Journalist Matt Taibbi has released another batch of internal Twitter documents, which reportedly show that staffers for Rep. Adam Schiff regularly contacted the platform and pushed them to censor certain posts â even posts that were made for comical purposes.
The thread is the latest version of the âTwitter Files,â which were released by the platformâs new owner Elon Musk and have been published by independent journalists, such as Taibbi.
In Taibbiâs Friday report, he revealed that Schiffâs office was in regular communication with Twitter and frequently requested that the platform remove certain posts.
In one instance, staffers for Schiff pushed Twitter officials to remove a meme making fun of Joe Biden, who was running for president at the time.
The DNC also reached out to Twitter, suggesting that the post violated the platformâs âmanipulated media policy,â according to Taibbi.
However, Twitterâs former Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth noted that the post had an obvious âhumorous intentâ and refused to take the post down since âany reasonable observerâ could deduce that the GIF was doctored.
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The most problematic part of the post was that it had been retweeted by then-President Donald Trump, Taibbi reported.
However, while Schiff staffer Jeff Lowenstein admitted that the meme may not violate platform rules, he suggested that there was a âslippery slope concernâ in allowing the post to stand.
Taibbi reported that Schiffâs office routinely requested the removal of posts that amounted to little more than âpolitical criticism.â
Of these, Twitterrefused requests to ban posts about staff members serving under Schiff on the House Intelligence Committee.
Schiffâs office would also frequently push Twitter to take down tweets on the grounds that they were âQAnon related activity,â Taibbi reported, pointing out that the posts in question were unrelated.
According to Taibbi, Twitter policy dictated at the time that QAnon-related would be âdeamplifiedâ rather than banned.
However, Schiffâs office was concerned that âdeamplifyingâ the posts would make it harder for law enforcement to track the offending Tweeters.
Taibbi recently also released another batch of âTwitter Files,â which indicated that Democrats and mainstream media outlets attempted to discredit a report detailing flaws in the Trump-Russia investigation.
Democrats claimed at the time that the report was being âboosted by Russian âbotsâ and âtrollsââ on social media despite Twitter officials finding no evidence of Russian influence.
âTwitter warned politicians and media not only lacked evidence but had evidence the accounts werenât Russian â and were roundly ignored,â Taibbi reported.
Still, Democrats, such as Schiff, publicly denounced the supposed âRussian influence operations.â
And instead of setting the story straight, Taibbi found that platform officials chose to stay silent on the matter. âAs a result, reporters from the AP to Politico to NBC to Rolling Stone continued to hammer the âRussian botsâ theme, despite a total lack of evidence,â Taibbi wrote.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
