Twitter files: FBI sought to ban actor Billy Baldwin and satire accounts

A new trove of internal communications from Twitter suggests that the FBI maintained persistent contact with company employees in recent years, frequently proposing user bans, including for actor Billy Baldwin and what appear to be satire accounts.  

‘Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary,’ argued journalist Matt Taibbi, who shared the documents in a Twitter thread on Friday afternoon. 

The files were the latest in a series of documents to be released after Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk gave a group of hand-picked journalists access to the company’s internal records. 

‘Between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth,’ claimed Taibbi.

‘But a surprisingly high number are requests by the FBI for Twitter to take action on election misinformation, even involving joke tweets from low-follower accounts,’ he added.

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New documents suggest the FBI asked Twitter, without success, to ban actor Billy Baldwin, seen above last month with wife Chynna Phillips

On November 6, 2022, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Elvis Chan forwarded Twitter staff a lengthy list of accounts for review, including Baldwin’s

In one email from November 6, 2022, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Elvis Chan forwarded Twitter staff a lengthy list of accounts for review.

Chan wrote that the FBI believed the accounts were ‘disseminating false information about the time, place or manner of the upcoming elections.’ 

The list of accounts had been sent to Chan by the FBI’s National Election Command Post, which compiles and forwards complaints, indicating that the list may have been based on community tips submitted to the FBI. 

The list included Baldwin as well as what appear to be several satire accounts. 

A Twitter employee responded to Chan on the morning of November 8, indicating which accounts had been suspended.

Baldwin’s account was not suspended in the action, and Twitter also spared several other accounts that the FBI had named. 

In one email from November 6, 2022, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Elvis Chan forwarded Twitter staff a lengthy list of accounts for review

The list of accounts (above) had been sent to Chan by the FBI’s National Election Command Post, and included the actor Billy Baldwin

A Twitter employee responded to Chan on the morning of November 8, indicating which accounts had been suspended. Baldwin’s account was shown mercy

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That email exchange took place after Elon Musk took control of Twitter in late October. 

It’s unclear what Baldwin tweeted that landed him on the FBI list. 

The actor is an outspoken liberal and frequent critic of Donald Trump, so the incident does little to bolster the central allegation of the so-called ‘Twitter files’ releases, namely that Twitter covertly suppressed conservative voices.

However, it does illustrate the close relationship FBI agents forged with Twitter employees, and raises questions how and why the bureau sought bans against individual Twitter users.  

The FBI’s San Francisco field office and Roth did not immediately respond to requests for comment from DailyMail.com.

Developing story, more to follow.