Twitter Revelations Illustrate Deep State Involvement in First Amendment Violations

The Twitter Files are a seemingly never-ending parade of jaw-dropping revelations about how power actually works in our country.

Independent journalist Michael Shellenberger has been working on the revelations, which one would think would rock the country if only mainstream media would report on it.

So last night, I was doing my usual news surfing to see what everyone was talking about. While I would’ve assumed the majority of the conversation would surround the proof that the FBI had interfered with our fundamental first amendment rights, I, of course, was proven wrong.

CNN and MSNBC had hours blocked off last night to dedicate conversation on the unsurprising and toothless criminal referral of Donald Trump of the January 6th Committee. Never mind that we have damning evidence that the deep state not only exists but managed to successfully suppress a major news outlet story they knew was true.

Funny how when actual authoritarian fascism is discovered in our government, the left-wing news outlets opt to look the other way. Lucky for you, dear reader, I am here to lay out the latest Twitter File news, so grab your coffee and get ready to have your mind blown.

Twitter Files reveal that the FBI paid Twitter $3,415,323 in between Oct 2019 and early 2021. In other words, American taxpayers paid Twitter via the FBI to censor themselves and help Joe Biden win.

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) December 19, 2022

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Hunter Biden’s Laptop

Yesterday’s Twitter File drop focused on the FBI’s knowledge and involvement in suppressing the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story. You remember the laptop, don’t you?

This would be the same laptop story that 50 former intelligence officials signed their names to a letter that claimed:

“It has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

We now know that not only was it not part of a Russian misinformation campaign, but that the FBI was in possession of the laptop well in advance of the New York Post story.

Journalist Lee Fang explains what the Twitter Files revealed last night:

“The Aspen Institute hosted reporters, media companies and social media firms in Sept. 2020 to prep for a possible Russian hack of Hunter Biden, one month before the NY Post story, at a time when the FBI had the laptop and had Giuliani under surveillance. Amazing coincidence.”

The Aspen Institute hosted reporters, media companies and social media firms in Sept. 2020 to prep for a possible Russian hack of Hunter Biden, one month before the NY Post story, at a time when the FBI had the laptop and had Giuliani under surveillance. Amazing coincidence. https://t.co/Y3QrutFv5u

— Lee Fang (@lhfang) December 19, 2022

Amazing coincidence indeed; it almost smells like the FBI was attempting to set Twitter up to believe the story they knew was coming out was fake when they knew it was real.

But gosh, that would mean our government suppressed a story that would make a presidential candidate look bad; I think we have a term for what that is called, but it escapes me at the moment… I’ll remember by the time I’m done with this article.

Exercise: The Burisma Leak

Mr. Schellenberger explains how the media and, in particular, Twitter was teed up to believe the lies they would sell them:

“Efforts continued to influence Twitter’s Yoel Roth. In Sept 2020, Roth participated in an Aspen Institute “tabletop exercise” on a potential “hack-and-dump” operation relating to Hunter Biden. The goal was to shape how the media covered it – and how social media carried it.”

First, let’s talk about what the Aspen Institute is because organizations like these don’t get nearly enough criticism. The Aspen Institute, according to its website, “drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the greatest challenges of our time.” 

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They hit on various sectors, but I would imagine this particular meeting fell under their subsection of Justice and Civic Duty, whose goal, according to the website, is:

“We convene leaders to examine how a just society balances fundamental rights with the exigencies of public policy.”

Fundamental rights like freedom of speech and freedom of the press? Moving on to this tabletop.

This exercise, when you read through the ‘script’ is almost a direct mirror image of what ended up happening a month later with the Hunter Biden story. So what does this mean?

The FBI essentially conducted a psychological operation (psyop) on Twitter’s Yoel Roth, grooming him and his cohorts to consent to their request to censor the New York Post. Let that sink in.

You know who’s the most upset about being cancelled from Twitter? The FBI.

— John Rich🇺🇸 (@johnrich) December 18, 2022

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Pay To Play

Before you feel sympathy for the weak-willed and easily-manipulated Twitter executives, let’s ensure we don’t get it twisted. This salacious relationship between the FBI and Twitter was mutually beneficial. 

Twitter had dedicated so many man-hours and assets to do the bidding of the FBI that they set up a reimbursement program. In exchange for devoting time to “processing requests from the FBI,” Twitter received over $3 million from the law enforcement agency.

Additionally, the FBI had flooded Twitter with so many former agents that they had an onboarding process set up at the social media giant. Mr. Schellenberger explains:

“As of 2020, there were so many former FBI employees – ‘Bu Alumni’ – working at Twitter that they had created their own private Slack channel and a crib sheet to onboard new FBI arrivals.”

29. As of 2020, there were so many former FBI employees — “Bu alumni” — working at Twitter that they had created their own private Slack channel and a crib sheet to onboard new FBI arrivals. pic.twitter.com/prVhPGohOC

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) December 19, 2022

For context, allow me to explain some terms. First, Slack is just an online chat platform that companies use to communicate; I use it daily with my editor.

A crib sheet just organizes information at-a-glance; in this case, who from the FBI is at Twitter, what they used to do for the agency and what they are planning to do at Twitter, as you can see in the above screenshot.

The Point

Many on social media and in the mainstream media are trying to dismiss all of this as non-news using the excuse that Twitter is a private company and can do what they want and that the FBI hadn’t done anything different than they usually do. However, both of these arguments are fundamentally flawed.

The government has no authority to police speech, even disinformation or hate speech. Twitter being a private company is a nonissue and is not the point of this story. 

As an extension of our government, the FBI used its influence to suppress legitimate news and censor speech. The fact that they did it indirectly through the manipulation of a private company doesn’t make it any less egregious than if they had done it directly.

The fact that the FBI had a preponderance of former agents in critical positions working at Twitter and had kept a constant finger on the pulse of the organization indicates that what should be our most trusted law enforcement agency conducted a subterranean influence operation on a social media company in an attempt to sway the outcome of politics in our country.

What they did was what we call election interference. Welcome to the deep state, ladies, and gentlemen.

This is truly worse than Nixon’s Watergate. Absolutely beyond comprehension–this level of government/media collusion. The FBI colluded with Twitter to suppress truthful coverage of the President’s son’s business dealings by the NY Post and other news media orgs fell into line. https://t.co/bz11p2lqJ7

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) December 20, 2022

But this isn’t the end of this tale. Say you are like my parents and aren’t on Twitter; surely you are safe from this manipulation and censorship?

Think again. I bet dollars to donuts that if you are on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or any other social media platform, the federal government has been watching you – analyzing what you say, what you like, and what you don’t like. 

But conservatives also need to understand that Twitter is unique among these platforms. It is the place where news people and the influential coordinate the narratives that later make it to TV and newspapers. What happens there matters, whether you are aware of it or not.

They are watching you and will continue to watch you unless something is done. Will something be done?

The fact that mainstream media and Congress seem to care more about a pointless act by a kangaroo court last night doesn’t bode well for the First Amendment.