The American government and its numerous agencies have been known to use every tool at their disposal to mislead the public or control the narrative. When Elon Musk released the latest iteration of his “Twitter Files” and claimed that the FBI paid Twitter to censor information, many wondered if there was any veracity to his statements or if this was just another attempt to distract from his poor management of the platform.
Expanding on a thread dubbed the Twitter Files which was shared by Michael Shellenberger, Musk tweeted out that the FBI ostensibly gave Twitter money to do its bidding. There is a document in the Twitter Files that seems to confirm this where Twitter states that it received 3.4 million dollars as a reimbursement for responding to a request for information from the FBI.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this is not quite the same as being paid by the FBI. Rather, it is a reimbursement for costs that were incurred during the provision of requested information. There is also absolutely no mention of censorship anywhere in the given document, which definitely makes the assertions less legitimate than might have been the case otherwise.
Many have spoken out in defense of Twitter after these accusations. A former Facebook employee by the name of Alex Stamos who acted as chief security officer stated that content moderation was not something that was being discussed in these communiques. The FBI has to provide a warrant for information, and they also have to reimburse costs incurred in gathering and facilitating access to this information so if anything these files prove that Twitter had the upper hand with all things having been considered and taken into account.
Musk making such claims is dangerous because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up eroding public trust in social media platforms without having anything to back it up. Conservative news media has already run wild with the misinformation, and chances are that many will fall prey to it.
Read next: Study Shows Consumers Are Worrying More And Shopping Less This Festive Season
Expanding on a thread dubbed the Twitter Files which was shared by Michael Shellenberger, Musk tweeted out that the FBI ostensibly gave Twitter money to do its bidding. There is a document in the Twitter Files that seems to confirm this where Twitter states that it received 3.4 million dollars as a reimbursement for responding to a request for information from the FBI.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this is not quite the same as being paid by the FBI. Rather, it is a reimbursement for costs that were incurred during the provision of requested information. There is also absolutely no mention of censorship anywhere in the given document, which definitely makes the assertions less legitimate than might have been the case otherwise.
Many have spoken out in defense of Twitter after these accusations. A former Facebook employee by the name of Alex Stamos who acted as chief security officer stated that content moderation was not something that was being discussed in these communiques. The FBI has to provide a warrant for information, and they also have to reimburse costs incurred in gathering and facilitating access to this information so if anything these files prove that Twitter had the upper hand with all things having been considered and taken into account.
Musk making such claims is dangerous because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up eroding public trust in social media platforms without having anything to back it up. Conservative news media has already run wild with the misinformation, and chances are that many will fall prey to it.
Read next: Study Shows Consumers Are Worrying More And Shopping Less This Festive Season
