INFOGRAPHIC: Key Revelations of the ‘Twitter Files’
Documents revealed by #Twitter’s new owner, tech billionaire @ElonMusk, show the social media company intertwined with a government-private censorship apparatus. (Thread👇)
#Twitter, under government pressure, suppressed or removed content on various subjects, though most of the time it was cooperating with the #Censorship requests willingly, the documents indicate.
Musk took over #Twitter in October, taking the company private.
He then fired around half of the staff and much of the upper management. The “#TwitterFiles” releases have been part of @elonmusk's promised focus on transparency for the company.
Musk allowed several independent journalists to submit search queries that were then used by #Twitter staff to search through the company’s internal documents, sometimes under the condition that the resulting stories would be first published on the platform itself.
The two journalists primarily responsible for the releases have been journalists @mtaibbi and @bariweiss.
Both are liberals who have expressed disillusionment with the more extreme currents of progressivism and neoliberalism.
Others involved in the releases have been independent journalists @lhfang and @davidzweig, former New York Times reporter @AlexBerenson, as well as author and environmentalist Michael @ShellenbergerMD.
The journalists have only released a fraction of the documents they reviewed. They’ve also redacted the names of employees involved, other than some high-level executives.
The documents show that the #FBI and other agencies have been scrutinizing the political speech of Americans on a significant scale, and trying to get lawful speech suppressed or removed online.
Many have deemed that a violation of the First Amendment.
The #FBI had its sweep #Twitter to identify content and accounts that it tried to get removed, even though the content didn't necessarily violate any laws.
Elvis Chan coordinated communication with Twitter leadership for the FBI and the broader intelligence community.
Members of the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) regularly met with #BigTech executives.
FTIF allegedly employed dozens of #FBI agents to sift through social media to find content supposedly coming from malicious foreign actors and flagging such content for censorship.
[Redacted], a Twitter executive who previously worked for the #CIA, wrote an email suggesting that #Twitter wouldn't dare to disobey a takedown request, because the media fallout of the government publicly labeling the account in question as run by Russian intelligence.
The @StateDept's Global Engagement Center (GEC) would flag thousands of accounts for #Twitter.
For many of the accounts, Twitter couldn't find any association with foreign government actors, the documents indicate.
In 2017, the @DeptofDefense asked #Twitter to give preferential treatment to dozens of accounts used for influence operations in Arab countries.
Some local police departments were also implicated in making #Censorship requests to #Twitter.
In one example supplied by @mtaibbi, the Minnesota Police Dept. reached out to Twitter via the local #FBI—the request was funneled through by Elvis Chan.
State governments also submitted content takedown requests to #Twitter via the #FBI, according to @mtaibbi.
Corporate media also appear to have been a part of an indirect enforcement mechanism for #Censorship.
Content and accounts claimed by the government would be provided to the media, which would then pressure #Twitter to act.
The @DHSgov runs the @CISAgov and finances the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a system that allows state officials to share data on election misinformation and facilitate removal of such content online.
In 2020, @CISAgov partnered with EIP, a group that would flag election "misinformation" to social media companies.
A CISA official acknowledged the agency forwarded to social media companies content moderation requests submitted to EI-ISAC by state and local election officials.
EI-ISAC encourages election officials to report "misinformation" or "disinformation," which is then forwarded to @CISAgov, which "will submit it to the relevant social media platform(s) for review."
EIP leader Alex Stamos said the group would "fill the gap" in countering election disinformation that the government wasn't authorized to address.
The @EI_Partnership took credit for facilitating the removal of suppression of 22 million pieces of online content and dozens of entire "narratives."
The "Twitter Files" indicate that #Twitter executives felt pressured to find more accounts that could be attributed to foreign interference and to comply with takedown requests in order to avoid costly new legislation and negative media coverage spurred by lawmakers.
The Senate Intelligence Committee put pressure on #Twitter to remove foreign accounts, especially Russian accounts.
The Committee's head, Sen. @MarkWarner, was displeased with Twitter's inability to find substantial Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump campaign manager Mike Hahn demanded answers from Twitter.
#COVID19 guidelines by the @CDCgov were used as a measure for what could and couldn't be said on the platform.
Yet the guidelines themselves has been guesswork to some degree as the scientific understanding of the virus has been a matter of ongoing debate and remains incomplete.
Reported @davidzweig "found countless instances of tweets being labeled as 'misleading' or taken down entirely, sometimes triggering account suspensions, simply because they veered from CDC guidance or differed from establishment views."
Since the start of the Biden administration, the @NSF has given nearly $40 million to universities to counter "disinformation" or "misinformation."
At least one of the grants reportedly targets "populist communication" to determine "how to best counter populist narratives."
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A revolt against government policies that many say usurp parental authority is spreading across the nation—especially in blue states where lawmakers have promoted transgender ideology and "gender-affirming care"—according to parents, attorneys, and teachers.theepochtimes.com/article/parent…
For more than a year, #California parents have shown up in droves at legislative hearings and phoned in by the hundreds to protest policies that encourage schools to keep social gender transitions of children secret.
Teachers also have begun to refuse to hide information about a child's gender identity from parents.
Meanwhile, Democratic members of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus have spearheaded legislation supporting so-called gender-affirming care, especially for children, touting it as a “first-in-the-nation” model.
Parental rights groups such as Our Duty have pushed back against the model, while groups such as Planned Parenthood, Equality California, and others support it.
California school districts claim that they’re required by law to keep gender transitions secret from parents unless a child wants to tell his or her parents.
IN-DEPTH: Doctors Warn of the 'Hidden Harms' of Bioengineered Foods
Some doctors are disturbed by the current trajectory of manipulating food sources.
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With the rise of bioengineered foods and ingredients on the market, doctors are warning consumers about the "hidden harms" that may be lurking in the foods they purchase. theepochtimes.com/health/in-dept…
The USDA defines bioengineered food as a consumable product that “contains detectable genetic material that has been modified through certain lab techniques that cannot be created through conventional breeding or found in nature.”
On Jan. 1, 2022, the USDA implemented a new disclosure standard for bioengineered food, so manufacturers must now label food products with the terms “bioengineered” or “derived from bioengineering” so consumers will know what they are buying.
They Suffered Myocarditis After COVID-19 Vaccination. Years Later, Some Still Haven't Recovered.
THREAD👇
"I didn't want to take the vaccine. I didn't believe in it."
But he wanted to appease his mother. "I would do anything for her."
While Mr. Cohen initially resisted receiving a shot, he faced restrictions such as being forced to remain on base while vaccinated soldiers left.
He was also pressured by military commanders, who scheduled a vaccination appointment for him and contacted his mother as part of a multipronged campaign.
"They told me, 'Come on. It's your mother. She's crying. She's worried. What wouldn't you do for her?'"
Mr. Cohen received his first shot, manufactured by Pfizer, on Sept. 22, 2021. He was 21.
2 weeks later, he was awakened by a sharp pain at 3 a.m.
"I felt like my heart was trying to get out of my chest," Mr. Cohen said.
The soldier has felt pain before. "I never felt something like this."
"I felt like I was truly dying."
Doctors finally came in and ran tests. They diagnosed Mr. Cohen with perimyocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle and the tissue around the heart.
They said Mr. Cohen was lucky. If he had come just a little later, he would have needed open heart surgery.
He spent 3 days in the hospital, taking medication and pills. When he was discharged, he was told not to engage in any physical activity for at least 6 months. He also needed to report for regular checkups and take a pill every day.
6 months after leaving the hospital, Mr. Cohen's cardiac MRI showed concerning results. His heart still hadn't recovered.
Doctors gave him more pills.
"They told me maybe I will need them for the rest of my life," Mr. Cohen said.
#COVID19 vaccines cause heart inflammation, US authorities now acknowledge.
But after being warned in early 2021 about a "large number" of cases among healthy, young people in Israel after COVID-19 vaccination, authorities did not immediately alert the public while also failing to detect a safety signal that was present in the US, an Epoch Times investigation has found.
Even after deaths from #Myocarditis—inflammation of the heart—were reported and myocarditis was designated as a likely side effect of the shots, US officials kept recommending vaccination for virtually the entire populace.
That led to millions of young people receiving a vaccine.
THREAD👇
They Welcomed Illegal Immigrants With Open Arms, Now Sanctuary Cities Say They're Past ‘Breaking Point’
Mayors from New York, Chicago, and other large cities are struggling with resources, blaming Texas, as illegal immigrants move in en masse. theepochtimes.com/us/they-welcom…
Before Eric Adams was elected @NYCMayor in 2021, his campaign posted on Twitter:
Meteorologists, Scientists Explain Why There Is ‘No Climate Emergency’
Flawed modeling and overblown rhetoric drowning out scientific reality for the sake of money and power, climate experts say theepochtimes.com/article/meteor…
There's no climate emergency.
And the alarmist messaging pushed by global elites is purely political.
That's what 1,609 scientists and informed professionals stated when they signed the Global Climate Intelligence Group's "World Climate Declaration."
The group is an independent "climate watchdog" founded in 2019 by emeritus professor of geophysics Guus Berkhout and Marcel Crok, a science journalist.
The organization's objective is to "generate knowledge and understanding of the causes and effects of climate change as well as the effects of climate policy."
It does so by objectively looking at the facts and engaging in scientific research into #ClimateChange and climate policy.