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Twitter Files journalists warn of social media's censorship web ensnaring Americans
[Wash Times] Two independent journalists given access to Elon Musk’s Twitter Files vault warned lawmakers Thursday of a sprawling "censorship industrial complex" that has eroded Americans’ freedom of speech.Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger appeared before the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government in an explosive hearing that focused on the federal government’s alleged sweeping efforts to silence disfavored views. Mr. Shellenberger harked back to President Eisenhower’s warning of a ballooning military complex that would one day "endanger our liberties" while he described a web of government-funded and private efforts to monitor online speech and squelch disfavored views. "Today, American taxpayers are unwittingly financing the growth and power of a censorship industrial complex run by America’s scientific and technological elite, which endangers our liberties and democracy," he told the panel. "The Twitter Files, state attorneys, general lawsuits and investigative reporters have revealed a large and growing network of government agencies, academic institutions and nongovernmental organizations that are actively censoring American citizens, often without their knowledge, on a range of issues," he said. In a sprawling Twitter thread released in the final hour before appearing before the panel, Mr. Taibbi detailed what he said was a vast web of censorship that included online speech monitoring programs spearheaded by nongovernmental organizations, some of which had direct access to Twitter’s platform monitoring system to flag posts and accounts that fell outside the mainstream. Mr. Taibbi said the Stanford Internet Observatory’s Election Integrity Partnership had nearly 22 million tweets flagged in the lead-up to the 2020 elections. "It’s crucial to reiterate: EIP was partnered with state entities like [the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency] and [State Department’s Global Engagement Center] while seeking the elimination of millions of tweets," Mr. Taibbi wrote. "Twitter execs did not distinguish between organizations, using phrases like ’According to CISA, escalated via EIP.’" Posted by: Besoeker 2023-03-12 |
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