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Notes -
Twitter Files 6
I thought we were done with this, but it seems not. Link
TF6 is written by Taibbi and covers the relationship between Twitter and the FBI + DHS. The arguments in order:
Twitter's senior/important staff were in constant contact with the FBI (Evidence/Example: 150 emails between Yoel Roth and the FBI from Jan 2020 to Nov 2022)
The FBI had a task force centered on identifying alleged foreign interference in our elections. This was made in 2016 and grew to 80 people eventually.
The FBI and DHS had separate entry points into Twitter's reporting system compared to other people so that Twitter knew it was the federal government requesting moderation, not just some randoms.
There were a great deal of requests made, with Taibbi alleging that humorless people must have been doing the ground-level collection because many of the flagged posts were obviously jokes (or, not obviously serious). Supposedly, the requests weren't that completely partisan, with a few left-wing jokesters getting flagged by the FBI as well.
Many accounts were tiny, with some having follower counts below 10. It seems whoever was collecting all this from the government's side took no chances and combed through everyone, something even Twitter's staff noted.
State governments were also involved, with one incident involving California officials asking Twitter why no action was taken against a flagged tweet.
Taibbi closes with the following:
I've said before that not every TF release is equal, with several coming across to me as limp and very much known to both sides beforehand. This is no exception, The Intercept had thoroughly covered attempts by the DHS to remove "misinformation" from social media a few months ago. I'm genuinely unsure what Taibbi or any of the other TF reporters think was revealed here. More evidence to throw onto an argument is always good, don't get me wrong, but there's nothing here that wasn't provable prior to this.
That's not to say what was going on is acceptable, I outlined my rejection of this state of affairs here. Only that none of this was even unknown or outside the mainstream.
So uh... there's a wikipedia page about the recent suspensions, and it's dubbed the "Thursday Night Massacre". Three letter agencies involved in the generation of such pages? I'm genuinely asking.
"Thursday Night Massacre" is something dreamed up by some online keyboard-basher. Journalists are so self-important, they really do need to realise that they are not Lois Lane and this is not The Daily Planet, their job is to generate eyeball-grabbing content so their employers can sell ad clicks.
What makes it even funnier is that the suspension only lasted one day, so Mr. "I Am So Important, I'm One of the Gang Of Eight Persecuted" barely had time to get his piece out to make the most of his martyrdom. Though apparently he also fancies himself as a techie, which makes me ask "so why does he need a sideline churning out written content?"
I absolutely hate the fact that, due to the reactions that 90% of what Elon does now causes in the likes of this guy, they're starting to make me take his side. I don't like Elon! Back when these same guys were all over him as their tech hero I didn't like him! But the self-important inflated notions that journalists and online activists have about themselves, that come pouring out once he does or doesn't do something, are so annoying that I have to say "yeah, the chubby billionaire who thinks he's God is in the right here".
I mean, look at this, which our Thursday Night Massacre hero is "a member of the Distributed Denial of Secrets advisory board". It's supposed to be journos working to make information free or something, so of course they had to include the newest version of the Pride flag. Of course they did. What the hell does "yay we are good allies if you're BIPOC queer" to do with ensuring secrecy isn't misused? Nothing, but it signals so hard you could use it to contact any possible alien civilisations (to warn them 'don't bother trying to paperclip us, we're managing that just fine by ourselves').
We don't have any personal leanings, we don't support any message, sure we don't (look at our logo! look at our logo! that reassures you that we are the right kind of thinkers!)
Now you understand why some people voted for Trump, even though they didn't like him.
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