Censorship: Twitter Takeover Totally Panics Political Regime of LeftLibDemSocMediaTechPol

grarpamp grarpamp at gmail.com
Tue Dec 20 00:19:12 PST 2022


THE TWITTER FILES: How FBI Primed Execs With "Russian Disinformation"
Disinformation Ahead Of Hunter Biden Bombshell

In the latest episode of 'THE TWITTER FILES,' journalist Michael
Shellenberger reveals "How the FBI & intelligence community
discredited factual information about Hunter Biden’s foreign business
dealings both after and *before* The New York Post revealed the
contents of his laptop on October 14, 2020."

    In Twitter Files #7, we present evidence pointing to an organized
effort by representatives of the intelligence community (IC), aimed at
senior executives at news and social media companies, to discredit
leaked information about Hunter Biden before and after it was
published.
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

Continued...

    The story begins in December 2019 when a Delaware computer store
owner named John Paul (J.P.) Mac Isaac contacts the FBI about a laptop
that Hunter Biden had left with him

    On Dec 9, 2019, the FBI issues a subpoena for, and takes, Hunter
Biden's laptop.

    https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad/

    By Aug 2020, Mac Isaac still had not heard back from the FBI, even
though he had discovered evidence of criminal activity. And so he
emails Rudy Giuliani, who was under FBI surveillance at the time. In
early Oct, Giuliani gives it to @nypost

    Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian
businessman to VP dad

    Shortly before 7 pm ET on October 13, Hunter Biden’s lawyer,
George Mesires, emails JP Mac Isaac.

    Hunter and Mesires had just learned from the New York Post that
its story about the laptop would be published the next day.

    7. At 9:22 pm ET (6:22 PT), FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan sends 10
documents to Twitter’s then-Head of Site Integrity, Yoel Roth, through
Teleporter, a one-way communications channel from the FBI to Twitter.

    8. The next day, October 14, 2020, The New York Post runs its
explosive story revealing the business dealings of President Joe
Biden’s son, Hunter. Every single fact in it was accurate.

    9. And yet, within hours, Twitter and other social media companies
censor the NY Post article, preventing it from spreading and, more
importantly, undermining its credibility in the minds of many
Americans.

    Why is that? What, exactly, happened?

    10. On Dec 2, @mtaibbi described the debate inside Twitter over
its decision to censor a wholly accurate article.

    Since then, we have discovered new info that points to an
organized effort by the intel community to influence Twitter & other
platforms

    12. And yet, during all of 2020, the FBI and other law enforcement
agencies repeatedly primed Yoel Roth to dismiss reports of Hunter
Biden’s laptop as a Russian “hack and leak” operation.

    This is from a sworn declaration by Roth given in December
2020.https://t.co/IvTjyYw9iR pic.twitter.com/5iq2ATB3bW
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    14. Were the FBI warnings of a Russian hack-and-leak operation
relating to Hunter Biden based on *any* new intel?

    No, they weren't

    “Through our investigations, we did not see any similar competing
intrusions to what had happened in 2016,” admitted FBI agent Elvis
Chan in Nov. pic.twitter.com/tFPMqbydbA
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    15. Indeed, Twitter executives *repeatedly* reported very little
Russian activity. E.g., on Sept 24, 2020, Twitter told FBI it had
removed 345 “largely inactive” accounts “linked to previous
coordinated Russian hacking attempts.” They “had little reach & low
follower accounts."

    17. After FBI asks about a WaPo story on alleged foreign influence
in a pro-Trump tweet, Twitter's Roth says, "The article makes a lot of
insinuations... but we saw no evidence that that was the case here
(and in fact, a lot of strong evidence pointing in the other
direction).” pic.twitter.com/jJjnczZnA5
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    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).”
pic.twitter.com/HWeaYdvNqo
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    20. Time and again, FBI asks Twitter for evidence of foreign
influence & Twitter responds that they aren’t finding anything worth
reporting.

    “[W]e haven’t yet identified activity that we’d typically refer to
you (or even flag as interesting in the foreign influence context).”
pic.twitter.com/ghGNz4ZzXB
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    22. Then, in July 2020, the FBI’s Elvis Chan arranges for
temporary Top Secret security clearances for Twitter executives so
that the FBI can share information about threats to the upcoming
elections. pic.twitter.com/YXCR2Guxz5
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    24. Recently, Yoel Roth told @karaswisher that he had been primed
to think about the Russian hacking group APT28 before news of the
Hunter Biden laptop came out.

    When it did, Roth said, "It set off every single one of my finely
tuned APT28 hack-and-leap campaign alarm bells."
pic.twitter.com/RKoR4NtH1s
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    26. Who is Jim Baker? He's former general counsel of the FBI
(2014-18) & one of the most powerful men in the U.S. intel community.

    Baker has moved in and out of government for 30 years, serving
stints at CNN, Bridgewater (a $140 billion asset management firm) and
Brookings pic.twitter.com/FggRI2zITX
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    28. Baker wasn't the only senior FBI exec. involved in the Trump
investigation to go to Twitter.

    Dawn Burton, the former dep. chief of staff to FBI head James
Comey, who initiated the investigation of Trump, joined Twitter in
2019 as director of strategy.
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    30. Efforts continued to influence Twitter's Yoel Roth.

    In Sept 2020, Roth participated in an Aspen Institute “tabletop
exercise” on a potential "Hack-and-Dump" operation relating to Hunter
Biden

    The goal was to shape how the media covered it — and how social
media carried it pic.twitter.com/lQSorONUSh
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    31. The organizer was Vivian Schiller, the fmr CEO of NPR, fmr
head of news at Twitter; fmr Gen. mgr of NY Times; fmr Chief Digital
Officer of NBC News

    Attendees included Meta/FB's head of security policy and the top
nat. sec. reporters for @nytimes @wapo and others
pic.twitter.com/3yO5ZIc2Jy
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    33. Then, on Sept 15, 2020 the FBI’s Laura Dehmlow, who heads up
the Foreign Influence Task Force, and Elvis Chan, request to give a
classified briefing for Jim Baker, without any other Twitter staff,
such as Yoel Roth, present. pic.twitter.com/1uhJ39OYSS
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    35. In response to Roth, Baker repeatedly insists that the Hunter
Biden materials were either faked, hacked, or both, and a violation of
Twitter policy. Baker does so over email, and in a Google doc, on
October 14 and 15. pic.twitter.com/MpQTUj6Esl
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    37. As for the FBI, it likely would have taken a few *hours* for
it to confirm that the laptop had belonged to Hunter Biden. Indeed, it
only took a few days for journalist @peterschweizer to prove it.
pic.twitter.com/eD8uk9lefn
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    39. At 3:38 pm that same day, October 14, Baker arranges a phone
conversation with Matthew J. Perry in the Office of the General
Counsel of the FBI pic.twitter.com/26ub4A4uKd
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    41. There is evidence that FBI agents have warned elected
officials of foreign influence with the primary goal of leaking the
information to the news media. This is a political dirty trick used to
create the perception of impropriety.
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    43. “The unnecessary FBI briefing provided the Democrats and
liberal media the vehicle to spread their false narrative that our
work advanced Russian disinformation.” pic.twitter.com/TuUCLNL3Qk
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    45. In the end, the FBI's influence campaign aimed at executives
at news media, Twitter, & other social media companies worked: they
censored & discredited the Hunter Biden laptop story.

    By Dec. 2020, Baker and his colleagues even sent a note of thanks
to the FBI for its work. pic.twitter.com/ZEASt2aXXm
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    47. And the pressure from the FBI on social media platforms continues

    In Aug 2022, Twitter execs prepared for a meeting with the FBI,
whose goal was “to convince us to produce on more FBI EDRs"

    EDRs are an “emergency disclosure request,” a warrantless search.
pic.twitter.com/sENBIi6zPg
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

    Anyone who reads the Twitter Files, regardless of their political
orientation, should share those concerns.

    /END
    — Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

And some thoughts from the peanut gallery:

    Sure looks like Yoel Roth lied when he told Kara Swisher that he
was against censoring the Hunter story. He was initially skeptical but
then endorsed the idea a couple hours later. https://t.co/0Q45VDNpDr
    — Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) December 19, 2022

    Thankfully the @FBI didn’t let a lack of evidence stop them from
spreading their “Russian disinformation” disinformation anyway.
https://t.co/Ro6nM404Ww
    — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) December 19, 2022

    Matter of fact, why did Yoel Roth crack down on the relatively few
Russian bots but do nothing about the millions more Ukrainian bots?

    Did Yoel Roth & the Gov run a psyop on the American people? To
gain approval and $$$ from us?

    Thread:https://t.co/S5n8b6DXhP
    — Sam Parker 🇺🇲 (@SamParkerSenate) December 19, 2022


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