REPORT: Twitter Files #14B: Emails show Schiff’s routine efforts to get posts taken down

By
Laurie McClain
-
Sign up for DML's newsletter

If you paid for a TeamDML Membership and would like to see every article, and see them without the ads, please click here. If you are NOT a member, or if your Membership has expired, and you would like to join TeamDML please click here.

As the most reliable and balanced news aggregation service on the internet, DML News App offers the following information published by WashingtonExaminer:

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) routinely pushed for Twitter to censor and deamplify content on the platform, according to recently released documents.

The latest version of the “Twitter Files,” a series of internal documents and communications provided to journalists by owner Elon Musk, details the communications between Schiff’s office and Twitter. While Schiff’s communications with Twitter had been alluded to in the past, the latest releases reveal the regularity of the emails, according to screenshots released by journalist Matt Taibbi.

While Schiff’s office regularly requested Twitter take down content, the social platform declined to do so on several occasions. For example, when Schiff’s office asked for the takedown of a tweet featuring a modified image of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, former Twitter head of trust and safety Yoel Roth dismissed the request, stating that the post had obvious “humorous intent” and that “any reasonable observer” could see that the image was doctored.

Substack writer Matt Taibbi wrote on Friday:

1.TWITTER FILES: Supplemental More Adam Schiff Ban Requests, and ‘Deamplification'”

2.Staff of House Democrat @AdamSchiff wrote to Twitter quite often, asking that tweets be taken down. This important use of taxpayer resources involved an ask about a “Peter Douche” parody photo of Joe Biden. The DNC made the same request:

3.The real issue was Donald Trump retweeted the Biden pic. To its credit Twitter refused to remove it, with Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth saying it had obvious “humorous intent” and “any reasonable observer” – apparently, not a Schiff staffer – could see it was doctored.

4.Schiff staffer Jeff Lowenstein didn’t give up, claiming there was a “slippery slope concern here.”

5.Twitter also refused requests for bans of content about Schiff and his staff, e.g. “complete suppress[ion of] any and all search results about Mr. Misko and other Committee staffers.” Twitter said this would not be “conceivable.”

6.Even when Twitter didn’t suspend an account, that didn’t mean they didn’t act. Schiff’s office repeatedly complained about “QAnon related activity” that were often tweets about other matters, like the identity of the Ukraine “whistleblower” or the Steele dossier:

7.Twitter policy at the time didn’t ban QAnon, but “deamplified” such accounts. About the batch of tweets that included those above, Twitter execs wrote: “We can internally confirm that a number of the accounts flagged are already included in this deamplification.”

8.Schiff’s office had a concern about “deamplification,” though: it might make it harder for law enforcement to track the offending Tweeters.

9.“WE APPRECIATE GREATLY” “We are curious whether any deamplification measures implemented by Twitter’s enforcement team – which we appreciate greatly – could… impede the ability of law enforcement to search Twitter for potential threats about Misko and other HPSCI staff.”

10.For more, watch @ShellenbergerMD, @BariWeiss, @LHFang, @DavidZweig, @AlexBerenson, and others. Twitter had no editorial input. Searches were carried out by third parties, so the documents could be limited.

BELOW ARE LINKS TO PREVIOUSLY-RELEASED TWITTER FILES:

PART 1 – Dec 2 – Journalist Matt Taibbi released details on censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story just prior to the 2020 election.

PART 2 – Dec. 8 – Journalist Bari Weiss published details of how Twitter held back the reach of many conservatives, including Dan Bongino, Charlie Kirk, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and even the Twitter account Libs of TikTok.

PART 3 – Dec. 9 – Journalist Matt Taibbi revealed behind-the-scenes details on what led to then-President Donald Trump being kicked off Twitter in January 2020.

PART 4 – Dec. 10 – Journalist Michael Shellenberger outlined the way Twitter executives manipulated the platform’s rules in order to blacklist former President Donald Trump on January 7, 2020.

Part 5 – Dec. 12 – Journalist Bari Weiss revealed the process of removing Trump from Twitter after Jan. 6.

Part 6 – Dec. 16 – Journalist Matt Taibbi released details on Twitter, The FBI Subsidiary

Part 6B – Dec. 18 – Journalist Matt Taibbi posted a supplemental thread on the FBI’s efforts to control Twitter

Part 7 – Dec. 19 – Writer Michael Shellenberger released details on how the FBI and intelligence community “discredited factual information about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.”

Part 8 – Dec. 20 – How Twitter ‘directly assisted’ U.S. military’s influence operations, posted by journalist Lee Fang

Part 9 – Dec. 24 – Vast web of coordination between tech giant and CIA, State Dept, other agencies, published by journalist Matt Taibbi

Part 10 – Dec. 26 -How Twitter Rigged the Covid Debate, released by journalist David Zweig

Part 11 – Jan. 3, 2023 – Twitter Files Part 11: How Twitter Let the Intelligence Community In, by Matt Taibbi

Part 12 – Jan 3, 2023 – Twitter Files Part 12: “Twitter and the FBI Belly Button”, and the scoop on Schiff, by Matt Taibbi

Part 13 – Jan 9, 2023 – Twitter Files #13 – How Pfizer board member secretly urged Twitter to hide posts, by Alex Berenson

Part 14A – Jan. 12, 2023 – Twitter Files #14A – Russiagate Lies and The Fake Tale of Russian Bots

To get more information about this article, please visit WashingtonExaminer.

The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast is available below. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

CLICK HERE FOR COMMENTS SECTION