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But isn't the whole point of the twitter files that the government compelled these companies to apply those labels, even when they felt they shouldn't have? I

But isn't the whole point of the twitter files that the government compelled these companies to apply those labels, even when they felt they shouldn't have? I am genuinely asking becuase I do not understand the majority opinion here.

hotnfresh 3y ago
I thought the point was that people tried to frame the twitter files as evidence that the government compelled these companies to apply those labels, but actually the twitter files weren't evidence of that (the compelling, especially—asking, usually with a reference to site policy violations, and sometimes having the request granted, sure).
bilbo0s 3y ago
No. The point of the Twitter files is that politicians wanted to label information detrimental to their campaigns as lies. Which is Free Speech. Politicians lie. Or maybe they don't. But whether they do or don't is irrelevant to them being able to say what they want to say. Now your problem with them lying is apparently that Twitter moderated content on its website in response to the claims of political parties that the content was lies. That's Twitter's prerogative. That's also called Freedom of Speech. But no one at the FBI or the CIA came in and told Twitter, "Hey, this is misinformation." In fact, unless I miss my guess, those agencies have vanishingly little interest in me as an American citizen being told the facts about just about anything. The Twitter files prove that the government did not ask Twitter to take down anything. Liberal and Conservative political gangs did. To put Freedom of Speech in perspective here, you can claim the government is out to label everything misinformation. I can claim the acceleration of gravity on Earth is roughly 9.8 m/s^2. And the government can make the claim that both of our claims are misinformation. All 3 of those claims are Freedom of Speech. You can't say the government's claim is "bad", because it's claiming we're spreading misinformation. It doesn't matter if I'm "correct" or "incorrect", others, including the government, have the right to say I'm full of it.
- nvm0n2 3y ago
  > But no one at the FBI or the CIA came in and told Twitter, "Hey, this is misinformation." The Twitter Files are full of emails and meetings with the FBI where they do exactly that, along with many references to meetings with the CIA (which they called "OGA" for "other government agency"). https://www.racket.news/p/twitter-files-thread-the-spies-who https://www.racket.news/p/twitter-files-thread-the-spies-who Especially as the election approached in 2020, the FITF/FBI overwhelmed Twitter with requests, sending spreadsheets with hundreds of accounts One of the most common forums was a regular meeting of the multi-agency Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), attended by spates of executives, FBI personnel, and – nearly always – one or two attendees marked “OGA.” Despite its official remit being “Foreign Influence,” the FITF and the SF FBI office became conduit for mountains of domestic moderation requests, from state governments, even local police. Example email: "Hi Stacia, Our FBI Baltimore office identified these Twitter handles and tweets which appear to provide misleading information" > The Twitter files prove that the government did not ask Twitter to take down anything It's baffling to me that anyone could read about the Files and conclude this given the entire spreadsheets of users being sent directly from US Government police and intelligence agencies to Twitter, requesting takedowns of that content. They literally prove the exact opposite of this.
archagon 3y ago
What stick did they use to “compel” Twitter with?

hotnfresh 3y ago

I thought the point was that people tried to frame the twitter files as evidence that the government compelled these companies to apply those labels, but actually the twitter files weren't evidence of that (the compelling, especially—asking, usually with a reference to site policy violations, and sometimes having the request granted, sure).

bilbo0s 3y ago

No. The point of the Twitter files is that politicians wanted to label information detrimental to their campaigns as lies. Which is Free Speech. Politicians lie. Or maybe they don't. But whether they do or don't is irrelevant to them being able to say what they want to say. Now your problem with them lying is apparently that Twitter moderated content on its website in response to the claims of political parties that the content was lies. That's Twitter's prerogative. That's also called Freedom of Speech. But no one at the FBI or the CIA came in and told Twitter, "Hey, this is misinformation." In fact, unless I miss my guess, those agencies have vanishingly little interest in me as an American citizen being told the facts about just about anything. The Twitter files prove that the government did not ask Twitter to take down anything. Liberal and Conservative political gangs did. To put Freedom of Speech in perspective here, you can claim the government is out to label everything misinformation. I can claim the acceleration of gravity on Earth is roughly 9.8 m/s^2. And the government can make the claim that both of our claims are misinformation. All 3 of those claims are Freedom of Speech. You can't say the government's claim is "bad", because it's claiming we're spreading misinformation. It doesn't matter if I'm "correct" or "incorrect", others, including the government, have the right to say I'm full of it.

nvm0n2 3y ago
> But no one at the FBI or the CIA came in and told Twitter, "Hey, this is misinformation." The Twitter Files are full of emails and meetings with the FBI where they do exactly that, along with many references to meetings with the CIA (which they called "OGA" for "other government agency"). https://www.racket.news/p/twitter-files-thread-the-spies-who https://www.racket.news/p/twitter-files-thread-the-spies-who Especially as the election approached in 2020, the FITF/FBI overwhelmed Twitter with requests, sending spreadsheets with hundreds of accounts One of the most common forums was a regular meeting of the multi-agency Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), attended by spates of executives, FBI personnel, and – nearly always – one or two attendees marked “OGA.” Despite its official remit being “Foreign Influence,” the FITF and the SF FBI office became conduit for mountains of domestic moderation requests, from state governments, even local police. Example email: "Hi Stacia, Our FBI Baltimore office identified these Twitter handles and tweets which appear to provide misleading information" > The Twitter files prove that the government did not ask Twitter to take down anything It's baffling to me that anyone could read about the Files and conclude this given the entire spreadsheets of users being sent directly from US Government police and intelligence agencies to Twitter, requesting takedowns of that content. They literally prove the exact opposite of this.

archagon 3y ago

What stick did they use to “compel” Twitter with?