3 years ago

The FBI and Twitter
By Terry A. Hurlbut
The latest installment of the Twitter Files gives details on something earlier installments only hinted at. First The Intercept reported (gloated?) that Twitter, like Facebook, behaved as a State actor. Twitter Files Release Three confirmed this, but even then gave only a bare hint. Yesterday Matt Taibbi revealed an extensive body of correspondence between Twitter and the FBI. At least one other commentator suggests this correspondence gives the most comprehensive (and comprehensible) picture yet of the Deep State, its inner workings, and its unsavory influence on the body politic.
Twitter as subsidiary of the FBI
Promptly at 1:00 p.m. PST, Matt Taibbi began to reveal the extent of cooperation between Twitter and the FBI. Herewith the thread, with very other tweet:
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857536981032976
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857541414412304
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857546099449869
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857551287730176
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857557080231936
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857566894809103
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857581503569929
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857593721577496
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857603867598859
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857615456534529
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857624633688065
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857632091148288
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857637988339712
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857643440783360
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857656292204558
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857667394527251
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857679675432960
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857692967182336
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857703335600128
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857712638529536
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857725611450369
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857731114393607
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857734725931009
Reaction
J. D. Rucker observes, correctly, that those of us who suspected that a Deep State existed, and that it saw Presidents come and go and did what it wanted, were correct in our suspicions. We also have observed that a private company breaks the First Amendment:
If the government coerces or induces it to take action the government itself would not be permitted to do, such as censor expression of a lawful viewpoint.
(Biden v. Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, 141 S. Ct. 1220, 1226 (2021), Thomas J, concurring.)
This is what the Attorneys General of Missouri and Louisiana, plus five other plaintiffs, now allege against the U.S. government. The Twitter executives these tweets named, are lucky they aren’t named defendants in Missouri v. Biden. But they will almost certainly be material witnesses.
Reaction on Twitter itself varies from Wow to There, you see to Ho Hum. One person asked a very pertinent question:
https://twitter.com/DesertDoll74/status/1603887172423237632
This user identified the central problem in all this: the FBI was directly telling Twitter moderators what to do.
https://twitter.com/RegnisNivek856/status/1603884755065470976
At least one user said, blithely, “The FBI was controlled by Trump.” But the earlier Twitter Files, and the Intercept piece, clearly show that the FBI was a rogue agency determined to remove a sitting President from office, by hook or by crook. And it had help from many other agencies.
This behavior is inexcusable, and its revelation should scare anyone. But as Daniel Goldhagen observed, even Hitler had willing executioners.
Link to:
The article:
https://cnav.news/2022/12/17/accountability/executive/fbi-twitter/