Thread by @MikeBenzCyber

1. #FauciFiles Analysis Thread. I'll cover the key disclosures tweet by tweet, then have final summarizing thoughts at the end:

2. The first substantive "FauciFile" is Tweet 6, which says the Trump admin "came looking for help from the tech companies to combat misinformation."

This is presumably to suggest it wasn't just Biden who pressured Twitter to censor, that Trump did too:

https://twitter.com/davidzweig/status/1607381544351698948

3. But what are we even looking at in @davidzweig's Tweet 6? What is this picture attached, his own personal notes?

Where are the emails? Where are the transcripts of the calls with the Trump admin?

Where are ***the source documents*** hyperlinked in his bullet point notes?

4. Right off the bat, we are plagued by the same problem that has made the TwitterFiles so maddeningly frustrating to date. @davidzweig is telling us about Twitter conversations, instead of showing us those conversations.

We want source documents. Not conclusory statements.

5. What exactly did the Trump admin request Twitter do? Did they actually send takedown requests? Did they do "very angry" calls with Twitter like the Biden admin (see @davidzweig's Tweets 11-12)?

Why is that hard to show us? Isn't this supposed to be showing inside documents?

6. The same problem plagues Tweet 7. Trump White House meeting with Google, Facebook & Microsoft "to share general trends" re: Covid. Did Trump admin actually request post takedowns?

Can you share the meeting agendas? Emails? Calls? Show us. Don't tell.

https://twitter.com/davidzweig/status/1607381845175590913

7. Incredibly, @davidzweig doesn't even give dates of those meetings with Trump White House, or approximate dates, so we can sync it up with other timelines.

Google, Facebook and Microsoft WERE extremely active in 2020 in government censorship initiatives. With DHS & State Dept.

8. For example, Microsoft in 2018 made a huge move into the Internet censorship space from about dozen different directions. A cyber cell within Microsoft set up the "Democracy Forward" program and used it prop up and expand Newsguard:

blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/…

9. We have covered Newsguard many times, but for those new to its government funding, origins, and role in the censorship industry, see this helpful clip:

https://twitter.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/1607370577639006208

10. With your tax dollars funding their censors, Newsguard has been blasting Covid-dissident news sites out of operability since early 2020.

631 news websites are advertiser & social media blacklisted on its Coronavirus Misinformation Tracking Center:

archive.vn/M8jM7

11. Microsoft President Brad Smith has been wielding the company's massive resources toward Internet censorship since 2018, and has come to sound virtually indistinguishable from Kamala Harris when it comes to censorship issues:

12. Microsoft's "Democracy Forward" cell partnered with DHS's CISA under Chris Krebs, leveraging Krebs' deep network at Microsoft from his time as cyber director there.

After backing Newsguard, Microsoft created ElectionGuard, which CISA promoted:

blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/…

13. In Tweet 8, @davidzweig says the Biden White House told Twitter to ban vaxx-critical users like Alex Berenson.

Okay. But we've known this for 6+ months. Where are the SOURCE DOCUMENTS? Company calls are usually recorded - you don't have transcripts?

https://twitter.com/davidzweig/status/1607382379018190849

14. Tweets 11-12 SHOULD be the best part of this entire #FauciFiles drop. The Biden admin gets "very angry" at Twitter for not censoring enough, and Twitter compiles a censorship presentation for those meetings.

But the presentation is a hyperlink for @davidzweig, not for us!!!

15. Is this Twitter 2.0, or is it still Twitter 1.0? If Twitter compiled a presentation on Covid-critical accounts to placate White House censorship demands, shouldn't we, the citizens of Twitter 2.0, be able to see the old censorship ways of Twitter 1.0?

Why hide this from us?

16. Sorry to say, but for the standards I have to uphold at FFO, I can't take any of this to the bank.

If this were a trial, none of these posts would even be admissible. They'd be hearsay.

When asked my source, I never want to have to say: "@davidzweig told me. Trust him."

17. #FauciFiles Tweets 19-31 have genuinely helpful insider exchanges about how Twitter, under pressure from gov't, censored true information about Covid.

Perhaps most useful is Tweet 25, where Twitter flagged users who simply cited the CDC's own data:

https://twitter.com/davidzweig/status/1607387725065232384

18. But even this is nowhere remotely close to breaking new ground.

FFO reported how DHS, while partnered with Twitter, encouraged mass flagging of true information about Covid - including Twitter users posting CDC data! - 4 months ago:

foundationforfreedomonline.com/8-29-22.html

19. Watch this Covid censorship video below made by CISA (now helmed by former NSA counterterrorism czar Jen Easterly). You, taxpayer, paid it for.

Watch how at 1:43-1:48, DHS still instructs you to flag your family member's post, even though they cite official CDC data:

20. And it is frankly evasive at best, and a cop-out or cover-up at worst, to lay blame for Twitter's vast and totalizing Covid censorship enforcement at the feet of mechanical turk jobs in the Phillipines, like @davidzweig highlights in Tweet 16:

https://twitter.com/davidzweig/status/1607385019101884418

21. FFO covered how Twitter censors worked hand-in-hand with CDC to shut down posts & accounts challenging Covid orthodoxy.

And they didn't go all the way to the Philippines. They took takedown orders from "Infodemic Manager Unicorns" straight outta WHO

foundationforfreedomonline.com/8-2-22.html

22. Can the next #FauciFiles please build on what we already know? Ie, @America1stLegal already FOIA'd CDC emails showing Todd O'Boyle at Twitter was "requesting problem accounts" to censor on CDC's behalf.

Can you give us more Todd O'Boyle emails?

ftp.aflegal.org/Press/AFL%20v.…

23. Let's be specific: we know from @America1stLegal FOIAs that Todd O'Boyle, Megan Dorward & Reggie McCrimmon set up "regular basis" meetings to censor "Vaccine Misinformation" CDC wanted banned from Twitter.

Show us O'Boyle's, Dorward's and McCrimmon's censorship emails:

24. In all, the best receipt from this drop is Tweet 34, showing former FBI general counsel Jim Baker tried to get Trump's tweets censored simply for saying "Don't be afraid of Covid."

While it's a great receipt, it doesn't exactly teach us anything new:

https://twitter.com/FFO_Freedom/status/1599897653973725184

25. There is so much more to say here: we need insider emails on role of the Pentagon, the Virality Project, DHS & exact Biden White House officials. Not "Biden White House." Real names of real people.

Lastly, it's called TwitterFiles. The operative word is Files. Open Them Up.

PS: Pentagon cut-outs like Graphika & Atlantic Council DFR lab worked w/ NATO Hybrid War centers in Jan. 2020 - 1 month after Covid started, we're told - to flag Twitter posts en masse to censor questions of origin.

Hey @elonmusk, got anything on that?

https://twitter.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/1605291219655053316