Alan MacLeod Profile picture
Dec 21 11 tweets 4 min read
The #TwitterFiles have laid bare how Twitter actively worked with the US military to spread propaganda from US gov-run bot accounts.

But Twitter's relationship with the US national security state goes much further.

Thread🧵

mintpressnews.com/twitter-hiring…
Earlier this year, I reported on how Twitter has been actively recruiting dozens from the ranks of the FBI, CIA and NATO for top jobs in highly sensitive fields like trust & safety, security and content moderation.

mintpressnews.com/twitter-hiring…
What the Twitter Files have shown is that the FBI was actively lying to Twitter about the Hunter Biden case, and how Twitter was actively working with the US military to promote pro-US propaganda in Iran, Yemen and across the Middle East.
Since its early days, Twitter management has worked with the US government to try to overthrow Iran. As far back as 2009, it was collaborating with the Obama administration to stir up anti-government protests there.
And last year, Twitter was a key player in a US-orchestrated regime change attempt in Cuba.

For nearly 2 days, Twitter staff kept the protests at the top of its "What's Happening" sidebar, meaning hundreds of millions of people saw the news.

mintpressnews.com/documents-poin…
It also refused to take action against the huge and blatantly astroturfed bot campaign boosting the regime change hashtag, #sosCuba.

Dozens of tweets per minute, mostly from new accounts. The same message, even with the same minor typos.

The CIA secretly built a Twitter-like clone app for Cuba called Zunzuneo.

The plan was to take over the Cuban market, then flood people with regime change propaganda.

In 2010, the State Dept met with Twitter's Jack Dorsey and tried to get him to buy it to cover up its origins.
For the record, it seems that Jack did not go along with their plan.
However, in 2019, Twitter did suspend virtually every account belonging to or affiliated with the Cuban government or Communist Party officials. In the past, it has also done the same to Venezuela and China.
And last year, the social media giant announced that it had banned large numbers of accounts for the crime of "undermining faith in the NATO alliance."

mintpressnews.com/twitter-delete…
FWIW, what the Twitter Files revealed is just the tip of the US military's propaganda operation iceberg.

Last year, Newsweek revealed that the Pentagon employs a 60,000-strong secret army of keyboard warriors, whose job is to influence social media.

newsweek.com/exclusive-insi…

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More from @AlanRMacLeod

Dec 16
[Thread]

The “Israeli spy” who “infiltrated” MintPress News.

My new investigation into the curious case of Catherine Perez-Shakdam.

mintpressnews.com/catherine-shak…
Catherine Perez-Shakdam worked for @MintPressNews between 2014 and 2017. But many, including MintPress management, now believe her to be an Israeli intelligence plant. Find out why.
Regularly quoting Lenin and other radical figures, Catherine Perez-Shakdam (CPS) wrote about Middle Eastern politics, railing against US and Israeli foreign policy and excoriating the Saudi attack on Yemen.
Read 10 tweets
Dec 2
Imagine being so drenched in ideology that you think this is a feel good story. Image
One of my most read articles at @FAIRmediawatch was on this very subject.

"Media Just Can’t Stop Presenting Horrifying Stories as ‘Uplifting’ Perseverance Porn"

fair.org/home/media-jus…
See also my article, "Media Frames Teen Using College Savings To Save Mom From Eviction as Uplifting Puff Piece"

mintpressnews.com/perseverance-p…
Read 4 tweets
Nov 19
[Thread]

Since Elon Musk is center of attention right now, it's important to know that he is not (as he portrays himself) some radical outsider, but a crucial part of the US surveillance and national security states.

My investigation here:

mintpressnews.com/elon-musk-not-…
From almost day 1 of SpaceX, Musk was a protégé the CIA, & in particular, CIA exec Mike Griffin.

Griffin mentored him, & when SpaceX was going broke, he argued for him at the CIA + NASA, saying he was the new “Henry Ford” of the rocket industry, securing huge contracts for Musk
Griffin was president of CIA venture capitalist arm, In-Q-Tel.

In-Q-Tel supports fledgling businesses that the agency thinks could work with them.

Griffin also accompanied Musk to Russia 🇷🇺 in 2002 where the pair tried to buy Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Read 7 tweets
Nov 18
[Thread]

Call of Duty is a military/government psyop.

Military documents show how the Dept of Defense works closely with COD producers to make them more "credible advocates" for the US war machine.

mintpressnews.com/call-of-duty-i…
A number of key Activision Blizzard staff came straight from the national security state.

e.g. Chief Admin Officer Brian Bulatao, was 3rd in command of the CIA until 2018. Image
Then there's Fran Townsend, formerly GW Bush's senior nat sec advisor & one of the faces of the War on Terror and the surveillance state.

She helped popularized the term "enhanced interrogation techniques" and alledgedly had a hand in ramping up the torture program at Abu Ghraib Image
Read 11 tweets
Oct 31
[Thread]

Hundreds of former agents of a notorious Israeli spying organization are now working in key positions at the world’s biggest tech/comms corporations, including Google, Facebook and Microsoft.

My new investigation for @MintPressNews:

mintpressnews.com/revealed-forme…
That organization is IDF intelligence regiment, Unit 8200, infamous for creating a surveillance state over Palestinians, using big data to amass info on their sexual and medical histories for the purpose of blackmail and extortion.
Despite this, many former Unit 8200 officers now hold key jobs in tech.

Google’s Head of Strategy and Operations and its Head of Insights, Data and Measurement were Unit 8200 officers, as were a member of Facebook’s Oversight Board and FB Messenger’s Head of Data Science.
Read 6 tweets
Oct 28
[Thread]

Since Elon has now bought this website, I think it is important to highlight how he is not some radical outsider, but a crucial part of the US surveillance and national security states.

Read my investigation here:

mintpressnews.com/elon-musk-not-…
From almost day one of SpaceX's history, Musk has been a protégé of the CIA, and in particular, Mike Griffin.

Griffin mentored him, and when SpaceX was going broke, he argued for him at the CIA and NASA, saying he was the new “Henry Ford” of the rocket industry. Image
Griffin was president of In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capitalist arm. In-Q-Tel supports fledgling businesses that the agency thinks could work with them.

Griffin also accompanied Musk to Russia 🇷🇺 in 2002 where the pair tried to buy Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Read 6 tweets

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