1.THREAD: Twitter Files #15
MOVE OVER, JAYSON BLAIR: TWITTER FILES EXPOSE NEXT GREAT MEDIA FRAUD pic.twitter.com/bLRpDpuWql— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
3.“Falsely accuses a bunch of legitimate right-leaning accounts of being Russian bots.” pic.twitter.com/EHRWACkZu4
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
5.These are quotes by Twitter executives about Hamilton 68, a digital “dashboard” that claimed to track Russian influence and was the source of hundreds if not thousands of mainstream print and TV news stories in the Trump years. pic.twitter.com/KzCVBCm1hv
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
7.The ASD advisory council includes neoconservative writer Bill Kristol, former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, ex-Hillary for America chief John Podesta, and former heads or deputy heads of the CIA, NSA, and the Department of Homeland Security. pic.twitter.com/Nug3CpF6iK
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
9.Hamilton 68 was the source for stories claiming Russian bots pushed terms like “deep state” or hashtags like #FireMcMaster, #SchumerShutdown, #WalkAway, #ReleaseTheMemo, #AlabamaSenateRace, and #ParklandShooting, among many others. pic.twitter.com/d9uM8bYWVe
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
11. Hamilton 68 never released the list, claiming “the Russians will simply shut [the accounts] down.” All those reporters and TV personalities making claims about “Russian bots” never really knew what they were describing. pic.twitter.com/q89kuDPIIH
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
11. Hamilton 68 never released the list, claiming “the Russians will simply shut [the accounts] down.” All those reporters and TV personalities making claims about “Russian bots” never really knew what they were describing. pic.twitter.com/q89kuDPIIH
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
13.“These accounts,” they concluded, “are neither strongly Russian nor strongly bots.”
“No evidence to support the statement that the dashboard is a finger on the pulse of Russian information ops.”
“Hardly illuminating a massive influence operation.” pic.twitter.com/LMrgWVKe7k
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
https://t.co/om9vyL01e5 was a scam. Instead of tracking how “Russia” influenced American attitudes, Hamilton 68 simply collected a handful of mostly real, mostly American accounts, and described their organic conversations as Russian scheming.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
17.Some Twitter execs badly wanted to out Hamilton 68. After Russians were blamed for hyping the #ParklandShooting hashtag, one wrote:
“Why can’t we say we’ve investigated… and citing Hamilton 68 is being wrong, irresponsible, and biased?” pic.twitter.com/1Pl5MLG7qw
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
19.“We have to be careful in how much we push back on ASD publicly,” said future White House and NSC spokesperson Emily Horne. pic.twitter.com/BRZEESQZlT
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
21. So the “legitimate people,” as one Twitter exec called them, never found out they’d been used as fodder for mountains of news stories about “Russian influence.” Because the #TwitterFiles contain the list, they’ve begun finding out.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
23. “I’ve written a book about the U.S. Constitution,” says Chicago-based lawyer Dave Shestokas. “How I made a list like this is incredible to me.” pic.twitter.com/nJYekHzEIJ
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
25. Even Twitter execs were stunned to read who was on the list. Wrote policy chief Nick Pickles about British comic @Holbornlolz: “A wind-up merchant… I follow him and wouldn’t say he’s pro-Russian… I can’t even remember him tweeting about Russia.” pic.twitter.com/kFCqyFjG0l
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
27. Consortium editor Joe Lauria too was angered to find he was on the list, which targeted voices across the spectrum: “Organizations like Hamilton 68 are in business to enforce an official narrative, which means excising inconvenient facts, which they call ‘misinformation.’” pic.twitter.com/KtRKiE7C7G
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
29.Hamilton 68 was used as a source to assert Russian influence in an astonishing array of news stories: support for Brett Kavanaugh or the Devin Nunes memo, the Parkland shooting, manipulation of black voters, “attacks” on the Mueller investigation… pic.twitter.com/GU9UCBLEeO
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023
31.Incredibly, and ironically, these stories were also frequently used as evidence of the spread of “fake news” on sites like Twitter: pic.twitter.com/dyNZNRFIdH
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 27, 2023