Censorship: Twitter Takeover Totally Panics Political Regime of LeftLibDemSocMediaTechPol

[grarpamp]

THW TWITTER FILES:

Twitter Assisted Pentagon's "Psychological Influence Ops"

https://theintercept.com/2022/12/20/twitter-dod-us-military-accounts/

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1605299758431875072
https://twitter.com/lhfang/status/1605293337288015873
https://twitter.com/lhfang/status/1605304933242343426

https://public-assets.graphika.com/reports/graphika_stanford_internet_observatory_report_unheard_voice.pdf

These Twitter Files drops are getting further and further down the
dystopian rabbit-hole. Today's drop, brought to you by The Intercept's
Lee Fang, provides insight into Twitter's efforts to aid the
Pentagon's 'online psychological influence ops.'
Illustration via The Intercept

    One of the nation's best investigative journalists -- who
published documents in late October proving Homeland Security is
heavily involved in Big Tech's censorship regime -- is now helping to
report the Twitter Files. Hard to think of many journalists more
credible to do this: https://t.co/a7G3n1jRVy
    — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 20, 2022

Take it away, Lee:

    2. Twitter has claimed for years that they make concerted efforts
to detect & thwart gov-backed platform manipulation. Here is Twitter
testifying to Congress about its pledge to rapidly identify and shut
down all state-backed covert information operations & deceptive
propaganda. pic.twitter.com/2H2Sf49Xff
    — Lee Fang (@lhfang) December 20, 2022

Continued;

    3. But behind the scenes, Twitter gave approval & special
protection to the U.S. military’s online psychological influence ops.
Despite knowledge that Pentagon propaganda accounts used covert
identities, Twitter did not suspend many for around 2 years or more.
Some remain active.

    4. In 2017, a U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) official sent Twitter
a list of 52 Arab language accounts “we use to amplify certain
messages.” The official asked for priority service for six accounts,
verification for one & “whitelist” abilities for the others.

    5. The same day CENTCOM sent the list, Twitter officials used a
tool to grant a special “whitelist” tag that essentially provides
verification status to the accounts w/o the blue check, meaning they
are exempt from spam/abuse flags, more visible/likely to trend on
hashtags.

    6. The CENTCOM accounts on the list tweeted frequently about U.S.
military priorities in the Middle East, including promoting anti-Iran
messages, promotion of the Saudi Arabia-U.S. backed war in Yemen, and
“accurate” U.S. drone strikes that claimed to only hit terrorists.

    7. CENTCOM then shifted strategies & deleted disclosures of ties
to the Twitter accounts. The bios of the accounts changed to seemingly
organic profiles. One bio read: “Euphrates pulse.” Another used an
apparent deep fake profile pic & claimed to be a source of Iraqi
opinion.

    8. One Twitter official who spoke to me said he feels deceived by
the covert shift. Still, many emails from throughout 2020 show that
high-level Twitter executives were well aware of DoD’s vast network of
fake accounts & covert propaganda and did not suspend the accounts.

    9. For example, Twitter lawyer Jim Baker mused in a July 2020
email, about an upcoming DoD meeting, that the Pentagon used "poor
tradecraft" in setting up its network, and were seeking strategies for
not exposing the accounts that are “linked to each other or to DoD or
the USG.”

    10. Stacia Cardille, another Twitter attorney, replied that the
Pentagon wanted a SCIF & may want to retroactively classify its social
media activities “to obfuscate their activity in this space, and that
this may represent an overclassification to avoid embarrassment.”

    11. In several other 2020 emails, high-level Twitter
executives/lawyers discussed the covert network and even recirculated
the 2017 list from CENTCOM and shared another list of 157 undisclosed
Pentagon accounts, again mostly focused on Middle East military
issues.

    12. In a May 2020 email, Twitter’s Lisa Roman emailed the DoD
w/two lists. One list was accounts “previously provided to us” &
another list Twitter detected. The accounts tweeted in Russian &
Arabic on US military issues in Syria/ISIS & many also did not
disclose Pentagon ties.

    13. Many of these secretive U.S. military propaganda accounts,
despite detection by Twitter as late as 2020 (but potentially earlier)
continued tweeting through this year, some not suspended until May
2022 or later, according to records I reviewed.

    14. In August 2022, a Stanford Internet Observatory report exposed
a U.S. military covert propaganda network on Facebook, Telegram,
Twitter & other apps using fake news portals and deep fake images and
memes against U.S. foreign adversaries.

    15. The U.S. propaganda network relentlessly pushed narratives
against Russia, China, and other foreign countries. They accused Iran
of "threatening Iraq’s water security and flooding the country with
crystal meth," and of harvesting the organs of Afghan refugees.

    16. The Stanford report did not identify all of the accounts in
the network but one they did name was the exact same Twitter account
CENTCOM asked for whitelist privileges in its 2017 email. I verified
via Twitter’s internal tools. The account used an AI-created deep fake
image.

    17. In subsequent reporting, Twitter was cast as an unbiased hero
for removing “a network of fake user accounts promoting pro-Western
policy positions.” Media covering the story described Twitter as
evenly applying its policies & proactive in suspending the DoD
network.

    18. The reality is much more murky. Twitter actively assisted
CENTCOM’s network going back to 2017 and as late as 2020 knew these
accounts were covert/designed to deceive to manipulate the discourse,
a violation of Twitter’s policies & promises. They waited years to
suspend.

    19. Twitter’s comms team was closely in touch with reporters,
working to minimize Twitter’s role. When the WashPost reported on the
scandal, Twitter officials congratulated each other because the story
didn’t mention any Twitter employees & focused largely on the
Pentagon.

    20. The conduct with the U.S. military’s covert network stands in
stark contrast with how Twitter has boasted about rapidly identifying
and taking down covert accounts tied to state-backed influence
operations, including Thailand, Russia, Venezuela, and others since
2016.

    21. Here is my reported piece w/more detail. I was given access to
Twitter for a few days. I signed/agreed to nothing, Twitter had no
input into anything I did or wrote. The searches were carried out by a
Twitter attorney, so what I saw could be limited.
https://t.co/AgcFy71fE3
    — Lee Fang (@lhfang) December 20, 2022

*  *  *

And some reactions:

    Twitter shadowbans me and half the @FDRLST staff for the crime of
having accurately reported out the Russian collusion hoax, but has no
problem whitelisting and amplifying the U.S. government's illegal
propaganda and psy-op efforts against the American people. Unreal.
https://t.co/B996TQ2SmL
    — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 20, 2022

    Media can't report on this story because then they have to report
on themselves as accomplices with the IC on disinformation plays and
censorship. https://t.co/gzuLbRQiaJ
    — Cris Touchdown Balding 大老板 (@BaldingsWorld) December 20, 2022