(LifeSiteNews) — The latest installment of the “Twitter files” shows that the FBI paid Twitter over 3 million dollars in staff time for their censorship requests between 2019 and 2021.
According to screenshots provided by author Michael Shellenberger, “there were so many former FBI employees” who worked at Twitter “that they had created their own private Slack channel and a crib sheet to onboard new FBI arrivals.”
Shellenberger published the “Twitter Files Part 7” on December 19, revealing even more evidence regarding the entanglement of Twitter with the U.S. intelligence agencies, especially the FBI.
1. TWITTER FILES: PART 7
The FBI & the Hunter Biden Laptop
How the FBI & intelligence community discredited factual information about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings both after and *before* The New York Post revealed the contents of his laptop on October 14, 2020
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
The previous release in the Twitter files saga already showed that the FBI regularly asked Twitter executives to flag accounts or remove content from the platform. Independent journalist Matt Taibbi wrote that “Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary.”
RELATED: New ‘Twitter Files’ release shows FBI flagged accounts, treated platform like ‘subsidiary’
Shellenberger provides a screenshot of an email addressed to James (“Jim”) Baker, in which a Twitter employee wrote that he was “happy to report we have collected $3,415,323 since October 2019!” as reimbursements for staff time spent on handling the FBI’s “content moderation” requests.
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
Baker was Twitter’s deputy general legal counsel, formerly served as general counsel for the FBI, and was recently let go by Elon Musk for allegedly trying to suppress the release of the Twitter files.
RELATED: Musk fires Twitter lawyer Jim Baker, formerly with the FBI, for allegedly suppressing files
Conservative commentator and president of “Turning Point USA” Charlie Kirk commented on the issue, saying that the “Twitter Files reveal that the FBI paid Twitter $3,415,323 in between Oct 2019 and early 2021. In other words, American taxpayers paid Twitter via the FBI to censor themselves and help Joe Biden win.”
Twitter Files reveal that the FBI paid Twitter $3,415,323 in between Oct 2019 and early 2021. In other words, American taxpayers paid Twitter via the FBI to censor themselves and help Joe Biden win.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) December 19, 2022
Moreover, Shellenberger provides more details on how the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story was censored on social media.
READ: Elon Musk releases ‘Twitter files’ confirming employees were censoring for Dems in 2020
He showed that the FBI “repeatedly primed Yoel Roth to dismiss reports of Hunter Biden’s laptop as a Russian ‘hack and leak’ operation.”
12. And yet, during all of 2020, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies repeatedly primed Yoel Roth to dismiss reports of Hunter Biden’s laptop as a Russian “hack and leak” operation.
This is from a sworn declaration by Roth given in December 2020.https://t.co/IvTjyYw9iR pic.twitter.com/5iq2ATB3bW
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
Roth, former head of Twitter’s “Trust & Safety” team and once responsible for content moderation on the platform, confirmed in a sworn declaration in December 2020 that he “was told in these meetings that the intelligence community expected that individuals obtained through those hacking attacks would likely be disseminated over social media platforms, including Twitter.”
READ: Former Twitter executive supported teenagers using homosexual hookup app Grindr
Roth also revealed that the FBI specifically warned him about a potential “hack-and-leak operation” involving Hunter Biden, likely occurring in October 2020. The New York Post’s blockbuster story about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop was released on October 14, 2020.
The FBI knew about the factually accurate story about Hunter Biden because they seized the infamous laptop from a Delaware store owner back in December 2019, as Shellenberger reported.
According to statements made by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the FBI also primed Facebook regarding the Hunter Biden laptop story and warned them about “Russian propaganda” before the 2020 presidential election.
The entanglement of Twitter and the FBI was illustrated further by Shellenberger. He stated that, besides Baker, there were other former FBI executives “involved in the Trump investigation” who had joined Twitter.
“Dawn Burton, the former dep. chief of staff to FBI head James Comey, who initiated the investigation of Trump, joined Twitter in 2019 as director of strategy,” Shellenberger wrote.
“As of 2020, there were so many former FBI employees — ‘Bu alumni’ — working at Twitter that they had created their own private Slack channel and a crib sheet to onboard new FBI arrivals.”
29. As of 2020, there were so many former FBI employees — “Bu alumni” — working at Twitter that they had created their own private Slack channel and a crib sheet to onboard new FBI arrivals. pic.twitter.com/prVhPGohOC
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
Shellenberger said that Baker, who “repeatedly [and wrongly] insists that the Hunter Biden materials were either faked, hacked, or both,” even sent an email to the FBI in December 2020, thanking them for its work.
45. In the end, the FBI’s influence campaign aimed at executives at news media, Twitter, & other social media companies worked: they censored & discredited the Hunter Biden laptop story.
By Dec. 2020, Baker and his colleagues even sent a note of thanks to the FBI for its work. pic.twitter.com/ZEASt2aXXm
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022
“In the end, the FBI’s influence campaign aimed at executives at news media, Twitter, & other social media companies worked: they censored & discredited the Hunter Biden laptop story,” Shellenberger stated.