Twitter Aided U.S. Military Covert Online Propaganda Campaign, Latest Twitter Files Reveal
December 22nd, 2022They’re not shy about it.
Via: The Defender:
Part eight of the “Twitter files,” released Tuesday, revealed another layer of collusion between Twitter and elements of the U.S. government and military establishment, including that Twitter protected numerous accounts and personas created by the U.S. military for the dissemination of propaganda in the Middle East and beyond.
The latest “Twitter files” document drop, posted by journalist Lee Fang of The Intercept, revealed that Twitter knowingly violated its own internal policies and public claims that it prohibited all forms of government-backed propaganda.
The accounts created by the Pentagon and U.S. military sought to influence public opinion in several countries.
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Despite Twitter’s claims that it made “concerted efforts to detect and thwart government-backed covert propaganda campaigns,” the company, “behind the scenes … provided direct approval and internal protection to the U.S. military’s network of social media accounts and online personas,” Fang wrote for The Intercept.
This included Twitter “whitelisting a batch of accounts at the request of the government,” Fang said. “The Pentagon has used this network, which includes U.S. government-generated news portals and memes, in an effort to shape opinion in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, and beyond.”
“Despite knowledge that Pentagon propaganda accounts used covert identities, Twitter did not suspend many for around 2 years or more. Some remain active,” tweeted Fang.
