Elon Musk and Twitter

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

This is why I use Twitter more than the other social media, but I still use the others. And I will never stop using them. It's funny, though. I hardly use Facebook, I don't use Google search anymore except in a sporadic case here and there. I do use Gmail, especially when I have to sign up to get something. All the spam goes there.  The point is, I mostly use alt sources these days. Legacy social media sucks. And legacy media is so awful, I try to stay away.

You have to set your own filters on Twitter, though.

That means you have to use your brain. Turning it off is not a good idea, anyway.

Elon helped a lot when he added a function that allows citizens--not a privileged class of "fact checkers" or corporate ass-kissing control freaks--to comment and use sources to correct misleading or wrong tweets.

So Twitter is not perfect, but it's fast, the search function keeps getting better, and tweets are easy to embed. And Elon is ripping the cover off the Deep State rot.

Also, in January he is rolling out an enhanced bookmark function with folders, so using Twitter as a source will get much better. He tweeted that likes will always be public, but bookmarks will be private.

As a beef, I think he should build in an inhouse thread reader. 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

17 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

I went through the entire thread and its links and videos.

I could list all of the names of the people and all of the details, but I think it more productive to give you an overall view.

Styx weighed in on the thread, too. He is miffed that it was so hard to find on Twitter. 

Well, part of that is his fault, He thinks this thread is part of the official Twitter Files dumps. 

Speaking of which, if you are also having a doubt or two crawl out of the woodwork, we are talking about this post of mine and this thread on Twitter.

 

Barring that, Styx's comments are a good overview for those who don't want to go through the entire thread.

 

Twitter Files Update: CISA, Red Mirage, MASSIVE New Damage Control

WWW.BITCHUTE.COM

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https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1608231209875963904 Support via donation: Patreon: https://tinyurl.com/y2jothtp Subscribestar: https://tinyurl.com/yyxov782 My books: Blogger:...

Michael

[Marc]

 

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Just for fun.

 

 

     

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Just released:

Here is Elon's tweet.

 

I'll put the Thread Reader version right here in this post when it is made.

EDIT: Here it is.

Thread by @mtaibbi on Thread Reader App

THREADREADERAPP.COM

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@mtaibbi: 1.THREAD: The Twitter Files How Twitter Let the Intelligence Community In 2.In August 2017, when Facebook decided to suspend 300 accounts with “suspected Russian origin,” Twitter wasn’t worried...

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Here is the easy read version.

For me it is Twitter Files Number 11, but Taibbi did not number it.

Tweet 22 is repeated, but it is repeated in the original thread, so I preserved it.

 

QUOTE

Matt Taibbi

1. THREAD: The Twitter Files
How Twitter Let the Intelligence Community In 

2. In August 2017, when Facebook decided to suspend 300 accounts with “suspected Russian origin,” Twitter wasn’t worried. Its leaders were sure they didn’t have a Russia problem.

3. “We did not see a big correlation.”
“No larger patterns.”
“FB may take action on hundreds of accounts, and we may take action on ~25.”

 

 

 

4. “KEEP THE FOCUS ON FB”: Twitter was so sure they had no Russia problem, execs agreed the best PR strategy was to say nothing on record, and quietly hurl reporters at Facebook:

 

5. “Twitter is not the focus of inquiry into Russian election meddling right now - the spotlight is on FB,” wrote Public Policy VP Colin Crowell:

 

6. In September, 2017, after a cursory review, Twitter informed the Senate it suspended 22 possible Russian accounts, and 179 others with “possible links” to those accounts, amid a larger set of roughly 2700 suspects manually examined.

7. Receiving these meager results, a furious Senator Mark Warner of Virginia – ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee – held an immediate press conference to denounce Twitter’s report as “frankly inadequate on every level.”

 

 

8. “#Irony,” mused Crowell the day after Warner’s presser, after receiving an e-circular from Warner’s re-election campaign, asking for “$5 or whatever you can spare.”

“LOL,” replied General Counsel Sean Edgett.

9. “KEEP PRODUCING MATERIAL” After meeting with congressional leaders, Crowell wrote: “Warner has political incentive to keep this issue at top of the news, maintain pressure on us and rest of industry to keep producing material for them.”

 

10. “TAKING THEIR CUES FROM HILLARY CLINTON” Crowell added Dems were taking cues from Hillary Clinton, who that week said: “It’s time for Twitter to stop dragging its heels and live up to the fact that its platform is being used as a tool for cyber-warfare.”

 

 

11. In growing anxiety over its PR problems, Twitter formed a “Russia Task Force” to proactively self-investigate.

 

12. The “Russia Task Force” started mainly with data shared from counterparts at Facebook, centered around accounts supposedly tied to Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA). But the search for Russian perfidy was a dud:

13. OCT 13 2017: “No evidence of a coordinated approach, all of the accounts found seem to be lone-wolf type activity (different timing, spend, targeting, <$10k in ad spend).”

14. OCT 18 2017: “First round of RU investigation… 15 high risk accounts, 3 of which have connections with Russia, although 2 are RT.”

15. OCT 20 2017: “Built new version of the model that is lower precision but higher recall which allows to catch more items. We aren’t seeing substantially more suspicious accounts. We expect to find ~20 with a small amount of spend.”

16. OCT 23 2017: “Finished with investigation… 2500 full manual account reviews, we think this is exhaustive… 32 suspicious accounts and only 17 of those are connected with Russia, only 2 of those have significant spend one of which is Russia Today...remaining <$10k in spend.”

17. Twitter’s search finding “only 2” significant accounts, “one of which is Russia Today,” was based on the same data that later inspired panic headlines like “Russian Influence Reached 126 Million Through Facebook Alone”:

 

18. The failure of the “Russia task force” to produce “material” worsened the company’s PR crisis. 

19. In the weeks after Warner’s presser, a torrent of stories sourced to the Intel Committee poured into the news, an example being Politico’s October 13, “Twitter deleted data potentially crucial to Russia probes.”

20. “Were Twitter a contractor for the FSB… they could not have built a more effective disinformation platform,” Johns Hopkins Professor (and Intel Committee “expert”) Thomas Rid told Politico.

21. As congress threatened costly legislation, and Twitter began was subject to more bad press fueled by the committees, the company changed its tune about the smallness of its Russia problem.

22. “Hi guys.. Just passing along for awareness the writeup here from the WashPost today on potential legislation (or new FEC regulations) that may affect our political advertising,” wrote Crowell.

 

22. “Hi guys.. Just passing along for awareness the writeup here from the WashPost today on potential legislation (or new FEC regulations) that may affect our political advertising,” wrote Crowell.

 

23. In Washington weeks after the first briefing, Twitter leaders were told by Senate staff that “Sen Warner feels like tech industry was in denial for months.” Added an Intel staffer: “Big interest in Politico article about deleted accounts."

 

 

24. Twitter “pledged to work with them on their desire to legislate”:

 

25. “Knowing that our ads policy and product changes are an effort to anticipate congressional oversight, I wanted to share some relevant highlights of the legislation Senators Warner, Klobuchar and McCain will be introducing,” wrote Policy Director Carlos Monje soon after.

 

26. “THE COMMITTEES APPEAR TO HAVE LEAKED” Even as Twitter prepared to change its ads policy and remove RT and Sputnik to placate Washington, congress turned the heat up more, apparently leaking the larger, base list of 2700 accounts.

27. Reporters from all over started to call Twitter about Russia links. Buzzfeed, working with the University of Sheffield, claimed to find a “new network” on Twitter that had “close connections to… Russian-linked bot accounts.”

28. “IT WILL ONLY EMBOLDEN THEM.” Twitter internally did not want to endorse the Buzzfeed/Sheffield findings:

 

 

 

29. “SENATE INTEL COMMITTEE IS ASKING… POSSIBLE TO WHIP SOMETHING TOGETHER?” Still, when the Buzzfeed piece came out, the Senate asked for “a write up of what happened.” Twitter was soon apologizing for the same accounts they’d initially told the Senate were not a problem.

30. “REPORTERS NOW KNOW THIS IS A MODEL THAT WORKS”

This cycle – threatened legislation, wedded to scare headlines pushed by congressional/intel sources, followed by Twitter caving to moderation asks – would later be formalized in partnerships with federal law enforcement.

 

31. Twitter soon settled on its future posture.

In public, it removed content “at our sole discretion.”

Privately, they would “off-board” anything “identified by the U.S.. intelligence community as a state-sponsored entity conducting cyber-operations.”

32. Twitter let the “USIC” into its moderation process. It would not leave.

Wrote Crowell, in an email to the company’s leaders:

“We will not be reverting to the status quo.”

 

33. For more on the #TwitterFiles, check out @bariweiss, @ShellenbergerMD, @lhfang, and @davidzweig.

Watch this space shortly for another thread… 

END QUOTE

 

There you have it. "Muh Russians!"

 

Pure bullshit.

Warner and Schiff bullied Twitter into making up crap and exaggerating stuff to appease their narrative.

And Twitter went along and did it after some initial resistance. The threat of lawsuits was in the balance.

Twitter (Crowell) even mentioned internally to the leaders that this will be their new reality. “We will not be reverting to the status quo.”

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Another Twitter Files dump happened about 13 hours ago.

Here is the Thread Reader version.

Thread by @mtaibbi on Thread Reader App

THREADREADERAPP.COM

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@mtaibbi: 1.THREAD: The Twitter Files Twitter and the FBI “Belly Button” 2.By 2020, Twitter was struggling with the problem of public and private agencies bypassing them and going straight to the media with lists of...

 

Michael

[Strictlylogical]

Musk will really need to rename the reformed platform.  The brand is an unworkable mess with too many associations with corruption and evil methinks.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

S,

Or maybe turn into a bigass symbol of redemption Founding Fathers-style.

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

5 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Another Twitter Files dump happened about 13 hours ago.

 

Here is the easy read version (whew!).

I hope nothing else drops today.  

 

QUOTE

Matt Taibbi

1. THREAD: The Twitter Files
Twitter and the FBI “Belly Button”

2. By 2020, Twitter was struggling with the problem of public and private agencies bypassing them and going straight to the media with lists of suspect accounts.

3. In February, 2020, as COVID broke out, the Global Engagement Center – a fledgling analytic/intelligence arms of the State Department – went to the media with a report called, “Russian Disinformation Apparatus Taking Advantage of Coronavirus Concerns.”

4. The GEC flagged accounts as “Russian personas and proxies” based on criteria like, “Describing the Coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon,” blaming “research conducted at the Wuhan institute,” and “attributing the appearance of the virus to the CIA.”

5. State also flagged accounts that retweeted news that Twitter banned the popular U.S. ZeroHedge, claiming the episode “led to another flurry of disinformation narratives.” ZH had done reports speculating that the virus had lab origin.

6. The GEC still led directly to news stories like the AFP’s headline, “Russia-linked disinformation campaign led to coronavirus alarm, US says,” and a Politico story about how “Russian, Chinese, Iranian Disinformation Narratives Echo One Another.”

 

 

 

7. “YOU HAVEN’T MADE A RUSSIA ATTRIBUTION IN SOME TIME” When Clemson’s Media Forensics Hub complained Twitter hadn’t “made a Russia attribution” in some time, Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth said it was “revelatory of their motives.”

 

 

8. “WE’RE HAPPY TO WORK DIRECTLY WITH YOU ON THIS, INSTEAD OF NBC.” Roth tried in vain to convince outsider researchers like the Clemson lab to check with them before pushing stories about foreign interference to media.

9. Twitter was also trying to reduce the number of agencies with access to Roth. “If these folks are like House Homeland Committee and DHS, once we give them a direct contact with Yoel, they will want to come back to him again and again,” said policy director Carlos Monje.

 

10. When the State Department/GEC – remember this was 2020, during the Trump administration – wanted to publicize a list of 5,500 accounts it claimed would “amplify Chinese propaganda and disinformation” about COVID, Twitter analysts were beside themselves. 

11. The GEC report appeared based on DHS data circulated earlier that week, and included accounts that followed “two or more” Chinese diplomatic accounts. They reportedly ended up with a list “nearly 250,000” names long, and included Canadian officials and a CNN account:

 

 

 

12. Roth saw GEC’s move as an attempt by the GEC to use intel from other agencies to “insert themselves” into the content moderation club that included Twitter, Facebook, the FBI, DHS, and others:

13. The GEC was soon agreeing to loop in Twitter before going public, but they were using a technique that had boxed in Twitter before. “The delta between when they share material and when they go to the press continues to be problematic,” wrote one comms official.

 

14. The episode led to a rare public disagreement between Twitter and state officials:

 

 

15. “IT MAKES SENSE TO PUSH BACK ON GEC PARTICIPATION IN THIS FORUM” When the FBI informed Twitter the GEC wanted to be included in the regular “industry call” between companies like Twitter and Facebook and the DHS and FBI, Twitter leaders balked at first.

16. Facebook, Google, and Twitter executives were united in opposition to GEC’s inclusion, with ostensible reasons including, “The GEC’s mandate for offensive IO to promote American interests.”

17. A deeper reason was a perception that unlike the DHS and FBI, which were “apolitical,” as Roth put it, the GEC was “political,” which in Twitter-ese appeared to be partisan code.

“I think they thought the FBI was less Trumpy,” is how one former DOD official put it.

18. After spending years rolling over for Democratic Party requests for “action” on “Russia-linked” accounts, Twitter was suddenly playing tough. Why? Because, as Roth put it, it would pose “major risks” to bring the GEC in, “especially as the election heats up.”

19. When senior lawyer Stacia Cardille tried to argue against the GEC’s inclusion to the FBI, the words resonated “with Elvis, not Laura,” i.e. with agent Elvis Chan, not Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) unit chief Laura Dehmlow:

20. Eventually the FBI argued, first to Facebook, for a compromise solution: other USG agencies could participate in the “industry” calls, but the FBI and DHS would act as sole “conduits.”

21. Roth reached out to Chan with concerns about letting the “press-happy” GEC in, expressing hope they could keep the “circle of trust small.”

22. "STATE... NSA, and CIA" Chan reassured him it would be a “one-way” channel, and “State/GEC, NSA, and CIA have expressed interest in being allowed on in listen mode only.”

23. "BELLY BUTTON" “We can give you everything we’re seeing from the FBI and USIC agencies,” Chan explained, but the DHS agency CISA “will know what’s going on in each state.” He went on to ask if industry could “rely on the FBI to be the belly button of the USG."

24. They eventually settled on an industry call via Signal. In an impressive display of operational security, Chan circulated private numbers of each company’s chief moderation officer in a Word Doc marked “Signal Phone Numbers,” subject-lined, “List of Numbers.”

25. Twitter was taking requests from every conceivable government body, beginning with the Senate Intel Committee (SSCI), which seemed to need reassurance Twitter was taking FBI direction. Execs rushed to tell “Team SSCI” they zapped five accounts on an FBI tip:

 

 

 

 

26. Requests arrived and were escalated from all over: from Treasury, the NSA, virtually every state, the HHS, from the FBI and DHS, and more:

 

 

 

 

27. They also received an astonishing variety of requests from officials asking for individuals they didn’t like to be banned. Here, the office for Democrat and House Intel Committee chief Adam Schiff asks Twitter to ban journalist Paul Sperry:

28. “WE DON’T DO THIS” Even Twitter declined to honor Schiff’s request at the time. Sperry was later suspended, however.

29. Twitter honored almost everyone else’s requests, even those from GEC – including a decision to ban accounts like @RebelProtests and @bricsmedia because GEC identified them as “GRU-controlled” and linked “to the Russian government,” respectively:

 

 

30. The GEC requests were what a former CIA staffer working at Twitter was referring to, when he said, “Our window on that is closing,” meaning they days when Twitter could say no to serious requests were over.

31. Remember the 2017 “internal guidance” in which Twitter decided to remove any user “identified by the U.S. intelligence community” as a state-sponsored entity committing cyber operations? By 2020 such identifications came in bulk.

32. “USIC" requests often simply began “We assess” and then provided lists (sometimes, in separate excel docs) they believed were connected to Russia’s Internet Research Agency and committing cyber ops, from Africa to South America to the U.S.:

 

 

 

33. One brief report, sent right after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine early last year, flagged major Russian outlets like Vedomosti and Gazeta.ru. Note the language about “state actors” fits Twitter’s internal guidance.

34. Some reports were just a paragraph long and said things like: “The attached email accounts… were possibly used for “influence operations, social media collection, or social engineering.” Without further explanation, Twitter would be forwarded an excel doc:

 

 

35. They were even warned about publicity surrounding a book by former Ukraine prosecutor Viktor Shokhin, who alleged “corruption by the U.S. government” – specifically by Joe Biden.

36. By the weeks before the election in 2020, Twitter was so confused by the various streams of incoming requests, staffers had to ask the FBI which was which:

37. “I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR WORK LOAD”: Requests poured in from FBI offices all over the country, day after day, hour after hour: If Twitter didn’t act quickly, questions came: “Was action taken?” “Any movement?”

38. Wrote senior attorney Stacia Cardille: “My in-box is really f--- up at this point.”

39. It all led to the situation described by @ShellenbergerMD two weeks ago, in which Twitter was paid $3,415,323, essentially for being an overwhelmed subcontractor.

Twitter wasn’t just paid. For the amount of work they did for government, they were underpaid. 

40. For more on the #TwitterFiles, check out @bariweiss, @ShellenbergerMD, @lhfang, and @davidzweig. For more on this story, read taibbi.substack.com

END QUOTE

 

Enjoy that one?

Twitter (especially Yoel Roth) let in the wolf and the whole pack followed behind. Now the issue was COVID, China, Ukraine and on and on. And it was a US government agency after agency after agency piling on and demanding (or "suggesting") that Twitter ban xxx number of accounts. 

You can see what Taibbi thought of that when he focused on the metaphor for the FBI as a belly button. It should have been the asshole, but that is an exit, not an entry point. Er... I'm going to stop right now with this particular metaphor stuff. It just ain't working out well...  

 

I wonder why Twitter refused to ban the journalist Adam Schiff wanted banned (although they banned the journalist later), but Twitter banned all the rest. Maybe Shifty was too shifty at the time even for squishy Twitter?

 

 

For those who are attentive, note that this is the Federal Government directly censoring US citizens and leaving a paper trail to prove it. This is about as unconstitutional as it can get. What's more, this implicates a whole crapload of government agencies from the intelligence community.

Anyway, I hope you had fun.

I sure did.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

This is one hell of an article by Lee Smith (the guy who has been going around blowing up Critical Race Theory in schools and the government and military).

It is a perfect recap of the Twitter Files dumps and it puts it all into context, at least in terms of what Elon has allowed to appear so far.

Elon may have his own personal motives for releasing these file dumps to the public, but his heroism cannot be overstated. I have no doubt the bad guys in the intelligence community are working on a way to assassinate him.

Tomorrow I might be at serious odds with Elon (over, say, transhumanism or something).

But today, he is my hero.

His efforts are allowing magnificent work to happen such as the article below.

 

How the FBI Hacked Twitter

How the FBI Hacked Twitter

WWW.TABLETMAG.COM

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The answer begins with Russiagate

Just so you don't think this is a mere summary of the Twitter file dumps, take a look at how the article ends:

Quote

The Republican attorney general of the United States, William Barr—the ultimate DOJ insider—knew the FBI was working to fix the 2020 election and did nothing to stop it. His Justice Department had the laptop in its possession and Barr knew it was authentic. He told reporters this spring that he was “shocked” Biden lied about his son’s computer in the Oct. 22, 2020, debate with Trump. “He’s squarely confronted with the laptop, and he suggested that it was Russian disinformation,” said Barr, “which he knew was a lie.” Yet agents under Barr’s authority were briefing that lie to social media platforms, the press, Congress, and even the Trump White House.

“There were 80 FBI agents in the unit working on foreign disinformation,” Patel told me. “It was about a presidential election, so it would require authorization from the FBI director and the attorney general. Barr knew.”

Barr resigned from the administration a month after the election, outraged that Trump kept pushing him to investigate election fraud when, according to Barr, there was no evidence of it. And yet on his watch, law enforcement agencies under his authority ran the biggest election interference operation in U.S. history. William Barr did not respond to a request for comment.

It seems Barr’s contempt for the president he served blinded him—along with the class of people to which he belongs, Democrats and Republicans alike—to an essential fact: A whole-of-society industry designed to shape elections and censor, propagandize, and spy on Americans was never simply a weapon to harm Donald Trump. It was designed to replace the republic.

This article is so full of gems, it is worth reading twice if not more times.

And in that spirit, let me repeat a couple of items from the section I quoted. Don't forget, the article presents the receipts--hard evidence--that back up these conclusions.

"Barr resigned from the administration a month after the election, outraged that Trump kept pushing him to investigate election fraud when, according to Barr, there was no evidence of it. And yet on his watch, law enforcement agencies under his authority ran the biggest election interference operation in U.S. history. William Barr did not respond to a request for comment."

And this:

"A whole-of-society industry designed to shape elections and censor, propagandize, and spy on Americans was never simply a weapon to harm Donald Trump. It was designed to replace the republic."

Dayaamm!

That's great journalism...

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

On 1/5/2023 at 9:52 AM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

... Lee Smith (the guy who has been going around blowing up Critical Race Theory in schools and the government and military).

Oops... That guy is Chris Rufo.

Lee Smith is the guy who wrote books debunking "muh Russians" and other intelligence community wrongdoing.

(See here.)

And Lee's article still deserves all the gushing I did on it.

Maybe more.

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

The comments to this tweet are hilarious.

 

(If you are having one of those days, think Jurassic Park.)

   

 

Apropos, I have tried in all seriousness to read Joyce Carol Oates. I even did her masterclass on Short Story. I just can't get into her stuff.

At least now I have a clue about what might be the problem.

 

Michal

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

New dump.

 

This one only has 4 tweets, then it links to a Substack article, which is here:

From the Twitter Files: Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb secretly pressed Twitter to hide posts challenging his company's massively profitable Covid jabs

From the Twitter Files: Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb secretly pressed Twitter to hide posts challenging his company's massively profitable Covid jabs

ALEXBERENSON.SUBSTACK.COM

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To funnel his demands, Gottlieb used the same Twitter lobbyist the White House did - fresh evidence of overlap between the company selling mRNA shots and the government forcing them on the public.

 

 

Note: I may not make an easy read version since this is so easy to read by itself.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Before I comment, here's an article on the Twitter Files dump.

JUST IN: Another Twitter Files Drop: How Pfizer Board Member Scott Gottlieb Used Twitter Lobbyist at White House to Suppress Debate on Covid Vaccines

JUST IN: Another Twitter Files Drop: How Pfizer Board Member Scott Gottlieb Used Twitter Lobbyist at White House to Suppress Debate on Covid Vaccines

WWW.THEGATEWAYPUNDIT.COM

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Journalist Alex Berenson released another ‘Twitter Files’ drop: How Scott Gottlieb – a top Pfizer board member – used the same Twitter lobbyist as the White House to suppress debate on Covid vaccines...

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I read the Twitter Files Dump and it is a short one.

It hones in on a specific bad guy, Scott Gottlieb, a head honcho at Pfizer (and former FDA Commissioner) who got people thrown off Twitter for publishing correct information about the Pfizer jab. He is not shown refuting the information, instead only being worried about how it will negatively impact Pfizer's business.

He was real concerned about information that some people might not need the jab due to natural immunity and that kids might be a low risk to the virus.

He involved Twitter White House lobbyist to ramp up the pressure.

That might not sound like much, but it involves crimes that an impartial law enforcement (if we ever get one) will have to pursue.

This guy Gottlieb needs to go to prison.

Michael

[ThatGuy]

30 minutes ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

I read the Twitter Files Dump and it is a short one.

It hones in on a specific bad guy, Scott Gottlieb, a head honcho at Pfizer (and former FDA Commissioner) who got people thrown off Twitter for publishing correct information about the Pfizer jab. He is not shown refuting the information, instead only being worried about how it will negatively impact Pfizer's business.

He was real concerned about information that some people might not need the jab due to natural immunity and that kids might be a low risk to the virus.

He involved Twitter White House lobbyist to ramp up the pressure.

That might not sound like much, but it involves crimes that an impartial law enforcement (if we ever get one) will have to pursue.

This guy Gottlieb needs to go to prison.

Michael

SCIENCE!!!!

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

New Twitter Files dump.

40 Tweets.

Here is the Thread Reader version. As usual, mine will come later.

Thread by @mtaibbi on Thread Reader App

THREADREADERAPP.COM

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@mtaibbi: 1.THREAD: Twitter Files #14 THE RUSSIAGATE LIES One: The Fake Tale of Russian Bots and the #ReleaseTheMemo Hashtag 2.At a crucial moment in a years-long furor, Democrats denounced a report...

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Another one.

 

Thread Reader version.

Thread by @mtaibbi on Thread Reader App

THREADREADERAPP.COM

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@mtaibbi: 1.TWITTER FILES: Supplemental More Adam Schiff Ban Requests, and "Deamplification" 2.Staff of House Democrat...

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

A new one.

Thread Reader version (albeit, this is 15 tweets.)

Thread by @lhfang on Thread Reader App

THREADREADERAPP.COM

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@lhfang: 1. New piece from the TWITTER FILES. How the pharmaceutical industry lobbied social media to shape content around vaccine policy. The push included direct pressure from Pfizer partner...

I have some catching up to do on the readable versions.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

On 1/12/2023 at 1:46 PM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

40 Tweets.

Here is the Thread Reader version. As usual, mine will come later.

Thread by @mtaibbi on Thread Reader App

THREADREADERAPP.COM

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@mtaibbi: 1.THREAD: Twitter Files #14 THE RUSSIAGATE LIES One: The Fake Tale of Russian Bots and the #ReleaseTheMemo Hashtag 2.At a crucial moment in a years-long furor, Democrats denounced a report...

 

Here is the OL easier read version.

Tweet Number 8 does not exist. However 9 and 9b do.

 

QUOTE

1. THREAD: Twitter Files #14
THE RUSSIAGATE LIES
One: The Fake Tale of Russian Bots and the #ReleaseTheMemo Hashtag 

2. At a crucial moment in a years-long furor, Democrats denounced a report about flaws in the Trump-Russia investigation, saying it was boosted by Russian “bots” and “trolls.”

3. Twitter officials were aghast, finding no evidence of Russian influence:

“We are feeding congressional trolls.”
“Not any…significant activity connected to Russia.”
“Putting the cart before the horse assuming this is propaganda/bots.”

 

 

 

4. Twitter warned politicians and media the not only lacked evidence, but had evidence the accounts weren’t Russian – and were roundly ignored. 

5. On January 18th, 2018, Republican Devin Nunes submitted a classified memo to the House Intel Committee detailing abuses by the FBI in obtaining FISA surveillance authority against Trump-connected figures, including the crucial role played by the infamous “Steele Dossier”:

6. The Nunes assertions would virtually all be verified in a report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz in December 2019.

 

 

7. Nonetheless, national media in January and early February of 2018 denounced the Nunes report in oddly identical language, calling it a “joke”:

 

 

 

 

9. On January 23rd, 2018, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) published an open letter saying the hashtag “gained the immediate attention and assistance of social media accounts linked to Russian influence operations.”

 

9b. Feinstein/Schiff said the Nunes memo "distorts" classified information, but note they didn't call it incorrect.

10. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal followed suit, publishing a letter saying, “We find it reprehensible that Russian agents have so eagerly manipulated innocent Americans.”

 

11. Feinstein, Schiff, Blumenthal, and media members all pointed to the same source: the Hamilton 68 dashboard created by former FBI counterintelligence official Clint Watts, under the auspices of the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD).

  

 

12. The dashboard, which featured a crude picture of Vladimir Putin deviously blowing evil red Twitter birds into the atmosphere, was vague in how it reached its conclusions.

13. Inside Twitter, executives panned Watts, Hamilton 68, and the Alliance for Securing Democracy. Two key complaints: Hamilton 68 seemed to be everyone’s only source, and no one was checking with Twitter. 

14. “I encourage you to be skeptical of Hamilton 68’s take on this, which as far as I can tell is the only source for these stories,” said Global Policy Communications Chief (and future WH and NSC spokesperson) Emily Horne.

She added: “It’s a comms play for ASD.”

 

 

15. “All the swirl is based on Hamilton,” said Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth.

 

16. “If ASD isn’t going to fact-check with us, we should feel free to correct the record on their work,” said Policy VP Carlos Monje.

 

17. Roth couldn’t find any Russian connection to #ReleaseTheMemo – at all. “I just reviewed the accounts that posted the first 50 tweets with #releasethememo and… none of them show any signs of affiliation to Russia.”

 

18. “We investigated, found that engagement as overwhelmingly organic, and driven by VITs” – Very Important Tweeters, including Wikileaks and congressman Steve King.

 

19. A staffer for “DiFi” – Feinstein – agreed it would be “helpful to know” how Hamilton 68 goes by “the process by which they decide an account is Russian.”

But, only AFTER Feinstein published her letter about Russian influence.

 

20. When Twitter spoke to a Blumenthal staffer, they tried to “wave him off” because “we don’t believe these are bots.”

 

21. Added another: “It might be worth nudging Blumenthal’s staffer that it could be in his boss’ best interest not to go out there because it could come back to make him look silly.”

 

22. One Twitter exec even tried to negotiate, implying an undisclosed future PR concession if Blumenthal would lay off on this:

“It seems like there are other wins we could offer him.”

 

23. Blumenthal published his letter anyway. 

24. Execs eventually grew frustrated over what they saw as a circular process – presented with claims of Russian activity, even when denied, led to more claims. 

25. They expressed this explicitly to Blumenthal’s camp, saying “Twitter spent a lot of resources” on this request and the reward from Blumenthal shouldn’t be round after round of requests.”

“We can’t do a user notice each time this happens.”

 

 

26. Eventually Twitter staff realize “Blumenthal isn’t looking for real and nuanced solutions” but “just wants to get credit for pushing us further.”

 

27. Ultimately senior executives talked about “feeding congressional trolls” and compared their situation to the children’s book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.”

 

28. In the story, if you give a mouse a cookie, he’ll want a glass of milk, which will lead to a wave of other exhausting requests, at the end of which he’ll want a glass of milk. And one more cookie.

 

 

29. The metaphor for the endless Russia requests was so perfect, one exec wrote, “I’m legit embarrassed I didn’t think of that first.”

 

30. Despite universal internal conviction that there were no Russians in the story, Twitter went on to follow a slavish pattern of not challenging Russia claims on the record. 

31. Outside counsel from DC-connected firms like Debevoise and Plimpton advised Twitter to use language like, “With respect to particular hashtags, we take seriously any activity that may represent an abuse of our platform.”

 

32. As a result, reporters from the AP to Politico to NBC to Rolling Stone continued to hammer the “Russian bots” theme, despite a total lack of evidence.

 

 

 

 

33. Russians weren’t just blamed for #ReleaseTheMemo but #SchumerShutdown, #ParklandShooting, even #GunControlNow – to “widen the divide,” according to the New York Times.

 

34. Re #SchumerShutdown and #ReleaseTheMemo, the internal guidance was, “Both hashtags appear to be organically trending.”

 

35. NBC, Politico, AP, Times, Business Insider, and other media outlets who played up the “Russian bots” story – even Rolling Stone – all declined to comment for this story. 

36. The staffs of Feinstein, Schiff, and Blumenthal also declined comment. 

37. Who did comment? Devin Nunes. "Schiff and the Democrats falsely claimed Russians were behind the Release the Memo hashtag, all my investigative work... By spreading the Russia collusion hoax, they instigated one of the greatest outbreaks of mass delusion in U.S. history.” 

38. This #ReleaseTheMemo episode is just one of many in the #TwitterFiles. The Russiagate scandal was built on the craven dishonesty of politicians and reporters, who for years ignored the absence of data to fictional scare headlines. 

39. For more, watch @ShellenbergerMD, @bariweiss, @lhfang, @davidzweig, @AlexBerenson, and more.

Read Taibbi.Substack.Com for more on why “America Needs Truth and Reconciliation on Russiagate.”

40. Twitter had no editorial input on this story. Searches were carried out by third parties, so the documents could be limited. 

END QUOTE

 

Sorry for the delay. There were so many images in this one I decided to write an Autohotkey script to help with copying, resizing and pasting the images. It took some frustrating brain work and so much time, it started affecting my self-image  , but I did it.

Maybe it's not the best script in town, but it cut my work-time down by about 95%.

 

Anyway, if you have been waiting for me for you to catch-up, enjoy your catch-up.

Especially the children's book metaphor, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," that the Twitter people honed in on to describe the "muh Russians" requests from the Deep State. (They never use the phrase "Deep State, though, probably because they were part of it.) The mouse will want a glass of milk and a whole bunch of other stuff, then another glass of milk and another cookie.  

From the repercussions and Predator Class panic I have seen all over, this one is juicy.

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

On 4/14/2022 at 6:24 PM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

EDIT: Matt Taibbi has a running summary on Substack of all the official Twitter Files (the dumps) that Elon has authorized to come out. Since there are so many Twitter Files in this thread, I am putting his summary link here. If you don't have time to read them all, this is a good place to check to catch up and see if you missed one.

Capsule Summaries of all Twitter Files Threads to Date, With Links and a Glossary

Enjoy.

M

From this point on, I will start referring to the above link when I make other posts about the Twitter Files dumps. I added the text above as an EDIT to the opening post in this thread (Elon Musk and Twitter). I note that, at this moment, Fang's dump is not there yet, so, as we go along, the last one or two dumps might have a delay before they get onto Taibbi's summaries list. But I have no doubt they will be included later.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

On 1/13/2023 at 12:07 PM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Another one.

 

Thread Reader version.

Thread by @mtaibbi on Thread Reader App

THREADREADERAPP.COM

---

@mtaibbi: 1.TWITTER FILES: Supplemental More Adam Schiff Ban Requests, and "Deamplification" 2.Staff of House Democrat...

Michael

The OL easier read version.

QUOTE

1. TWITTER FILES: Supplemental
More Adam Schiff Ban Requests,
and "Deamplification" 

2. Staff of House Democrat @AdamSchiff wrote to Twitter quite often, asking that tweets be taken down. This important use of taxpayer resources involved an ask about a “Peter Douche” parody photo of Joe Biden. The DNC made the same request:

 

 

3. The real issue was Donald Trump retweeted the Biden pic. To its credit Twitter refused to remove it, with Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth saying it had obvious “humorous intent” and “any reasonable observer” - apparently, not a Schiff staffer - could see it was doctored.

 

4. Schiff staffer Jeff Lowenstein didn’t give up, claiming there was a “slippery slope concern here.”

 

5. Twitter also refused requests for bans of content about Schiff and his staff, e.g. “complete suppress[ion of] any and all search results about Mr. Misko and other Committee staffers.” Twitter said this would not be “conceivable.”

 

6. Even when Twitter didn’t suspend an account, that didn’t mean they didn’t act. Schiff’s office repeatedly complained about “QAnon related activity” that were often tweets about other matters, like the identity of the Ukraine “whistleblower” or the Steele dossier:

 

 

 

 

7. Twitter policy at the time didn’t ban QAnon, but “deamplified” such accounts. About the batch of tweets that included those above, Twitter execs wrote: “We can internally confirm that a number of the accounts flagged are already included in this deamplification.”

 

8. Schiff’s office had a concern about “deamplification,” though: it might make it harder for law enforcement to track the offending Tweeters. 

9. “WE APPRECIATE GREATLY”
“We are curious whether any deamplification measures implemented by Twitter’s enforcement team – which we appreciate greatly – could… impede the ability of law enforcement to search Twitter for potential threats about Misko and other HPSCI staff.”

 

10. For more, watch @ShellenbergerMD, @BariWeiss, @LHFang, @DavidZweig, @AlexBerenson, and others.

Twitter had no editorial input. Searches were carried out by third parties, so the documents could be limited. 

END QUOTE

Adam Schiff caught a lot of flack over this, even in the fake news media.

If you want to see a summary of this thread, there is a link at the bottom of the opening post, or you can go here.

One more to go to catch up.

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

On 1/16/2023 at 9:52 AM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

A new one.

Thread Reader version (albeit, this is 15 tweets.)

Thread by @lhfang on Thread Reader App

THREADREADERAPP.COM

---

@lhfang: 1. New piece from the TWITTER FILES. How the pharmaceutical industry lobbied social media to shape content around vaccine policy. The push included direct pressure from Pfizer partner...

 

Here is the OL easier read version

Pfizer bullying the Biden administration. Not that it needed any bullying at all. (Think payoffs and worse.)

QUOTE

Lee Fang

1. New piece from the TWITTER FILES.
How the pharmaceutical industry lobbied social media to shape content around vaccine policy.

The push included direct pressure from Pfizer partner BioNTech to censor activists demanding low-cost generic vaccines for low-income countries. 

2. In 2020, it was clear that the pandemic would require rapid innovation. Early on, there was a push to make the solution equitable: an international partnership to share ideas, technology, new forms of medicine to rapidly solve this crisis.

New agreement under C-TAP aims to improve global access to COVID-19 testing technologies

New agreement under C-TAP aims to improve global access to COVID-19 testing technologies - MPP

MEDICINESPATENTPOOL.ORG

---

Geneva – A new, open, transparent sublicence agreement between the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) on behalf of C-TAP, and South African pharmaceutical company Biotech Africa will accelerate the...

 

3. But global drug giants saw the crisis as an opportunity for unprecedented profit. Behind closed doors, pharma launched a massive lobbying blitz to crush any effort to share patents/IP for new covid-related medicine, including therapeutics and vaccines. 

4. BIO, the lobby group that represents biopharma, including Moderna & Pfizer, wrote to the newly elected Biden admin, demanding the U.S. gov sanction any country attempting to violate patent rights and create generic low cost covid medicine or vaccines.

DRUG LOBBY ASKS BIDEN TO PUNISH FOREIGN COUNTRIES PUSHING FOR LOW-COST VACCINES

Drug Lobby Asks Biden to Punish Foreign Countries Pushing for Low-Cost Vaccines

THEINTERCEPT.COM

---

Big Pharma is fighting for tight control over Covid-19 vaccine production, limiting availability worldwide while reaping billions.

 

5. That brings us to Twitter. The global lobbying blitz includes direct pressure on social media. BioNTech, which developed Pfizer's vaccine, reached out to Twitter to request that Twitter directly censor users tweeting at them to ask for generic low cost vaccines.

 

6. Twitter's reps responded quickly to the pharma request, which was also backed by the German government. A lobbyist in Europe asked the content moderation team to monitor the accounts of Pfizer, AstraZeneca & of activist hashtags like #peoplesvaccine

 

7. The potential "fake accounts" that Twitter monitored for protesting Pfizer? These were real people. Here's one the Twitter team flagged for potential terms of use violations. I talked to Terry, a 74 year old retired bricklayer in the UK on the phone.

(EMBEDDED TWEET)

Terry Brough #PeaceJusticeSocialism @TerryB28937065

Dear @AlbertBourla, @sbancel & #PascalSoriot, 9/10 people in poor countries are going to MISS OUT on a #COVID19 vaccine next year. Will @Pfizer, @BioNTech_Group @moderna_tx & @AstraZeneca  #JoinCTAP to ensure that everyone, everywhere can be safe? We need a #PeoplesVaccine!

 

2:46 AM · Dec 14, 2020

(END EMBEDDED TWEET)

 

8. It's not clear what actions Twitter ultimately took on this particular request. Several Twitter employees noted in subsequent messages that none of this activism constituted abuse. But the company continued monitoring tweets. 

9. In a separate push, Pfizer & Moderna's lobbying group, BIO, fully funded a special content moderation campaign designed by a contractor called Public Good Projects, which worked w/Twitter to set content moderation rules around covid "misinformation." 

10. BIO provided $1,275,000 to the campaign, part of which is revealed through tax forms. The PGP campaign, called "Stronger," helped Twitter create content moderation bots, select which public health accounts got verification, helped crowdsource content takedowns.

 

 

11. Many of the tweets the BIO-funded campaign focused on were truly unhinged misinfo, like claims that vaccines include microchips. But others Stronger lobbied Twitter on were more of a grey area, like vaccine passports & vaccine mandates, policies that coerce vaccination.

 

 

12. The Moderna/Pfizer-funded campaign included direct regular emails with lists of tweets to takedown & others to verify. Here's an example of those types of emails that went straight to Twitter's lobbyists and content moderators. Many focused on @zerohedge, which was suspended.

 

13. Notably, this massive push to censor and label covid misinfo never applied to drug companies. When big pharma wildly exaggerated the risks of creating low-cost generic covid vaccines, Stronger did nothing. The rules applied only to critics of industry.

(EMBEDDED TWEET)

 PhRMA @PhRMA

The biopharma sector employs more than 900,000 workers and supports 4.4 million U.S. jobs. Those jobs would be at risk if the #TRIPS waiver is extended to #COVID19 treatments. Read more about the real consequences of waiving commitments to protect IP:

 

 

catalyst.phrma.org

Expanding the WTO intellectual property waiver will hurt American jobs

It is no coincidence that the United States has developed leading COVID-19 treatments.

 

1:28 PM · Nov 9, 2022

(END EMBEDDED TWEET)

 

14. Here is my reported piece w/more detail. I was given some access to Twitter emails. I signed/agreed to nothing, Twitter had no input into anything I did or wrote. The searches were carried out by a Twitter attorney, so what I saw could be limited.

COVID-19 DRUGMAKERS PRESSURED TWITTER TO CENSOR ACTIVISTS PUSHING FOR GENERIC VACCINE

Covid-19 Drugmakers Pressured Twitter to Censor Activists Pushing for Generic Vaccine

THEINTERCEPT.COM

---

The social media pressure campaign was just a part of the pharmaceutical industry’s successful lobbying blitz to retain patents — and make record profits.

 

15. Thanks @davidzweig and @lwoodhouse for help, and look for more Twitter reporting from @mtaibbi, @ShellenbergerMD, @bariweiss/@TheFP and others. You can find me on Substack here

 

Creating a Substack - Lee Fang

LEEFANG.SUBSTACK.COM

---

I’m starting a Substack. For now, this is a platform for me to provide further context for my reporting, as well as original source documents, research tips, and analysis. I’m interested in exposing the hidden...

END QUOTE

 

There it is. Pfizer doing the nasty.

Bullying the Biden administration to interfere in other countries and takedown social media accounts that were not singing the jab party line.

And guess what? The Biden administration did it.

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I am a big fan of what Elon Musk is doing right now, but I also temper that enthusiasm with words from the "Elon, hell no!" people like those below.

Should You Trust Elon Musk? Feat. Whitney Webb, James Corbett, Jason Bermas, Ryan Cristián & Derrick Broze

ODYSEE.COM

---

Derrick Broze of The Conscious Resistance hosts journalists/researchers Whitney Webb, James Corbett, Jason Bermas, and Ryan Cristián to discuss why the public should be extremely...

James Corbett did a great job as Johnny YouTuber defending Elon as a foil to the other four.

Their biggest gripe is that Elon is a statist in his endeavors, meaning, he receives government money by the boatloads, so he has to be doing the bidding of the governments to some extent.

They fear that he is a Trojan Horse sent to garner trust and pacify the masses with illusions of free speech as the authoritarian machines work behind the scenes to tighten up their controls.

 

So which is it? Pro-Elon or anti-Elon?

I say do both.

I'll take it when Elon releases the backstage monkey-shines and lets censored people back on Twitter. And I will applaud. I'll be pro-Elon.

I'm also keeping an eye on what these people are saying. And if their fears and concerns start becoming reality, I'll do my own part to defend freedom. I'll be anti-Elon.

I believe intelligent people can do both if they anchor to freedom, to principle, and not to a person.

 

Michael