Matt Taibbi Profile picture
Nov 28, 2023 12 tweets 5 min read Read on X
1. #CTIFIles2
INTRODUCING THE #CTIFiles
The Deep State, With Its Pants Down Image
2. Tuesday, @Shellenberger, @galexybrane and I began releasing the CTI League (CTIL) Files. Provided by a whistleblower, they detail activities of a group ostensibly formed for the narrow purpose of fighting Covid misinfo. We quickly found they had wider interests:


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3. “I DON’T KNOW A LOT, BUT…”
The documents equal or exceed the #TwitterFiles in explosiveness, offering a devastating portrait of the digital censorship sector – from breathtaking authoritarian views to comic ignorance and lack of self-awareness.
4. The CTIL story has enormous significance because of its close ties to the FBI, DoD, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). CISA chief Chris Krebs boasted of CISA’s partnership with CTIL.

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5. A whistleblower told Public and Racket CTIL’s online meets were regularly attended by FBI and DHS operatives. The source added CTIL founder SJ Terp said the original go-ahead for the program came from the White House. cisa.gov/news-events/ne…
6. But the #CTIFiles are not just more confirmation of state-aided censorship efforts. They expose much more.
7. Unlike the #TwitterFiles, which detail mostly defensive activity like censorship and deamplification, the #CTIFiles show members instructed in a wide array of “offensive” operations, including infiltration, creation of fake personas, use of burner phones, and more.
8. “IMPAIR THE OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ENEMY”
CTIL members repeatedly stressed building a “good guy analog” to disinfo programs of Russians, Chinese, even “Fox News Snorters," using an array of military-style “counters” to disrupt "the enemy” – American citizens? Image
9. “REPETITION IS TRUTH”
The #CTIFiles also detail how marketing executives with no skills apart from corporate brand management shifted from manipulating perceptions of products to doing it for nation-states, policies, and political parties:

10. @CTILeague has been the subject of reporting before. Accounts like @pepesgrandma aka “Bad Kitty” months ago connected CTIL, DHS, and operations like the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP). The whistleblower docs, however, tell a damning and irrefutable new story. Image
11. That the DHS and FBI partnered with a group that endorsed both censorship and “bad guy” offensive operations “against U.S. citizens” is only one of many key revelations. The size of this leak makes it difficult to summarize quickly.
12. There are so many ugly details in the #CTIFiles, in fact, that the fastest way to introduce them is to release docs in bunches, by theme. In the next hours, days, and weeks, look for more threads in this space.
First up, momentarily: SOCKPUPPETS AND SPIES.
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More from @mtaibbi

Jun 13
Not only is the @nytimes is totally wrong implying @mirandadevine’s reporting hasn’t held up, the paper ignored its own multi-level failure on that same story in 2020, which included ignoring their own reporting. It’s almost actionable — they owe a huge apology (1/6):
First of all the Times in 2020 tried to use the unprecedented censorship of the story by Facebook and Twitter to call Miranda’s story “dubious,” without saying what was dubious. (The censorship angle they of course ignore entirely.) It got worse (2/6):
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Just a few paragraphs down, the Times contradicted itself, saying Twitter didn’t block the story because it was “dubious,” but because it was supposedly “hacked materials.”

The laptop contents were not even “hacked materials,” as Twitter quickly determined. But also (3/6): Image
Read 6 tweets
Jun 6
1. TWITTER FILES Extra: The Defaming of Brandon Straka and #Walkaway

Smeared as a Russian proxy after founding a movement to "#Walkaway" from the Democratic Party, Twitter documents suggest @BrandonStraka and his followers were set up Image
2. In Atlanta Monday, I testified before Georgia state Representative @MeshaMainor, in a free speech hearing centered around the censorship of members of the “#WalkAway” Facebook Group, whose 500,000-plus accounts were deleted by Facebook on January 8th, 2021.
washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jan/…Image
3. The #TwitterFiles contained material about federal interest in #WalkAway, including exculpatory Twitter analyses that contrasted with coverage describing #WalkAway as a “Kremlin operation.” These documents should have been published earlier. I apologize to @BrandonStraka.
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Read 41 tweets
May 6
You obviously didn't read the reports (@lhfang is a right-wing ideologue?). We went out of our way to show censorship/manipulation taking place across the spectrum, mentioning everyone from the Green Party to the Yellow Vests to Truthout and Consortium News. (1/5)
If you read the reports there was very little about which "side" was suppressed more. There was some chatter within the company about it, and some current and former executives talked about it with us, but mainly we focused on the who/how of censorship (2/5)
The main revelations were about roles the FBI, DHS, GEC, ODNI, DOD, HHS etc. played in flagging content. Lee's reports were about DOD creating fake accounts abroad. Other projects put USG agencies in the middle of flagging election or Covid-related content (3/5)
Read 5 tweets
Mar 27
1. TWITTER FILES (DEAMPLIFIED)
How the Censorship Industrial Complex Case Was Built


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2. I made a deal with the owner of this platform to publish new #TwitterFiles material only on this site. However, since this account is denylisted, I don't feel obligated to add the context, since no one will see it. Full explanations for images on Racket.News
3. SOMETHING SOMETHING NBC NEWS: Image
Read 20 tweets
Jan 31
1. UK FILES EXTRA:
The Center for Countering Digital Hate, the IRS, and 501 (c)(3) status Image
2. The Center for Countering Digital Hate, or CCDH, is one of the most powerful players in the global "anti-disinformation" space, with a reputation for successfully pressuring Internet platforms to remove disfavored speech:
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3. CCDH is currently being sued by this platform, X, which has accused it of manipulating X data to make it "appear as if X is overwhelmed by harmful content":
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Read 18 tweets
Jan 3
1. FOIA FILES EXTRA:
STATE DEPARTMENT "TARGETING AMERICANS"?


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2. In late May and early June, 2019, a story hit the news: Donald Trump's State Department had been caught trolling people, including a Washington Post reporter, deemed insufficiently tough on Iran. Outrage was universal: Image
3. Similar stories at The Intercept and Guardian ripped State's Global Engagement Center for funding @IranDisinfo, which was said to have dubbed critics of of Trump's "Maximum Pressure" policy “‘mouthpieces,’ ‘apologists,’ ‘collaborators,’ and ‘lobbyists’” of Iran:
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Read 16 tweets

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