(FiveNation.com)- When asked by Fox News whether the FBI should flag social media accounts due to politics or government policy, FBI Director Christopher Wray addressed revelations in the “Twitter Files” concerning FBI discussions with Twitter.
“Special Report” show host Bret Baier suggested they discuss the FBI and the statements made by officials regarding Twitter and the veracity of Hunter Biden’s laptop. According to the Twitter Files, Twitter labeled reports of the laptop as “misinformation” at the request of the FBI.
Wray responded by saying there was a great deal of misunderstanding and missing background information concerning the FBI’s relationship with social media firms. As an enforcement and intelligence organization, the FBI must collaborate with social media businesses to battle a wide variety of threats. The agency must share findings with these firms so that they may take appropriate action based on their own observations.
Baier remarked that the Twitter files showed something else.
Several requests from the FBI asked that certain accounts be disabled. Once the FBI requested that Twitter block or suspend accounts, Twitter’s staff actively sought justifications to do so.
Baier questioned Wray if it is acceptable to block accounts on platforms like Twitter when they refer negatively to politics and government policy and did that seem correct to him. Baier said Wray claimed it has never happened, yet there is proof that it has.
Yet Wray still insisted the FBI doesn’t order social media firms to ban accounts. He claimed that when the agency learns of a foreign misinformation campaign orchestrated by a foreign actor or foreign intelligence agency, they share that information with the relevant social media platforms. The corporations consider the situation and decide whether or not to take action.
Mat Taibbi tweeted that the FBI is diverting resources away from tracking down pedophiles and terrorists to focus on analyzing and flagging large volumes of social media content as a permanent monitoring operation rather than a criminal inquiry. That’s not something that should be tolerated by society at large.
