Thread by @SamParkerSenate

1. We all know about Yoel Roth's involvement in censoring conservative speech & suspending Donald Trump--as revealed in #TwitterFiles--but is he guilty of something maybe even worse?

Did Roth help start &/or escalate &/or materially affect the Russia/Ukraine war?

Buckle up!🧵

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601843661045526529

2. 1st, we must acknowledge the power of Twitter to affect public mood, action & policy. This idea was, after all, the explicit reason behind banning Donald Trump & others who allegedly "deny" elections &/or "incite to violence." IOW, Twitter has the power to "move the needle."

3. Using a more recent example: Elon Musk waded into the Russia/Ukraine war w/a series of controversial tweets. Why were they controversial? B/c people implicitly understand the power of influence & how it can tip scales one way or another.

english.nv.ua/life/musk-draw…

4. Musk's tweets went massively viral & provoked responses from people in the US Congress. Even the president of Ukraine himself, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was motivated to weigh in:

https://mobile.twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1577006943499350016

5. In war, there's the physical battle & there's the battle for souls--the hearts & minds of the people. W/o that, physical battles are often doomed. Electoral support may dwindle, funding may dry up, etc. There are any number of ways that losing The People leads to losing a war.

6. While the battle for hearts/minds is crucial for winning wars, they're also crucial for starting one in the first place. It's hard for leaders to go to war w/o the support of the people. In fact, when actual pretexts for wars don't exist, fake ones are created: "False flags."

7. Finally, in-war decisions are also affected by the hearts/minds of the people. Easy example of this are whether more funding will be granted, more weapons sent, whether a draft will be instituted or more troops sent. Such decisions are all affected by the will of the people.

8. Now that we've established

1) That the hearts/minds of the people affect the Start, Middle & End of wars, &

2) That Twitter has the power to affect those hearts/minds--

Did Yoel Roth's (in)actions affect the starting of, middle or ending of the Russia/Ukraine war?

9. Did Yoel Roth abuse his power as the head of Trust & Safety to help foment &/or escalate &/or prolong the Russia/Ukraine War?

If so, should he suffer any consequences for this? For example, should he at the very least have his account suspended?

Let us now review the case:

10. As head of "Trust & Safety," it was his job to help shape policy on what conversations would be allowable & safe and to enforce those policies. His heavy hand in dealing w/Conservatives & Trump show that he took this job quite seriously. The #TwitterFiles releases confirm it.

11. At times, Roth told us what he was doing to make Twitter safe. Take this example from Dec. 2021--prior to the Russia/Ukraine War--in which he told us about "Project Sunlight," the effort to stop Russian disinformation online. He even bragged about it being "industry leading."

12. Since the Russia-Ukraine War started on Feb 24, 2022, Roth's censorship/filtering of alleged Russian (dis/mis)information necessarily affected--to some degree--the hearts/minds of people, one way or the other. & Since that affected the hearts/minds of people, well--you know.

13. Then, on Feb. 28, Roth announced his efforts to provide "credible information" on the war, that he took this role "seriously," to help us understand "who's behind the content" and their "motivations & intentions" behind information being shared.

14. To demonstrate the effectiveness of his efforts &, I suppose, to reassure us, he also told us of the 45,000 tweets/day from Russian-affiliated media that Twitter was labeling. 45k/day! Remember this number, it's important.

15. Fast forward to Aug 15, 2022, when the University of Adelaide’s School of Mathematical Science published the results of its study

"#IStandWithPutin versus #IStandWithUkraine: The interaction of bots & humans in discussion of the Russia/Ukraine war"

arxiv.org/abs/2208.07038

16. They analyzed an unprecedented 5,203,746 tweets in the first 2 wks of the Russian/Ukraine war from Feb 24. The researchers considered predominately English-language accounts, w/a calculated 1.8-million unique Twitter accounts in the posting at least 1 English-language tweet.

17. During the 1st week alone of the war, ~3.5 million tweets using #IStandWithUkraine were sent by bots. By day 3, it was being tweeted a whopping 50,000 times/hour!--absolutely dwarfing the 45k/day Russian-affiliated tweets.

18. On March 10th, over 2 weeks after the war started, Roth stated Twitter was adding "Belarus" labels in addition to the "Russian" labels. He reiterated the need for "transparency." At this point, still no action taken toward Ukrainian bots or any pro-Ukrainian accounts.

19. It wouldn't be until March 16th--3 weeks after the start of the war!--that Twitter started labeling Ukrainian state-affiliated accounts. This time, Yoel let his colleague tweet the announcement:

20. Why did Twitter crack down on Russia months ahead of the war & then again in the 1st week of the war, but do nothing towards Ukraine for 3 weeks? Why the inequity in providing "credible" & "transparent" information?

Bot Tweets
Blue/Red: pro-Ukraine
Yellow/Green: pro-Russia

21. Looking at more results from the Adelaide study, pro-Ukrainian bot activity DWARFED pro-Russian bot activity. >90% of bot accounts were pro-Ukraine/anti-Russia.

22. On March 4th, after #IStandWithPutin trended, Twitter immediately suppressed the hashtag & proudly announced it had suspended 100 accounts--a very small number compared to the number of pro-Ukrainian accounts that burst onto the scene 2 weeks beforehand--w/no action taken.

23. Let's see that comparative tweet volume again. Twitter suppressed the green immediately, but did nothing about the blue.

Does this look like Yoel Roth was dedicated to "credible information" & "transparency?" Or does it look more like he favored one side over another?

24. The Adelaide research:

"tweets from the fake ‘bot’ accounts drove ‘an increase in conversations surrounding ANGST’ amongst people"

"research shows that fake automated SM ‘bot’ accounts do manipulate public opinion by shaping the discourse, sometimes in very specific ways."

25. IOW, the tweets were 'moving the needle,' affecting the hearts & minds of people.

But which people? Again, the data is suggestive: 67% of the tweets were in English! Peak activity was 6-9 PM US time!

Americans were the target. Americans were being influenced.

26. That Americans were the target may have been confirmed by Gen. Paul Nakasone, head of U.S. Cyber Command, who revealed in June 2022 that USCC had been conducting offensive Information Operations in support of Ukraine.

IOW, Pro-Ukraine psyops.

thehill.com/policy/cyberse…

27. This statement really pops to life in the wake of recent #TwitterFiles revelations & related exposés that there are numerous Twitter employees who are ex-FBI/Intelligence/CIA. Many of you know about Deputy Chief Counsel James Baker, fired by Musk on Tuesday; there are more.

28. In a bombshell thread yesterday, an undercover Twitter user from a newly-created account revealed there are at least 14 more ex-FBI/CIA Intelligence Operatives working at Twitter.

I archived the thread revealing their identities here:
archive.vn/LDdof

29. Someone else created this handy meme. #TwitterFiles

30. As of Nov, one estimate puts the amount of US aid sent to Ukraine at $91Billion!

$14Billion was sent on Feb 24, w/another $40Billion in May.

I wonder, how much did public support influence that transfer? How much public support came b/c of Twitter?

themainewire.com/2022/11/us-aid…

31. So many questions now arise:

-How much did Bot-psyops influence the run-up to the Russia-Ukraine War?
-How much did they influence the early days of the war?
-How much did they influence American support for the war?
-What was Yoel Roth's involvement?
-Why did Roth unequally

32. apply tweet suppression techniques between pro-Ukraine & pro-Russia accounts?

Why did Roth highlight alleged Russian (mis/dis)information while saying & doing nothing about the Ukrainian (mis/dis)information (from his internal view, it surely would have been obvious)?

33. What role did US intelligence have in the Pro-Ukrainian bot operation?

If US intelligence was behind some/all of it, how complicit was Yoel Roth?

Was Roth a primary driver himself? Did he simply look the other way? Was he a facilitator?

34. Did Yoel Roth's (in)actions materially affect the Russia/Ukraine war?

It seems like the answer must be "YES." What remains to be determined is 1) how much & 2) why?

Was this a personal crusade?
An intelligence OP?

He should be made to answer for his role.

#TwitterFiles

35. At the very least, I believe the evidence shows Yoel Roth--either through action or inaction--violated Twitter's TOS on Synthetic & Manipulated Media. Widespread dissemination of information that causes confusion on public issues is a violation. I believe Roth did this.

36. Furthermore, it's possible Roth's massively imbalanced actions towards Russia vs. Ukraine could also be a violation of Twitter's Hateful Conduct TOS. Allowing such strident pro-Ukraine material to flood the platform, did he essentially promote violence & hate against Russia?

37. Of course, violation of Twitter's TOS pale in comparison to any actual damage to human life Roth (may have) caused. But we must hold people accountable where we can, right?

Please r/t to boost to @elonmusk's attention: please review & suspend Yoel's account if justified.

38. I call upon @mtaibbi @bariweiss @@ShellenbergerMD @elonmusk @NameRedacted247 & anyone else w/access &/or information to investigate Roth's (possible) involvement in the Pro-Ukrainian bot psyop that took place on Twitter earlier this year.

Please retweet! Thx!

#TwitterFiles

39. To the rest of you, if you enjoyed this thread, please add yourself to my list and give me a follow (as my account is still throttled):

mobile.twitter.com/i/lists/158081…

40. Also, follow me at

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Thanks!

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