By: Christopher Maffei
American censorship has taken a new turn, and Matt Taibbi’s research regarding the “Twitter Files” is a historic landmark in US history.
Now, rather than journalistic speculation or simply guessing, there is documented proof that the FBI is actively suppressing domestic free speech and the “Twitter Files” gives us a glimpse into this distortion of American reality.
And in many ways, the best way to describe the Twitter Files are in the words of Elon Musk,
“Twitter is both a social media company and a crime scene”
What is also evidently clear from Matt’s research, is that the DOJ is rubberstamping these acts and heading off to lunch without a care in the world.
But, sometimes in life, there is a wild card in the mix, and like it or not here comes Elon Musk to settle the score.
After Elon’s acquisition of Twitter, he walked in smiling with the proverbial kitchen sink and threw it on the floor. Wasting no time, he immediately moved to fire the executive staff. After cleaning house. Elon invited Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, and Michael Shellenberger to Twitter―to investigate the company as journalists.
And unless you’ve been on a remote holiday or simply don’t care about this stuff. You would have realized that within just one week of “doubledays” research. Matt made some very interesting discoveries during his investigation. Especially regarding the company’s communication with the government.
Taibbi didn’t waste any time…
…Within a week, Matt was interviewed on the Russell Brand show to cement his findings within the public domain, and this is what he said,
(paraphrasing) “there was a concerted effort by the FBI and DHS to distort the American people’s understanding of reality, specifically through social media censorship”
Continuing…
(paraphrasing) “That a special agent at the FBI field office in San Francisco gave lists of accounts to Twitter executives at the company’s Market Street address. Accounts that were committing no crimes. But rather, these were simply lists of accounts that the federal government wanted to limit the freedom of speech to. And micromanage the accounts to the smallest degree” (sic)
And this is just the beginning…
What this unequivocal proof demonstrates is that Americans are getting a heavily distorted view of reality through social media and that the American government is working overtime to distort that reality.
In many ways, if you follow the societal discourse on American social media. It doesn’t really seem to be what you are hearing at Christmas parties or at the local hang-out. It seems much different. Social media seems wildly different from how the people around you think and feel.
There is definitely a good reason for that.
According to Matt, the government has been creating Twitter accounts to misdirect public perceptions about the drone program, public health, elections, and foreign policy, and controlling satirical accounts―for some stupid reason. And the list goes on. And on.
In Matt’s weekly show, he told Walter Kirn on “America This Week”
(paraphrasing) “That FBI agents from a New York field office sent Twitter requests to look into accounts that were based on nothing more than a Daily Beast article”
Continuing, Matt said…
(paraphrasing) “Here are some FBI agents reading an article written by some (hack) journalist, that certainly doesn’t have enlightened access to anything important. And these agents are using that as the bases for information requests to Twitter”
To give you an idea of the horseshit we are being asked to swallow. Some critics are saying, that Matt and Michael want to mud-sling and that their sole aim is to destroy the reputation of the FBI.
I mean, are you fucking kidding me?
First of all, the FBI is not at all denying they took part in widespread domestic censorship. Next, you have a host of government agencies that are suppressing freedom of speech and browbeating private companies into submission to meet the censorship goals of the government. Requesting that Twitter moderate satirical accounts that are roasting federal agencies for incompetence and stupidity. And what’s even worse, you have a host of federal agencies moderating public perceptions of health and foreign policy through countless requests that were overwhelming Twitter employees.
And now the FBI wants people to believe that Matt and Michael are somehow biased against the FBI? People can believe what they want to believe, I guess. (But) if you think for one moment that this censorship regime is going to somehow go away when someone like Trump regains power― you are sadly mistaken.
This gigantic Orwellian apparatus will be waiting for the neoliberal agenda when the time comes.
What are we witnessing? We are living through a collapse in confidence within most American institutions and almost a complete breakdown of trust within the American government.
The “Twitter Files” are just a small part of that trend.
From the American system of public health to law enforcement, trust has completely broken down. Not only within congress but, mainstream journalism has hit the bottom of the blackest holes.
It does not matter if you are working for the office of the presidency, or with the FBI, American institutions are literally poisoning anything they touch―Including Twitter
It is also apparent that the FBI was a pass-through organization for other government agencies as well. For example, if the CIA had a request, that request would be passed through the FBI. In the end, the executive staff at Twitter was so overwhelmed that it was difficult to operate― if not impossible.
Twitter was not alone in this mass censorship. What is now clear, is that this arrangement with the government seems to be indicative for― all social media companies.
In an interview with Walter Kirn, Matt said,
(paraphrasing) “Twitter would have what is called a ‘weekly industry call’ This would include Twitter and the largest social media companies in the world”
Where according to Walter Kirn,
(paraphrasing)“They seem to be shaping a total information environment that is akin to The Truman Show“
It is an objective fact that Americans are getting a very heavily distorted view of reality through social media. I think a lot of us already knew that. However, the degree of distortion was completely unknown. But now we have a much better idea.
There is going to be more information to come…
―Chris