None of this was EVER about trust or safety. It was politics and TRUMP.
At least that’s what we’re reading with this latest ‘dump’ of the Twitter Files … Part 3! Matt Taibbi is currently giving us all a peek behind the curtain (or would that be another peek behind the curtain?) about what happened at Twitter leading up to the removal of Trump’s account.
There is so much more to this story you guys.
When the conspiracy theorists were right all a-freaking-LONG.
Take a look.
1. THREAD: The Twitter Files
THE REMOVAL OF DONALD TRUMP
Part One: October 2020-January 6th— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
2. The world knows much of the story of what happened between riots at the Capitol on January 6th, and the removal of President Donald Trump from Twitter on January 8th…
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
3. We’ll show you what hasn’t been revealed: the erosion of standards within the company in months before J6, decisions by high-ranking executives to violate their own policies, and more, against the backdrop of ongoing, documented interaction with federal agencies.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
4. This first installment covers the period before the election through January 6th. Tomorrow, @Shellenbergermd will detail the chaos inside Twitter on January 7th. On Sunday, @BariWeiss will reveal the secret internal communications from the key date of January 8th.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
This is getting good.
Well, bad?
At least it’s all worth reading, let’s put it that way.
5. Whatever your opinion on the decision to remove Trump that day, the internal communications at Twitter between January 6th-January 8th have clear historical import. Even Twitter’s employees understood in the moment it was a landmark moment in the annals of speech. pic.twitter.com/tQ01n58XFc
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
And if they knew it was a big deal … just sayin’.
6. As soon as they finished banning Trump, Twitter execs started processing new power. They prepared to ban future presidents and White Houses – perhaps even Joe Biden. The “new administration,” says one exec, “will not be suspended by Twitter unless absolutely necessary.” pic.twitter.com/lr66YgDlGy
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
Processing new power.
Wow.
Keep going.
Note, this is sorta long so if you need to get a snack this is a good stopping place. Heh.
7. Twitter executives removed Trump in part over what one executive called the “context surrounding”: actions by Trump and supporters “over the course of the election and frankly last 4+ years.” In the end, they looked at a broad picture. But that approach can cut both ways. pic.twitter.com/Trgvq5jmhS
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
They just hated Trump. We joke about ‘mean tweets’ but that’s what it really boiled down to with these a-holes.
8. The bulk of the internal debate leading to Trump’s ban took place in those three January days. However, the intellectual framework was laid in the months preceding the Capitol riots.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
Shocker.
9. Before J6, Twitter was a unique mix of automated, rules-based enforcement, and more subjective moderation by senior executives. As @BariWeiss reported, the firm had a vast array of tools for manipulating visibility, most all of which were thrown at Trump (and others) pre-J6.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
Most all of which were thrown at Trump and others …
10. As the election approached, senior executives – perhaps under pressure from federal agencies, with whom they met more as time progressed – increasingly struggled with rules, and began to speak of “vios” as pretexts to do what they’d likely have done anyway.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
Perhaps under pressure from federal agencies.
Holy crap, you guys.
The government was absolutely in play here with Twitter. Oh, it gets worse.
11. After J6, internal Slacks show Twitter executives getting a kick out of intensified relationships with federal agencies. Here’s Trust and Safety head Yoel Roth, lamenting a lack of “generic enough” calendar descriptions to concealing his “very interesting” meeting partners. pic.twitter.com/kgC4eGykcO
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
Look, it’s our pal Yoel Roth.
What a toad.
12. These initial reports are based on searches for docs linked to prominent executives, whose names are already public. They include Roth, former trust and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, and recently plank-walked Deputy General Counsel (and former top FBI lawyer) Jim Baker.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
Jim Baker. It’s all starting to line up, yes?
13. One particular slack channel offers an unique window into the evolving thinking of top officials in late 2020 and early 2021.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
14. On October 8th, 2020, executives opened a channel called “us2020_xfn_enforcement.” Through J6, this would be home for discussions about election-related removals, especially ones that involved “high-profile” accounts (often called “VITs” or “Very Important Tweeters”). pic.twitter.com/xH29h4cYt9
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
FROM OCTOBER.
Also, check out what EMEA/APAC/NA mean … hint, it’s global.
And which high-profile accounts?
This all stinks.
15. There was at least some tension between Safety Operations – a larger department whose staffers used a more rules-based process for addressing issues like porn, scams, and threats – and a smaller, more powerful cadre of senior policy execs like Roth and Gadde.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
Yeah, they knew this was eff’d up.
16. The latter group were a high-speed Supreme Court of moderation, issuing content rulings on the fly, often in minutes and based on guesses, gut calls, even Google searches, even in cases involving the President. pic.twitter.com/5ihsPCVo62
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
17. During this time, executives were also clearly liaising with federal enforcement and intelligence agencies about moderation of election-related content. While we’re still at the start of reviewing the #TwitterFiles, we’re finding out more about these interactions every day.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
Why TF was federal enforcement and intelligence working with Twitter before the election?
18. Policy Director Nick Pickles is asked if they should say Twitter detects “misinfo” through “ML, human review, and **partnerships with outside experts?*” The employee asks, “I know that’s been a slippery process… not sure if you want our public explanation to hang on that.” pic.twitter.com/JEICGRTyz7
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
They knew it was wrong.
19. Pickles quickly asks if they could “just say “partnerships.” After a pause, he says, “e.g. not sure we’d describe the FBI/DHS as experts.” pic.twitter.com/d3EaYJb5eR
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
Partnerships.
smh
20. This post about the Hunter Biden laptop situation shows that Roth not only met weekly with the FBI and DHS, but with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI): pic.twitter.com/s5IiUjQqIY
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
Look at that. They blocked it -SAID THE OPPOSITE – then said they unblocked it.
Wow wow wow.
21. Roth’s report to FBI/DHS/DNI is almost farcical in its self-flagellating tone:
“We blocked the NYP story, then unblocked it (but said the opposite)… comms is angry, reporters think we’re idiots… in short, FML” (fuck my life). pic.twitter.com/sTaWglhaJt— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
Look at Yoel, acting like he’s saving the day.
23. Some of Roth’s later Slacks indicate his weekly confabs with federal law enforcement involved separate meetings. Here, he ghosts the FBI and DHS, respectively, to go first to an “Aspen Institute thing,” then take a call with Apple. pic.twitter.com/i771hD8aCD
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 9, 2022
It’s taking everything we have not to curse about this guy.
Know this.
24. Here, the FBI sends reports about a pair of tweets, the second of which involves a former Tippecanoe County, Indiana Councilor and Republican named @JohnBasham claiming “Between 2% and 25% of Ballots by Mail are Being Rejected for Errors.” pic.twitter.com/KtigHOiEwF
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
The FBI's second report concerned this tweet by @JohnBasham: pic.twitter.com/8J8j5GlUVx
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
25. The FBI-flagged tweet then got circulated in the enforcement Slack. Twitter cited Politifact to say the first story was “proven to be false,” then noted the second was already deemed “no vio on numerous occasions.” pic.twitter.com/LyyZ1opWAh
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
26. The group then decides to apply a “Learn how voting is safe and secure” label because one commenter says, “it’s totally normal to have a 2% error rate.” Roth then gives the final go-ahead to the process initiated by the FBI: pic.twitter.com/lyZm4gmT19
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
REMEMBER those labels? Learn how voting is safe and secure.
Holy cow.
27. Examining the entire election enforcement Slack, we didn’t see one reference to moderation requests from the Trump campaign, the Trump White House, or Republicans generally. We looked. They may exist: we were told they do. However, they were absent here.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Not one from Trump’s campaign.
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1601367925050732544?s=20&t=qyX_Ly8EV5lz72Ln2P3dGQ
32. This inspires a long Slack that reads like an @TitaniaMcGrath parody. “I agree it’s a joke,” concedes a Twitter employee, “but he’s also literally admitting in a tweet a crime.”
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Jeebus, Larry, and Moseph you guys.
The group declares Huck’s an “edge case,” and though one notes, “we don’t make exceptions for jokes or satire,” they ultimately decide to leave him be, because “we’ve poked enough bears.”
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Ya’ think?
33. "Could still mislead people… could still mislead people," the humor-averse group declares, before moving on from Huckabee pic.twitter.com/vibLHqv9Kt
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
This guy just sucks.
34. In the docs, execs often expand criteria to subjective issues like intent (yes, a video is authentic, but why was it shown?), orientation (was a banned tweet shown to condemn, or support?), or reception (did a joke cause “confusion”?). This reflex will become key in J6.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
35. In another example, Twitter employees prepare to slap a “mail-in voting is safe” warning label on a Trump tweet about a postal screwup in Ohio, before realizing “the events took place,” which meant the tweet was “factually accurate”: pic.twitter.com/4r6nJ3JDmY
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Because OF COURSE it was.
This was never about facts or ‘our democracy.’ This was about controlling the narrative to ultimately impact an election.
36. “VERY WELL DONE ON SPEED” Trump was being “visibility filtered” as late as a week before the election. Here, senior execs didn’t appear to have a particular violation, but still worked fast to make sure a fairly anodyne Trump tweet couldn’t be “replied to, shared, or liked”: pic.twitter.com/E0bkjISGBj
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
"VERY WELL DONE ON SPEED": the group is pleased the Trump tweet is dealt with quickly pic.twitter.com/WMyQjbWqNW
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
37. A seemingly innocuous follow-up involved a tweet from actor @realJamesWoods, whose ubiquitous presence in argued-over Twitter data sets is already a #TwitterFiles in-joke. pic.twitter.com/FCFLl3Znml
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Boy, they were really worried about James Woods.
38. After Woods angrily quote-tweeted about Trump’s warning label, Twitter staff – in a preview of what ended up happening after J6 – despaired of a reason for action, but resolved to “hit him hard on future vio.” pic.twitter.com/dusFylxAXS
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Hit him hard on future violations.
Grrrr. We hope James sees all of this.
39. Here a label is applied to Georgia Republican congresswoman Jody Hice for saying, “Say NO to big tech censorship!” and, “Mailed ballots are more prone to fraud than in-person balloting… It’s just common sense.” pic.twitter.com/aw9JAzmOAp
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
We’d say this is unreal but … it’s all too real.
40. Twitter teams went easy on Hice, only applying “soft intervention,” with Roth worrying about a “wah wah censorship” optics backlash: pic.twitter.com/PGuihwNSu6
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
41. Meanwhile, there are multiple instances of involving pro-Biden tweets warning Trump “may try to steal the election” that got surfaced, only to be approved by senior executives. This one, they decide, just “expresses concern that mailed ballots might not make it on time.” pic.twitter.com/kGtHHngtyd
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Well well well, Biden was talking about TRUMP stealing the election.
Can’t make this crap up.
42. “THAT’S UNDERSTANDABLE”: Even the hashtag #StealOurVotes – referencing a theory that a combo of Amy Coney Barrett and Trump will steal the election – is approved by Twitter brass, because it’s “understandable” and a “reference to… a US Supreme Court decision.” pic.twitter.com/6BjJhjypD2
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Approved by Twitter brass.
Wow.
43. In this exchange, again unintentionally humorous, former Attorney General Eric Holder claimed the U.S. Postal Service was “deliberately crippled,”ostensibly by the Trump administration. He was initially hit with a generic warning label, but it was quickly taken off by Roth: pic.twitter.com/UXoXxE9E1S
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Oh, look. It’s Holder.
Color us shocked.
44. Later in November 2020, Roth asked if staff had a “debunk moment” on the “SCYTL/Smartmantic vote-counting” stories, which his DHS contacts told him were a combination of “about 47” conspiracy theories: pic.twitter.com/QiYGlZE202
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Yoel was just bad news.
Seriously.
There’s no other way to put it.
45. On December 10th, as Trump was in the middle of firing off 25 tweets saying things like, “A coup is taking place in front of our eyes,” Twitter executives announced a new “L3 deamplification” tool. This step meant a warning label now could also come with deamplification: pic.twitter.com/MP4F7cvguw
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
46. Some executives wanted to use the new deamplification tool to silently limit Trump’s reach more right away, beginning with the following tweet: pic.twitter.com/U7AJLF2wIt
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Gosh golly gee, this looks like Twitter was trying to limit Right-wing media.
47. However, in the end, the team had to use older, less aggressive labeling tools at least for that day, until the “L3 entities” went live the following morning. pic.twitter.com/0uz9rHe45o
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Awww, poor babies.
They had to use less aggressive labeling tools.
48. The significance is that it shows that Twitter, in 2020 at least, was deploying a vast range of visible and invisible tools to rein in Trump’s engagement, long before J6. The ban will come after other avenues are exhausted
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
This is a ‘polite’ way of saying they were trying to isolate and suppress him … long before J6.
Was this long before the election as well? We know from Elon himself that there were politicians who were shadow banned. He said as much.
49. In Twitter docs execs frequently refer to “bots,” e.g. “let’s put a bot on that.” A bot is just any automated heuristic moderation rule. It can be anything: every time a person in Brazil uses “green” and “blob” in the same sentence, action might be taken. pic.twitter.com/zkBkhSSodv
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Let’s put a bot on that.
And green and blob? REALLY?
50. In this instance, it appears moderators added a bot for a Trump claim made on Breitbart. The bot ends up becoming an automated tool invisibly watching both Trump and, apparently, Breitbart (“will add media ID to bot”). Trump by J6 was quickly covered in bots. pic.twitter.com/UhYQ31qIgn
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Would you look at that?
Because that’s not creepy or anything.
51. There is no way to follow the frenzied exchanges among Twitter personnel from between January 6thand 8th without knowing the basics of the company’s vast lexicon of acronyms and Orwellian unwords.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
52. To “bounce” an account is to put it in timeout, usually for a 12-hour review/cool-off: pic.twitter.com/rGUIhGF6w8
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
53. “Interstitial,” one of many nouns used as a verb in Twitterspeak (“denylist” is another), means placing a physical label atop a tweet, so it can’t be seen.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
54. PII has multiple meanings, one being “Public Interest Interstitial,” i.e. a covering label applied for “public interest” reasons. The post below also references “proactive V,” i.e. proactive visibility filtering. pic.twitter.com/GSCjAPaBjG
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
55. This is all necessary background to J6. Before the riots, the company was engaged in an inherently insane/impossible project, trying to create an ever-expanding, ostensibly rational set of rules to regulate every conceivable speech situation that might arise between humans.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
This project was preposterous yet its leaders were unable to see this, having become infected with groupthing, coming to believe – sincerely – that it was Twitter's responsibility to control, as much as possible, what people could talk about, how often, and with whom.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
57. The firm’s executives on day 1 of the January 6th crisis at least tried to pay lip service to its dizzying array of rules. By day 2, they began wavering. By day 3, a million rules were reduced to one: what we say, goes
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
What we say, goes.
How very, oh we dunno, FASCIST AF of them.
Yes, boys and girls, a government working with big tech to make sure only certain people are heard, only certain information is seen … that’s FASCISM. Not a bunch of big ol’ mean Republicans disagreeing with the fact that men can have babies (they can’t, by the way).
56. When panic first breaks out on J6 there’s a fair share of WTF-type posts, mixed in with frantic calls for Twitter to start deploying its full arsenal of moderation tools. “What is the right remediation? Do we interstitial the video?” asks one employee, in despair: pic.twitter.com/bWSPTlrzz9
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
This Patrick dude is bad effing news.
57. This “Freedom or Death” tweet from #StopTheSteal gadfly Mike Coudrey elicits heated reactions: pic.twitter.com/NeBnL4e5YB
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
58. Roth groans about Coudrey: “THIS asshole,” but still seems determined to stick at least superficially to rules, itching to act “if” this “constitutes incitement.” pic.twitter.com/HjdlhvcIJ4
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Pretending to stick to the rules.
That’s adorable.
Again, Yoel thought he was some hero for all of this. What a power trip even.
Bizarre stuff.
59. At 2:39 p.m. PST, a comms official asked Roth to confirm or deny a story that they’d restricted Trump’s ability to tweet. Roth says, “We have not.” pic.twitter.com/MeaHgN0FUQ
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
60. Minutes later, Roth executed the historic act of “bouncing” Trump, i.e. putting him in timeout. “I hope you… are appropriately CorpSec’d,” says a colleague. pic.twitter.com/KDr6ZFle8h
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
MUCH STUNNING. SO BRAVE.
This theme of Policy perhaps being stressed by queries from Communications executives – who themselves have to answer the public’s questions – occasionally appears. Two days later, you see chatter about pulling Comms out of the loop: pic.twitter.com/sPxGcXtOpy
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Hrm.
Why would they pull comms out?
Strange.
61. The first company-wide email from Gadde on January 6th announced that 3 Trump tweets had been bounced, but more importantly signaled a determination to use legit “violations” as a guide for any possible permanent suspension: pic.twitter.com/p6WmbS2MsA
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
And there’s Gadde, of course.
62. “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?” Safe to say Trump’s “Go home with love & in peace” tweet mid-riot didn’t go over well at Twitter HQ: pic.twitter.com/yhi5uv4QXI
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
Guess Trump telling people to go home with love and peace put a wrench in their ‘narrative.’
63. A few last notes about January 6th. Roth at one point looked and found Trump had a slew of duplicate bot applications: pic.twitter.com/7dvgQS3Tss
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
64. By the end of the first day, the top execs are still trying to apply rules. By the next day, they will contemplate a major change in approach. Watch @shellenbergerMD this weekend for the play-by-play of how all that went down.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
They were still trying to find a way to justify all of this crap.
65. By January 8th, which @BariWeiss will describe Sunday, Twitter will be receiving plaudits from “our partners” in Washington, and the sitting U.S. president will no longer be heard on the platform.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
‘Our partners.’
Right.
And that is crazy, as of January 8th, the sitting U.S. president will no longer be heard from on Twitter.
66. Lastly, people on the left, right, and in between want to know what else is in the #TwitterFiles, from suppression/shadow-banning of leftists to lab-leak theorists, or amplification of military propaganda or conservative accounts. We know everyone has questions.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
No kidding.
It’s so great to finally get a few answers. We’ll take it.
67. And while we’ve stumbled on tidbits here and there about topics ranging from COVID to foreign policy, the reality is the data sets are enormous and we’re still working through them.
More is coming. Good night, all.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 10, 2022
This has been INSANE. HUGE kudos to Matt Taibbi for doing an amazing job with all of this … and to Bari Weiss. All we’re doing is amplifying their stories – thanks for being with us!
***
Related:
DAMNING thread takes former head of Twitter Trust & Safety Yoel Roth APART tweet by tweet
Sanctimonious Twitter Trust and Safety Council Twits share their RESIGNATION letter and HOO BOY
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