FBI Paid Twitter Over $3 Million To Ban Accounts Leading To 2020 Election; Agency Even Considered Site A “Subsidiary”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s latest “Twitter Files” release on Monday revealed that the social media giant was reimbursed over $3 million by the FBI to ban users peddling misinformation and “foreign influence” accounts leading up to the 2020 presidential election. 

Musk is currently in the process of fulfilling his promise of releasing a series of documents pertaining to the Twitter’s clandestine activities prior to his October purchase of the microblogging site, saying that the public “deserves to know” that they were being repeatedly censored and hoodwinked by the tech giant. 

In Monday’s document dump, an email dated February 10, 2021 and composed by an unnamed Twitter employee stated to then-deputy general counsel Jim Baker and then-general counsel Sean Edgett that the social media platform’s safety, Content & Law Enforcement (SCALE) division had, “collected $3,415,323 since October 2019!” 

46. The FBI’s influence campaign may have been helped by the fact that it was paying Twitter millions of dollars for its staff time.

“I am happy to report we have collected $3,415,323 since October 2019!” reports an associate of Jim Baker in early 2021. pic.twitter.com/SmNse97QxK

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

The email, published by independent journalist Michael Shellenberger, went on to explain that SCALE had started a program where they would be reimbursed by the FBI in exchange for assigning staff to process their requests to ban specific accounts and content.  

The funds, the email stated, would go towards law enforcement-related projects such as training.  

The email also noted that prior to October 2019, Twitter had not requested reimbursement from the FBI for performing this function. 

47. And the pressure from the FBI on social media platforms continues

In Aug 2022, Twitter execs prepared for a meeting with the FBI, whose goal was “to convince us to produce on more FBI EDRs"

EDRs are an “emergency disclosure request,” a warrantless search. pic.twitter.com/sENBIi6zPg

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

The reports indicate that Twitter and the FBI have extensively worked together, with the federal law enforcement agency considering the microblogging site as a “subsidiary” that regularly reported alleged “misinformation” to them. At points the FBI was sending so many requests for “possible violative” user/content removal that additional Twitter employees and resources needed to be brought in to handle it.  

In response to the Twitter Files revelation of high-level FBI agents at Twitter, @Jim_Jordan said, “I have concerns about whether the government was running a misinformation operation on We the People.”https://t.co/nlbBPTeDg8

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

The report also revealed that the FBI had constantly requested that Twitter bury an October 2020 report by the New York Post on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop, which the social media platform complied with. 

It was also shown that the FBI and Twitter had continued to work together as recently as August 2022.