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Published 18:43 IST, December 22nd 2022

'Conspiracy theorists are attempting to discredit the agency': FBI reacts on Twitter Files

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has finally responded to the jaw-dropping revelations made by the different chapters of the Twitter Files.

Reported by: Bhagyasree Sengupta
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Image: AP/ Pixabay | Image: self

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has finally responded to the jaw-dropping revelations made by the different chapters of the Twitter Files. The different parts of the Twitter Files which were shared by the new Twitter chief Elon Musk revealed that the FBI was involved with numerous Twitter executives, and pressurised them to practice content moderation. The files also claimed that the Federal Bureau was also involved in the curtailing posts related to Hunter Biden's Laptop story on the social media networking platform. On Wednesday, the Federal agency responded to the claims made by the Twitter Files and called those involved in this endeavor "conspiracy theorists".

In a recent statement obtained by Fox News, the FBI spokesperson said, “The men and women of the FBI work every day to protect the American public. It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency”. The Federal agency stated that the communication between Twitter and the FBI was business as usual. According to the New York Post, the FBI in the Wednesday statement stated, “The correspondence between the FBI and Twitter show nothing more than examples of our traditional, longstanding and ongoing federal government and private sector engagements, which involve numerous companies over multiple sectors and industries."

Journalists involved in Twitter Files called the communication between Twitter and the FBI a 'disturbing pattern'

Earlier this week, Journalist Michael Shellenberger revealed in the new part of the Twitter Files that the FBI pushed the social media networking site to suppress The New York Post article which published the Hunter Biden laptop story. According to Shellenberger, the FBI warned Twitter that it could be a "Russian trick". According to the New York Post, the former head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, stated during the testimony that the FBI urged him to view any reporting on the laptop story as a “Russian hack and leak operation” to influence the 2020 US Presidential elections

During an interview with Fox News, Shellenberger asserted that he found a “disturbing pattern of relentless pressure by external FBI agents on Twitter to basically adapt its content moderation, also to share information.” One FBI agent who was frequently mentioned in the Twitter Files, Elvis Chan had a different interpretation of how things went down. The New York Post reported that in a separate deposition, the Bureau’s liaison to Twitter affirmed that the FBI’s warnings were overblown. In the deposition, he stated, “Through our investigations, we did not see any similar competing intrusions to what had happened in 2016”. 

Updated 18:43 IST, December 22nd 2022