Just when we think the FBI can't look ANY worse, Matt Taibbi drops #TwitterFiles Supplemental

Matt Taibbi was good enough to drop a #TwitterFiles Supplemental on Sunday evening … and after everything we’ve read over the past couple of weeks, this just fits right in. What the absolute EFF is going on with the FBI?

Elvis is in the building https://t.co/dppDnK1WBt

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2022

Take a gander:

1.THREAD: Twitter Files Supplemental

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022

https://t.co/mz7AFoolHV July of 2020, San Francisco FBI agent Elvis Chan tells Twitter executive Yoel Roth to expect written questions from the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), the inter-agency group that deals with cyber threats. pic.twitter.com/V4zNYnF81W

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022

Alrighty then.

3.The questionnaire authors seem displeased with Twitter for implying, in a July 20th “DHS/ODNI/FBI/Industry briefing,” that “you indicated you had not observed much recent activity from official propaganda actors on your platform.” pic.twitter.com/VR3DdkRyOr

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022

Wait, so the FBI wasn’t happy when Twitter responded that they weren’t seeing as much recent activity from official propaganda actors on their platform. Gosh, you’d think they’d be glad to hear that.

https://t.co/0PiyFHVTrc would think that would be good news. The agencies seemed to feel otherwise.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022

It’s almost as if the FBI WANTED there to be a problem.

6.The task force demanded to know how Twitter came to its unpopular conclusion. Oddly, it included a bibliography of public sources – including a Wall Street Journal article – attesting to the prevalence of foreign threats, as if to show Twitter they got it wrong.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022

This is all so weird.

7.Roth, receiving the questions, circulated them with other company executives, and complained that he was “frankly perplexed by the requests here, which seem more like something we'd get from a congressional committee than the Bureau.” pic.twitter.com/SrLrdZLREa

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022

Yeah, you know something was weird when even Yoel’s radar was going off.

8.He added he was not “comfortable with the Bureau (and by extension the IC) demanding written answers.” The idea of the FBI acting as conduit for the Intelligence Community is interesting, given that many agencies are barred from domestic operations.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022

Interesting.

Indeed.

9.He then sent another note internally, saying the premise of the questions was “flawed,” because “we've been clear that official state propaganda is definitely a thing on Twitter.” Note the italics for emphasis. pic.twitter.com/cNzrjcMJfD

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022

Almost as if they were like, FIND SOMETHING.

Again, weird.

Ok, so we’ve use the word ‘weird’ like five times so you KNOW things are weird here.

10.Roth suggested they “get on the phone with Elvis ASAP and try to straighten this out,” to disabuse the agencies of any notion that state propaganda is not a “thing” on Twitter.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022

11.This exchange is odd among other things because some of the “bibliography” materials cited by the FITF are sourced to intelligence officials, who in turn cited the public sources.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022

12.The FBI responded to Friday’s report by saying it “regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identified foreign malign influence actors’ subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities.” pic.twitter.com/fkJrLjPKlN

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022

13.That may be true, but we haven’t seen that in the documents to date. Instead, we’ve mostly seen requests for moderation involving low-follower accounts belonging to ordinary Americans – and Billy Baldwin.

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 18, 2022

And Billy Baldwin.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA