The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s credibility has been hanging by a thread for many years, but it’s possible that thread has broken completely with the revelations that the latest edition of the Twitter Files has brought to the forefront.
On Friday, journalist Matt Taibbi released the sixth edition of the Twitter Files that confirmed the deep entanglement of the FBI with Big Tech — something many have been alleging for years.
Taibbi began the thread by saying:
“The #TwitterFiles are revealing more every day about how the government collects, analyzes, and flags your social media content.”
2. The #TwitterFiles are revealing more every day about how the government collects, analyzes, and flags your social media content.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022
The journalist described the relationship between the social media platform and the FBI as having a “master-canine quality” with “constant and pervasive” contact, noting that between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails that were exchanged between the bureau and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth.
Following the release of the information on Twitter, the FBI immediately defended itself in a statement to Fox News.
“The FBI regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identified foreign malign influence actors’ subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities. Private sector entities independently make decisions about what, if any, action they take on their platforms and for their customers after the FBI has notified them,” the statement read.
The statement hasn’t set anyone at ease within the Republican Party, with several leaders vowing to seek justice for the collusion when Republicans take the House in January.
Reps. Tim Burchett (R-TN), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Mike Johnson (R-LA), and Dan Bishop (R-NC) have all been vocal about their intent to investigate the FBI and its relationship with the social media platform.
Taibbi’s thread noted that as many as 80 agents were assigned to monitor accounts as part of the FBI’s social media task force that was established after the 2016 presidential election.
Taibbi concluded the sixth edition of the Twitter Files by saying:
“Instead of chasing child sex predators or terrorists, the FBI has agents — lots of them — analyzing and mass-flagging social media posts. Not as part of any criminal investigation, but as a permanent, end-in-itself surveillance operation. People should not be okay with this.”
