Earlier this month, thanks to new CEO Elon Musk, hand-picked journalists began releasing a trove of "Twitter Files" proving what many suspected for years: That the platform arbitrarily censored and banned conservative voices and users while protecting and promoting left-wing users who echoed the deep state's propaganda. But what many did not know or realize is that federal agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, were in on the censorship.
But now, the FBI is claiming that those revelations were nothing more than a "conspiracy theory" and "misinformation."
“It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency,” the FBI noted, according to Fox News Digital.
Georgetown law professor Jonathan Turley called that FBI response "chilling."
“It is not clear what is more chilling: the menacing role played by the FBI in Twitter’s censorship program or its mendacious response to the disclosure of that role. This week saw another FBI ‘nothing-to-see-here’ statement to the Twitter files detailing how it actively sought to suppress the Hunter Biden story before the 2020 election, gave millions to Twitter, and targeted even satire or tiny posts that did not conform with its guidelines,” Turley wrote on his blog.
“The releases document what some of us have long alleged: a system of censorship by surrogate or proxy. The FBI has largely shrugged and said that there is nothing concerning about over 80 agents working on the censoring of posters, including many American citizens,” he added.
Despite the FBI’s apparent denial and accusations, Turley noted that the released “files [show] a previously undisclosed back channel of contacts where the FBI nudged Twitter to censor posters and Twitter proceeded to do so.”
“Un-freaking-real,” the user known as Catturd noted in a mega-viral post that garnered nearly 90,000 likes on Twitter by Saturday morning.
“If the FBI was smart they wouldn’t have said anything about the Twitter Files,” observed human trafficking activist Eliza Bleu.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald, meanwhile, summed up the FBI’s position on the Twitter Files.
“Anyone who questions the FBI — or finds it disturbing that they’re ‘partnering’ with Big Tech on what should and should not be permitted to be said on the internet — is a hateful, crazy, unhinged anti-American conspiracy theorist,” he wrote.
Anyone who questions the FBI -- or finds it disturbing that they're "partnering" with Big Tech on what should and should not be permitted to be said on the internet -- is a hateful, crazy, unhinged anti-American conspiracy theorist, says the FBI.???? https://t.co/RGX6nNYE7B
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 22, 2022
Kim Dotcom reacted to the FBI’s response: “When you thought the world couldn’t get any crazier, the FBI now claims that the words of its own agents in tons of emails revealed by #TwitterFiles are conspiracy theories and misinformation.”
When you thought the world couldn’t get any crazier, the FBI now claims that the words of its own agents in tons of emails revealed by #TwitterFiles are conspiracy theories and misinformation. pic.twitter.com/Hx9uk5oAmP
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) December 22, 2022
Everyone: "FBI, did you tell Twitter to censor those you labeled conspiracy theorists and misinformation?"
FBI: "No, quit being a conspiracy theorist spreading misinformation."
— Tony Kinnett (@TheTonus) December 21, 2022
Conservative Brief noted that the FBI was definitely heavily involved in influencing Twitter's banning and censorship decisions:
The files showed that messages were sent on Teleporter, which is a one-way communications platform where the FBI sends messages to Twitter, by FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan prior to the Hunter Biden laptop story being buried.
The message was sent to the man who was Twitter’s head of site integrity, Yoel Roth. And it came hours after Hunter Biden’s attorney, George Mesires, contacted Delaware computer store owner John Paul (J.P.) Mac Isaac, who had Hunter Biden’s laptop.
“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,” reporter Michael Shellenberger revealed in a dump of files last week.
He added that those who are researching the Twitter Files have found evidence of “an organized effort by the intel community to influence Twitter & other platforms.”
“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,” he wrote.
Sources include: