Employees at the Federal Bureau of Investigation regularly contacted workers at Twitter to notify them of accounts that ‘may’ constitute violations of the company’s terms of service, new Twitter Files released Friday reveal.
Substack writer and journalist Matt Taibbi tweeted several internal emails between Twitter workers and FBI employees as part of the sixth installment of the Twitter Files.
‘Hello Twitter contacts, FBI San Francisco is notifying you of the below accounts which may potentially constitute violations of Twitter’s Terms of Service for any action or inaction deemed appropriate within Twitter policy,’ one email FBI employee wrote in an email on Nov. 10, 2022.
The email would go on to list several Twitter accounts that might violate the social media company’s terms of service.
In response, a Twitter employee said that three of the four accounts were suspended.
‘I’ve reviewed this already from the TD perspective and suspended three of the accounts for multi-account abuse and ban evasion violations,’ the Twitter employee wrote.
The Twitter employee asked someone else at the company to review the fourth account flagged by the FBI for ‘possible civic misinformation.’
Taibbi said that one of the accounts tweeted on Nov. 8 ‘I want to remind republicans to vote tomorrow, Wednesday November 9.’
Another email shared by Taibbi shows the ‘Public Sector Engagement Squad’ at FBI’s San Francisco office notifying Twitter employees of ‘account activities’ that ‘potentially constitute violations of Twitter’s Terms of Service.’
One tweet flagged by the FBI states ‘Americans, Vote today. Democrats you vote Wednesday 9th.’
Another tweet flagged by the FBI in the email states that one user ‘claimed in her posts that she is a ballot counter in her state and, in additional posts, states ‘For every negative comment on this post, I’m adding another vote for the democrats’ and ‘If you’re not wearing a mask, I’m not counting your vote.”
Taibbi said that the tweet from the user claiming to be a ballot counter was satirical.
Additionally, Stacia Cardille, a former attorney for Twitter, appeared to suggest in a summary of her meeting with government law enforcement agencies to Twitter’s former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker on Sept. 16, 2021, that the FBI could share classified information with the social media giant.
‘I participated in our monthly (soon to be weekly) 90-minute meeting with FBI, DOJ, DHS, ODNI, and industry peers on election threats. A few items to note:,’ Cardille wrote. ‘I explicitly asked if there were any impediments with the ability of the government to share classified information or other relevant information with industry. FBI was adamant that no impediments to information sharing exist.’
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for the FBI said ‘The FBI regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identified foreign malign influence actors’ subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities. Private sector entities independently make decisions about what, if any, action they take on their platforms and for their customers after the FBI has notified them.’
