‘Not Just Twitter’: Elon Musk Alleges FBI, Govt Paid Other Social Media Companies
Musk’s tweet comes a day after #TwitterFiles7 revealed the FBI paid Twitter $3 billion to censor information from the public.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk alleged this morning that the FBI and the government paid other social media companies to censor information.
Musk’s tweet comes a day after #TwitterFiles7 revealed the FBI paid Twitter $3 billion to censor information from the public.
Other social media companies too, not just Twitter https://t.co/vH2EnMr9Iw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2022
Government paid Twitter millions of dollars to censor info from the public https://t.co/eSEwcZlGjt
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2022
Musk has not elaborated.
Independent journalist Michael Shellenberger released the latest Twitter Files, which mostly covered the FBI and Hunter Biden’s laptop.
But buried in the dump, Shellenberger posted an email from an unnamed Twitter employee telling then-deputy general counsel Jim Baker and then-general counsel Sean Edgett the company got over $3 million from the FBI.
The program to take reimbursement from the FBI in 2019.
“Prior to the start of the program, Twitter chose not to collect under this statutory right of reimbursement for the time processing requests from the FBI,” wrote the employee.
Um, so this has been going on for a long time.
46. The FBI’s influence campaign may have been helped by the fact that it was paying Twitter millions of dollars for its staff time.
“I am happy to report we have collected $3,415,323 since October 2019!” reports an associate of Jim Baker in early 2021. pic.twitter.com/SmNse97QxK
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
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Comments
It’s a very strong claim. No doubt many of the emails and messages to Twitter detailing users and messages to squelch “For the common good” were carbon-copied or included in message chains to other social media organizations, and now that Musk has the *unedited* collection of the whole company’s emails….
(I’d put this on the level of the CRU emails being leaked, when suddenly thousands of global warming scammers had to frantically bury the frank discussions between researchers that showed what a scam they were trying to pass off as science.)
Alleging is something anybody can do. Musk had to buy Twitter to prove anything about Twitter. Unless he’s in a shopping mood, this probably will never get past alleging.
It’s illegal for the government to use private companies to do things they are prohibited from doing.
But, reality and “the law” are two different things
There is the law and there is the interpretation of the law. And never the twain shall meet.
Where’s the counter-argument that this recruited agency doesn’t count as government action?
Waiting for the usual suspects to chip in.
The real question is if the government Sheep Dipped undercover agents in as Twitter employees?
If Government Agents were using their Twitter positions to constrain speech, that is a direct 1st Amendment violation.
Progressives, who care so much about democracy, will keep pretending it’s the Russians that did this.
I’m confused. The headline and beginning of the article says The FBI payed $3 billion. But later it states the amount as $3 million. Possible typo?
I’d go with million. It’s not like an American company is worth a Ukranian border to the Brandon administration.
No wonder the twits at Twitter weren’t concerned about profits. Their revenue model was to suck off the government teat one way or another.
It wasn’t a teat they were sucking.
They were and probably still violating the law. This explains the need to describe everyday Americans as “domestic terrorist threats”. It’s the they’re weasel way to say they weren’t violating the law against domestic surveillance. They are bastards hiding behind a badge. FJB
The whole thing really needs to be torn out by the roots and then left in the sun to die.
If you only knew 1/10 of 1 % of the crap they have done you would have a heart attack.
3 million is chump change for a big company. 3 billion is enough to make them a profitable government contractor. Obviously a typo.
I wonder how much money the legacy media and Facebook make from government, though. I’ll bet its a lot more than anyone thinks.
“But buried in the dump, Shellenberger posted an email from an unnamed Twitter employee telling then-deputy general counsel Jim Baker and then-general counsel Sean Edgett the company got over $3 million from the FBI.”
Ha ha! Like Jim “FBI” Baker needed to be told.
Sure hope to see some orange jumpsuits in the next 24-36 months.
Keep Gowdy at bay.
Um, in kind contributions? Seems to me there’s at least an investigation, there. Election integrity is a thing, I’ve been told.
Let’s see:
— Suppressing internal political speech seems like a Civil Rights issue. Sic the DoJ on that one.
— Propaganda and influence operations internally violate various scope and authorization of law enforcement and federal agencies. (I do hope the Twits reported this income, else it’s an IRS thing. We funded 87,000 new agents who need something to do, so…)
— In-kind political contributions have to be accounted for. Federal election commission should be going after this, to start. Since when do Federal agencies get to make in-kind political contributions? You say it’s not political? Prove it, recalling that “disparate impact” is now an accepted justification for claims.
I’m sure our local Encroachment Apologists hereabouts can explain how none of this is a problem — all perfectly legal. BUT, even if these shenanigans hold up under current doctrine, the question remains whether we want this to be so. People governing themselves to their own advantage are so inconvenient. Sorry / not sorry.
Selbstverständlich, ja the FBI and other agencies were paying off other media companies to shape the news too. Once the Security Organs of State Power find that they can violate the law, and the Constitution, with absolute impunity to shape events for their political [not legal or Constitutional] masters, and do so totally at the expense of the taxpayer [the money used to do that was not appropriated for that], they are going to do it. In the absence of a restraining Social and Political Contract, it all boils down to power by any means necessary.
What we have now is a realization of reality, not a means of correcting things because we have no effective restraining Social and Political Contract. Interesting Times.
Subotai Bahadur
Barring divine intervention, there is only one way to correct our situation. It sure is unpalatable, though.
I think thing 0 after that First Step is treating with them as they are. The contract’s off — no guard rails on them.
“Ok Authoritah, we’ll deal with you knowing there’s no legitimacy or limits to what you’ll do.”
“I, solemnly swear I am only up to what you call good. (Where you can see / when you’re looking.)”
What’s the Democrat media response? To look even HARDER in the other direction!
All these revelations should be fucking damning of the Government and the way it has corrupted itself utterly!
Heads should be rolling!
No one ever imagined that some rich guy would simply buy Twitter and expose the FBI – until some rich guy did it. Eucatastrophe!
And now the cockroaches are scurrying for cover. Stay safe, Elon!
It’s a safe bet that if they paid Twitter, they paid Facebook, Google, and who knows what other companies.
Because of course, what’s the alternative? “Plata o plomo.”
While the collusion and corruption between the FBI, DOJ and big tech is almost certain, I’m not sure this little tidbit falls into that category.
All this email says is that Twitter collected 3 million over a couple of years for compensation for time spent on FBI requests. It doesn’t say what those requests were though. We are supposed to assume it is for censoring tweets, or banning accounts, but it seems to me it could simply be for gathering and providing information to the FBI on people they had warrants to legally investigate. I would like a little more info on this before I pass judgement.
The Govt and Twitter could have admitted this a long time ago if it was as innocuous as a reimbursement for Twitter doing searches and providing data based on a properly specific and not general warrants.
No points awarded for making that claim after it comes to light via someone spending $44 Billion to buy Twitter and order the data to be released.
Those FBI requests to squash American citizens 1A rights IS damning! They shouldn’t have been making them in the first place and they most certainly should NOT have got themselves involved in protecting Biden’s crackhead son from daylight being shone on his activities in an attempt to influence an election!
Is government required to reimburse for data retrievals performed in pursuit of a lawful investigation? If not, why would they? Is it a common practice, but not required? To maintain the good relations necessary to get the information source (in this case, Twitter) to continue its pro bono work on “other” projects? Why would Twitter do any pro bono work for any government agency when that agency isn’t pursuing a lawful objective? Why wouldn’t the FBI “grease the skids” to keep Twitter in its pocket?