New Twitter Files:
The FBI is helping Ukraine censor Twitter users, including journalists.
The FBI aided a Ukrainian intelligence effort to ban Twitter users and collect their data. Twitter declined to censor journalists targeted by Ukraine, including Aaron Maté.
Article here: mate.substack.com/p/fbi-helps-uk…
In March 2022, an FBI Special Agent sent Twitter a list of accounts on behalf of the SBU, Ukraine’s main intelligence agency. The accounts, the FBI wrote, “are suspected by the SBU in spreading fear and disinformation.”
In an attached memo, Ukraine's SBU provided a list of accounts that it alleged have been "used to disseminate disinformation and fake news to inaccurately reflect events in Ukraine."
It then asked Twitter "to block these Twitter accounts and provide us with" their "user data."
The Ukrainian government’s FBI-enabled list of accounts marked for censorship extends to members of the media.
The SBU list that the FBI provided to Twitter included my name and Twitter profile, as well was several Russian journalists.
In response to the FBI, Twitter agreed to review the accounts but raised concerns about its inclusion of “American and Canadian journalists (e.g. Aaron Mate).”
The FBI’s attempt to ban Twitter accounts at the request of Ukrainian intelligence is among the most overt requests for censorship revealed to date in the Twitter Files.
The FBI described the suppression effort as "assistance to Ukraine."
The FBI declined to answer my questions about its aid to Ukrainian intelligence censorship efforts.
“While we appreciate your inquiry, as a matter of practice we do not confirm, deny, or otherwise comment on specific interactions nor confirm the veracity of correspondence,” FBI… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
For those asking, here's the SBU's list of targeted accounts that the FBI sent to Twitter: mate.substack.com/api/v1/file/53…
And here's the Twitter-FBI email correspondence: mate.substack.com/api/v1/file/7c…
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