Twitter Files Release #10 – A Whole of Govt Approach to Control American Speech
| Sundance
Twitter File release #10 was shared by journalist Matt Taibbi on Christmas Eve [Outline Here]. In many ways this is the most important release so far; not from the context of the internal Twitter communication Taibbi cites, but rather from what it means in the bigger picture.
As with the prior releases, Taibbi is describing the evolution of a process we suspected, discussed, outlined and then documented at CTH for several years. Taibbi is outlining exactly how the public-private partnership behind Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop was created. Each new revelation, and Elon Musk’s reaction to that revelation, is pointing toward Musk not having any knowledge of what was going on in the Coffee Shop Production Space.
[Twitter File Release #10 Here]
Taibbi shares the scale and scope of contacts into Twitter from a variety of government agencies including the CIA. However, as the public-private partnership over the platform moderation continued in time, access to controlling content expanded from federal agencies to even state and local officials. In essence, the control over platform content evolved into a whole of government approach.
This is a critical inflection point in the evolution of the Twitter file release because the ramifications now begin to surface publicly. Taibbi walks through Twitter being overwhelmed by the inbound instructions from various agencies. The FBI acting as the gatekeeper for Homeland Security, Defense Dept, CIA, State Dept., and other partnership agencies within government through the “Foreign Influence Task Force” (FITF).
As Taibbi provides context for the internal conversation, “The operation is far bigger than the reported 80 members of the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), which also facilitates requests from a wide array of smaller actors – from local cops to media to state governments. Twitter had so much contact with so many agencies that executives lost track. Is today the DOD, and tomorrow the FBI? Is it the weekly call, or the monthly meeting? It was dizzying.”
