1) TWITTER FILES: Yoel Roth’s private emails explain why free speech advocates target academics—they’re the censorship clergy.
Follow me to see Roth's emails discussing Stanford's Renee Diresta.
2) Emails show that Twitter rejected Renee DiResta as a "hobbyist, but Roth and other Twitter executives embraced her once Stanford University gave her an academic baptism.
3) When NY Times @sheeraf contacted Twitter, excited about doing a profile of her, a Twitter executive dismissed DiResta as a "hobbyist."
4) “Misinformation is becoming a cottage industry,” one Twitter official responded.
"Pointing out that the word 'researcher' has taken on a very broad meaning—Renee is literally doing this as a hobby," another added.
5) Could not find Twitter's emailed response to NY Times Frenkel, but her later profile of DiResta reads like it was ripped from a bad episode of 80s daytime television, with DiResta battling the forces of disinformation while dressed in jammies and in her bed.
6) In February 2018 emails, Twitter employees discussed Diresta's employer New Knowledge and how to handle a report forwarded to them alleging a malicious Twitter campaign targeting the Disney superhero film “Black Panther” with fake news.
7) Roth emailed. Roth added that New Knowledge’s report “could create substantial risk” as it made allegations that were unconfirmed and suggested Twitter follow up directly with Disney.
8) When New Knowledge’s Jonathan Morgan and Renee DiResta then sent Twitter a proposal and other materials a few months later, Twitter promised to get back to them.
9) But Twitter did not seem interested, as New Knowledge was not offering them anything unique. Writing to Roth, one Twitter employee emailed, “My thought on this is we should pause this since we are likely to get something similar from FirstDraft.”
10) I emailed DiResta and asked if she ever sold anything to Twitter or got some sort of contract at the time, but she did not respond.
11) Roth made clear his concerns about working with DiResta that September 2018 when he began strategizing on how to direct another Twitter employee away from her. “FYI, this is about working with Renee DiResta. We need to tread carefully and steer Jasper to safer territory.”
12) “Spoke to him at tea time,” another Twitter official responded. “So I think we can make good progress and manage the [Renee DiResta] risk.”
13) I asked DiResta what the "Renee Diresta risk" is but she didn't respond.
14) New Knowledge imploded a few months later, caught promoting disinformation in an influence campaign against a Republican candidate for Senate.
15) DiResta joined Stanford in the summer of 2019, starting the Stanford Internet Observatory.
One Twitter official sent around a story in Wired discussing it but added, "I haven’t clicked since Wired has a limit on articles and this isn’t important enough.”
16) DiResta then contacted Yoel Roth and others from her new Stanford gig: Hello from Stanford Internet Observatory :)
Roth suddenly seemed interested.
17) DiResta: “Up for a quick call or coffee at Twitter HQ sometime in the next week or two?”
Roth didn't even want a formal plan from "Stanford DiResta": “Nothing especially formal needed—just maybe a sketch of what your ideal [version one] of a collaboration could look like.”
18) Roth later sent DiResta and her Stanford boss the keys to the Twitter kingdom: “We’re reaching out to select researchers that we believe may be in the best position to effectively use the vast scale of this data.”
19) The email said Twitter was not “currently in a position to partner or closely collaborate with you beyond providing access to the data….”
Roth private note: "We would LOVE to partner closely on anything in the IO universe"
20) Roth later recommended "Stanford DiResta" to a NBC reporter as she was now "trusted on our side, and can likely be useful voices.”
21) Roth later got an invite to speak to DiResta's class.
“Thanks so much!” Yoel replied by email. “I’m happy to join.”
22) Roth even reached out to DiResta and her Stanford people for interns.
Yes, they were trading interns. Seem like colleagues now, no?
23) Having once guided Twitter away from DiResta “to safer territory” before promoting her to CNBC once Stanford blessed her—“trusted on our side”—Roth now treated DiResta as an equal, giving talks to her Stanford class and reaching out to find interns.
24) When DiResta tweeted a Stanford study based on Twitter data, Roth deemed her research "independent."
25) Read on how social media officials look to university brands to shore up their own industry’s nebulous definition for disinformation and vague claims for what should be censored. disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/twitter-file…
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