FBI brokers communicated commonly with content material moderators at Twitter, and continuously requested for tweets to be taken down for allegedly violating the platforms’ insurance policies towards election-related misinformation. The conversations had been so quite a few—together with emails and weekly conferences—{that a} high Twitter staffer got here to explain the connection between the corporate and legislation enforcement as “government-industry sync.”
That is in response to the most recent installment of the Twitter Recordsdata, which was launched by impartial journalist Matt Taibbi on Friday.
1. THREAD: The Twitter Recordsdata, Half Six
TWITTER, THE FBI SUBSIDIARY— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
The FBI continuously beneficial that content material moderators look into particular tweets and take motion towards them in the event that they violated misinformation insurance policies. Many of those tweets had been from customers with very low follower counts who had engaged in satire or humor. The FBI flagged consumer Claire Foster, who had tweeted “I am a poll counter in my state. If you happen to’re not carrying a masks, I am not counting your vote. #safetyfirst” and “For each destructive touch upon this submit I am including one other vote for the democrats.”
These feedback most likely sound like satire to most individuals, however the FBI apparently thinks election integrity isn’t any laughing matter. You’d be forgiven for questioning whether or not high legislation enforcement officers have something higher to do with their time than police jokes on Twitter.
As with earlier Twitter Recordsdata disclosures, it isn’t that this info was completely unsuspected; it was already abundantly clear that authorities officers had been in common communication with social media firms and flagging content material for moderation. But it surely’s helpful to see the dimensions of that interplay in addition to some particular examples. The extent to which Large Tech and Large Authorities are working in tandem to crack down on dissent, contrarianism, and even humor is frankly disturbing.
Social media firms have each proper to average jokes in the event that they actually need to—and customers can complain concerning the jokes or the moderation, after all—however the FBI’s function in all this raises the specter of a free speech violation, even when the federal government wasn’t actually forcing Twitter to take motion. It’s inappropriate for the FBI to report joke tweets to content material moderators and take a what-are-you-doing-about-this tone. Social media firms would possibly really feel like they’ve little selection however to cooperate with legislation enforcement, on condition that political figures in each events are always threatening to punish the platforms for making selections that displease Republicans and Democrats.
