Twitter allowed FBI to become ‘belly button’ for intelligence agency demands to ban accounts

The latest Twitter documents revealed that the CIA sent warnings about a book claiming that Joe and Hunter Biden conducted corruption in Ukraine.

Following up a breakdown of what led to Twitter’s cooperation with the FBI, journalist Matt Taibbi’s latest Twitter Files dump detailed how that partnership allowed the agency to become the ‘belly button’ to filter government demands. 

Among those demands included a message from the CIA warning about a new book by former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, which contained claims of corruption by the US government, specifically, by the Bidens. 

‘We assess with high confidence that in the summer of 2020 members of a Russian influence organization, which is at least partially directed by Russian Intelligence, were aware of a production plan associated with an upcoming book,’ the message read. 

‘While it is unclear at this time how involved Russian intelligence might be in the creation or promotion of this book, they have been known to direct this same influence organization to propagate similar information in previous operations.’ 

The latest trove from the Twitter Files revealed the CIA sent warnings about a book claiming that Joe and Hunter Biden (above) took part in corruption in Ukraine

In ‘True Stories of Joe Biden’s International Corruption in Ukraine,’ ousted former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin reiterated claims of the Bidens’ alleged wrongdoing 

It is unclear if Twitter took any action against the book, with Shokin’s claims being debunked amid intense scrutiny over the Bidens’ alleged conflict-of-interests 

It is unclear if Twitter took any action against the book, ‘True Stories of Joe Biden’s International Corruption in Ukraine.’ 

Shokin was Ukraine’s top prosecutor from 2015 to 2016 before being fired for allegedly turning a blind eye to corruption. 

His book reiterates his claims that Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company where Hunter Biden was a board member, paid Hunter millions of dollars to stop prosecutors from cracking down on corruption at the company.

He further alleged that Joe Biden himself had ordered Shokin fired before he could crack the case, however, reports revealed that Hunter was never involved in any probe. 

Although Hunter’s role with Burisma raised concerns of a conflict of interest at the time, the allegations of corruption have since been debunked despite claims to the contrary by Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, who reportedly admitted earlier this year that he failed to dig up any dirt on the Bidens.  

The new Twitter Files also revealed that the social media company had a falling out with the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) in February 2020. 

According to the internal memos, the fledgling intelligence agency flagged Russian and Chinese misinformation being spread about the coronavirus. 

The GEC highlighted accounts as ‘Russian personas and proxies’ that were ‘describing the Coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon,’ blaming ‘research conducted at the Wuhan institute,’ and ‘attributing the appearance of the virus to the CIA.’

As Twitter tried to crack down on who had access to former Trust and Safety head Yoel Roth, who was busy coordinating requests from intelligence agencies, the GEC decided to go public with its own findings on misinformation. 

Along with a list of 5,500 accounts the GEC claimed would ‘amplify Chinese propaganda and disinformation’ about COVID, the agency published a list of nearly 250,000 such accounts to the public, much to Twitter’s dismay. 

‘Roth saw GEC’s move as an attempt by the GEC to use intel from other agencies to ‘insert themselves’ into the content moderation club that included Twitter, Facebook, the FBI, DHS, and others,’  Taibbi wrote. 

The Twitter files also showed that former Head of Safety Yoel Roth (above) sought to undermine the Trump administration’s agency in flagging misinformation 

Internal memos shows the FBI’s willingness to serve as a funnel for intelligence agencies

The FBI would essential work as the ‘belly button’ to relay requests between intelligence agencies and social media companies 

Following the fallout, the Twitter documents show that the FBI warned the company that the GEC wanted to be in the industry calls between social media and intelligence leaders. 

Roth, however, appeared hesitant to let the GEC join because the agency, operating under the Trump administration at the time, was too political, unlike the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, which Roth dubbed ‘apolitical’ in a May 6, 2020 email. 

‘I think they thought the FBI was less Trumpy,’ a former Department of Defense official told Taibbi. 

Roth also suggested in an email the following month that bringing in the GEC to the table would pose ‘major risks’ as the 2020 elections heated up. 

As the GEC and other agencies attempted to offer more input, the FBI came in and offered to serve as ‘conduits’ for the rest of the intelligence agencies.