app” Slack channel.

“In reviewing the entire Slack election app, we saw no reference to demands for restraint from the Trump campaign, the Trump White House, or Republicans in general. We watched. They can exist: we have been told that they do. However, they were absent here,” Taibbi said. said.

In addition to federal agencies using Twitter employees as lackeys to censor social media content, Friday night’s Twitter files also revealed that company executives had already established the ‘framework’ to ban Donald’s account. Trump long before the events of January 6, and used the Capitol riots as an excuse to ultimately blacklist the president.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangeloand on Instagram.