In this file photo taken on December 18, 2020, an illustration picture taken in London shows the logos of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft displayed on a mobile phone and a laptop screen. (AFP photo)
San Francisco, December 28 (RHC)-- Twitter CEO Elon Musk has revealed that all social media platforms work with the U.S. government to censor content. Musk released documents following his purchase of Twitter which showed that the social media platform conspired with the FBI, CIA, Pentagon and other US government agencies to suppress information on US elections, Ukraine, and COVID-19.
“*Every* social media company is engaged in heavy censorship, with significant involvement of and, at times, explicit direction of the government,” Musk tweeted, adding that “Google frequently makes links disappear, for example.” Most people don’t appreciate the significance of the point Matt was making:
*Every* social media company is engaged in heavy censorship, with significant involvement of and, at times, explicit direction of the government. Google frequently makes links disappear, for example.
Musk was replying to Pulitzer Prize-winner American investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald who tweeted a report which said, “When Dems controlled both houses of Congress and the WH (and Exec Branch), they repeatedly summoned Big Tech CEOs and openly and explicitly threatened them: if you don't *censor more*, you will be punished. And DHS/FBI/CIA applied immense pressure.”
Musk was also referring to internal Twitter communications published by American author, journalist, and podcaster Matt Taibbi with his approval, which suggested that the platform’s senior executives held regular meetings with members of the FBI and CIA. The agencies gave them lists of “hundreds of problem accounts” to suspend in the run-up to the 2020 election.
Taibbi claimed that the US government was in contact “with virtually every major tech firm. These included Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, Reddit, even Pinterest.” CIA agents “nearly always” sat in on meetings of these firms with the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, Taibbi added.
He said that although this task force was convened to fight alleged election interference by foreign states, it made “mountains of domestic moderation requests.”
