Matt Taibbi

@mtaibbi2.2M followers

Author of INSANE CLOWN PRESIDENT, I CAN’T BREATHE, SPANKING THE DONKEY, and SMELLS LIKE DEAD ELEPHANTS

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Posts 31 posts

#	Date	Post	↓ Outlier	Views	Likes	Reposts	Bookmarks
1	Dec 16, '22	1. THREAD: The Twitter Files, Part Six TWITTER, THE FBI SUBSIDIARY	68×	56M	114k	40k	8.5k
2	Mar 17, '23	1.TWITTER FILES #19 The Great Covid-19 Lie Machine Stanford, the Virality Project, and the Censorship of “True Stories”	52.9×	43.6M	74k	35k	12k
3	Mar 9, '23	1. TWITTER FILES: Statement to Congress THE CENSORSHIP-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX	49.4×	40.7M	69k	27k	5.7k
4	Jan 3, '23	1.THREAD: The Twitter Files How Twitter Let the Intelligence Community In	43×	35.4M	59k	22k	5.1k
5	Jan 27, '23	1.THREAD: Twitter Files #15 MOVE OVER, JAYSON BLAIR: TWITTER FILES EXPOSE NEXT GREAT MEDIA FRAUD	32.8×	27M	47k	20k	4.4k
6	Jan 12, '23	1.THREAD: Twitter Files #14 THE RUSSIAGATE LIES One: The Fake Tale of Russian Bots and the #ReleaseTheMemo Hashtag	21.1×	17.3M	65k	25k	4.4k
7	Jan 13, '23	1.TWITTER FILES: Supplemental More Adam Schiff Ban Requests, and "Deamplification"	19.9×	16.4M	40k	14k	1.9k
8	Dec 17, '22	Being on that committee you should know: - How much has been spent, and how many DHS/DOJ employees have been assigned, to monitoring and flagging social media? - Why is the FBI ask	17.9×	14.7M	49k	9k	240
9	Dec 16, '22	Instead of chasing child sex predators or terrorists, the FBI has agents — lots of them — analyzing and mass-flagging social media posts. Not as part of any criminal investigation,	16.4×	13.5M	145k	40k	1.1k
10	Dec 2, '22	1. Thread: THE TWITTER FILES	15.2×	0	326k	108k	45k
11	Dec 25, '22	Twitter Files Thread: The Spies Who Loved Twitter:	13.9×	11.4M	66k	17k	2k
12	Dec 24, '22	1.THREAD: The Twitter Files TWITTER AND "OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES"	11.6×	9.5M	55k	21k	4.2k
13	Jan 3, '23	1.THREAD: The Twitter Files Twitter and the FBI “Belly Button”	8.2×	6.7M	38k	15k	3.9k
14	Jan 13, '23	Congressman, I’m an American citizen, I love my country, and accusing me of repeating “Kremlin talking points” when I report something you find inconvenient is beyond reprehensible	7.2×	5.9M	66k	13k	293
15	Jan 15, '23	So @HillaryClinton, a former Senator, supports blocking the oversight powers of congress based on what we’ve shown in the #TwitterFiles were fantasies about Russian collusion. She	7.1×	5.8M	44k	12k	810
16	Jan 12, '23	The latest #TwitterFiles expose as a total lie a major Russiagate story — that the #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag was fueled by Russian bots:	6.5×	5.3M	33k	9.4k	551
17	Dec 9, '22	1. THREAD: The Twitter Files THE REMOVAL OF DONALD TRUMP Part One: October 2020-January 6th	6.5×	0	150k	50k	13k
18	Mar 11, '23	Congresswoman, how does badgering a non-MAGA, non-Republican journalist to give up a source constitute fighting “Extreme MAGA Republican lies”? Can you please identify something @S	5.6×	4.6M	43k	8.6k	317
19	Mar 7, '23	No other way to say it now: my former colleagues in mainstream media are spineless, corrupt, amoral fuckwits.	5.4×	4.5M	34k	5.5k	242
20	Mar 9, '23	Keith, talk about hackery and quoting out of context — I was responding to being labeled a “threat” and a “so-called journalist” by a politician. I’m also an actual reporter, not a	5.2×	4.3M	36k	3.7k	93
21	Dec 16, '22	8. Federal intelligence and law enforcement reach into Twitter included the Department of Homeland Security, which partnered with security contractors and think tanks to pressure T	5.0×	4.1M	36k	6.7k	107
22	Dec 16, '22	“HELLO TWITTER CONTACTS”: The master-canine quality of the FBI’s relationship to Twitter comes through in this November 2022 email, in which “FBI San Francisco is notifying you” it	4.9×	4M	34k	7.7k	212
23	Dec 2, '22	8. By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: “More to review from the Biden team.” The reply would come back: “Ha	4.7×	0	132k	32k	1.7k
24	Dec 16, '22	3. Twitter’s contact with the FBI was constant and pervasive, as if it were a subsidiary.	4.7×	3.8M	43k	8.3k	99
25	Dec 16, '22	4. Between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth.	4.6×	3.8M	43k	8.6k	138
26	Dec 16, '22	7. The FBI’s social media-focused task force, known as FTIF, created in the wake of the 2016 election, swelled to 80 agents and corresponded with Twitter to identify alleged foreig	4.5×	3.7M	36k	6.7k	151
27	Dec 16, '22	6. But a surprisingly high number are requests by the FBI for Twitter to take action on election misinformation, even involving joke tweets from low-follower accounts.	4.5×	3.7M	42k	7.8k	129
28	Dec 16, '22	2. The #TwitterFiles are revealing more every day about how the government collects, analyzes, and flags your social media content.	3.9×	3.2M	41k	6.5k	110
29	Dec 16, '22	5. Some are mundane, like San Francisco agent Elvis Chan wishing Roth a Happy New Year along with a reminder to attend “our quarterly call next week.” Others are requests for infor	3.5×	2.8M	33k	4.8k	48
30	Jul 18, '25	The new documents released by @TulsiGabbard leave no doubt - none - that the @BarackObama White House invented a phony espionage scandal to hang on the incoming Trump administratio	3.4×	2.8M	66k	14k	2.9k
31	Dec 16, '22	10. The #TwitterFiles show something new: agencies like the FBI and DHS regularly sending social media content to Twitter through multiple entry points, pre-flagged for moderation.	3.3×	2.7M	35k	6.9k	90
32	Dec 4, '22	Looking forward to going through all the tweets complaining about “PR for the richest man on earth,” and seeing how many of them have run stories for anonymous sources at the FBI,	3.2×	0	100k	18k	1.2k
33	Dec 3, '22	11. This system wasn't balanced. It was based on contacts. Because Twitter was and is overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation, there were more channels, more	3.2×	0	99k	20k	740
34	Dec 18, '22	It is very odd that people (cough, @tedlieu) think the FBI/DHS relationship with Twitter and other platforms is a partisan story. It’s taken place and grown under both Republican a	3.1×	2.5M	35k	5.8k	111
35	Feb 11, '23	The people determined to reduce the Twitter Files into a partisan pissing match are doing so precisely because the real targets of these stories aren't parties, but the FBI, DHS, D	3.1×	2.5M	44k	11k	306
36	Dec 3, '22	18. Twitter took extraordinary steps to suppress the story, removing links and posting warnings that it may be “unsafe.” They even blocked its transmission via direct message, a to	3.1×	0	98k	19k	468
37	Dec 2, '22	9. Celebrities and unknowns alike could be removed or reviewed at the behest of a political party:	3.0×	0	96k	18k	446
38	Dec 3, '22	19. White House spokeswoman Kaleigh McEnany was locked out of her account for tweeting about the story, prompting a furious letter from Trump campaign staffer Mike Hahn, who seethe	3.0×	0	100k	18k	412
39	Dec 6, '22	THREAD: Twitter Files Supplemental	2.9×	0	77k	20k	4.1k
40	Dec 3, '22	17. On October 14, 2020, the New York Post published BIDEN SECRET EMAILS, an expose based on the contents of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop:	2.9×	0	88k	20k	1.2k
41	Jan 15, '23	For those who continue to insist exposing the lie of Russiagate is a “right-wing” trope, here’s Jacobin reporting on the recent NYU study that of coure was largely ignored:	2.9×	2.4M	35k	8.6k	617
42	Dec 3, '22	36.Twitter files continued: "THE FIRST AMENDMENT ISN’T ABSOLUTE” Szabo’s letter contains chilling passages relaying Democratic lawmakers’ attitudes. They want “more” moderation, an	2.6×	0	67k	18k	797
43	Dec 2, '22	2. What you’re about to read is the first installment in a series, based upon thousands of internal documents obtained by sources at Twitter.	2.6×	0	93k	13k	699
44	Sep 11, '25	There’s something new and frightening in the tone of the responses to Charlie Kirk’s killing … America’s really changed.	2.6×	2.1M	52k	3.9k	1.4k
45	Dec 2, '22	7. Slowly, over time, Twitter staff and executives began to find more and more uses for these tools. Outsiders began petitioning the company to manipulate speech as well: first a l	2.5×	0	85k	12k	234
46	Dec 2, '22	3. The “Twitter Files” tell an incredible story from inside one of the world’s largest and most influential social media platforms. It is a Frankensteinian tale of a human-built me	2.4×	0	88k	12k	377
47	Dec 3, '22	16. The Twitter Files, Part One: How and Why Twitter Blocked the Hunter Biden Laptop Story	2.4×	0	78k	14k	583
48	Dec 3, '22	23. The decision was made at the highest levels of the company, but without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, with former head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde playing a key	2.4×	0	77k	13k	337
49	Dec 2, '22	10.Both parties had access to these tools. For instance, in 2020, requests from both the Trump White House and the Biden campaign were received and honored. However:	2.2×	0	72k	10k	476
50	Dec 3, '22	It's been a whirlwind 96 hours for me, too. There is much more to come, including answers to questions about issues like shadow-banning, boosting, follower counts, the fate of vari	2.2×	0	75k	10k	269
51	Dec 3, '22	24. “They just freelanced it,” is how one former employee characterized the decision. “Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that wasn’t goi	2.1×	0	71k	11k	196
52	Dec 3, '22	12. The resulting slant in content moderation decisions is visible in the documents you’re about to read. However, it’s also the assessment of multiple current and former high-leve	2.1×	0	73k	9.9k	203
53	Dec 18, '22	1.THREAD: Twitter Files Supplemental	⚡ 2.1×	64.5M	51k	16k	3.6k
54	Dec 2, '22	4. Twitter in its conception was a brilliant tool for enabling instant mass communication, making a true real-time global conversation possible for the first time.	2.0×	0	76k	9.1k	213
55	Dec 3, '22	32.Khanna tries to reroute the conversation to the First Amendment, mention of which is generally hard to find in the files:	2.0×	0	66k	11k	461
56	Dec 3, '22	can see the confusion in the following lengthy exchange, which ends up including Gadde and former Trust and safety chief Yoel Roth. Comms official Trenton Kennedy writes, “I'm stru	2.0×	0	68k	12k	311
57	Dec 3, '22	An amazing subplot of the Twitter/Hunter Biden laptop affair was how much was done without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, and how long it took for the situation to get "unfucked	2.0×	0	66k	11k	419
58	Dec 3, '22	26. By this point “everyone knew this was fucked,” said one former employee, but the response was essentially to err on the side of… continuing to err.	2.0×	0	66k	12k	291
59	Dec 2, '22	6. As time progressed, however, the company was slowly forced to add those barriers. Some of the first tools for controlling speech were designed to combat the likes of spam and fi	2.0×	0	74k	9k	159
60	Dec 2, '22	5. In an early conception, Twitter more than lived up to its mission statement, giving people “the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.”	1.9×	0	72k	8.7k	148
61	Dec 3, '22	21. Strom’s note returned the answer that the laptop story had been removed for violation of the company’s “hacked materials” policy:	1.9×	0	63k	10k	232
62	Dec 3, '22	22. Although several sources recalled hearing about a “general” warning from federal law enforcement that summer about possible foreign hacks, there’s no evidence - that I've seen	1.9×	0	64k	9.2k	320
63	Dec 3, '22	Good night, everyone. Thanks to all those who picked up the phone in the last few days.	1.8×	0	70k	3.7k	152
64	Dec 3, '22	20.This led public policy executive Caroline Strom to send out a polite WTF query. Several employees noted that there was tension between the comms/policy teams, who had little/les	1.8×	0	63k	9.4k	202
65	Dec 3, '22	29. A fundamental problem with tech companies and content moderation: many people in charge of speech know/care little about speech, and have to be told the basics by outsiders. To	1.7×	0	62k	8.7k	198
66	Dec 3, '22	27. Former VP of Global Comms Brandon Borrman asks, “Can we truthfully claim that this is part of the policy?”	1.7×	0	59k	9.1k	160
67	Dec 3, '22	30. In one humorous exchange on day 1, Democratic congressman Ro Khanna reaches out to Gadde to gently suggest she hop on the phone to talk about the “backlash re speech.” Khanna w	1.7×	0	58k	9k	221
68	Dec 3, '22	Okay, there was more throat-clearing about the process, but screw it, let's jump forward	1.7×	0	63k	6.7k	90
69	Dec 3, '22	28. To which former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker again seems to advise staying the non-course, because “caution is warranted”:	1.7×	0	56k	8.9k	167
70	Dec 9, '22	Start your engines…	1.6×	0	60k	5.2k	138
71	Dec 3, '22	Gadde replies quickly, immediately diving into the weeds of Twitter policy, unaware Khanna is more worried about the Bill of Rights:	1.6×	0	55k	8.8k	196
72	Dec 3, '22	33.Within a day, head of Public Policy Lauren Culbertson receives a ghastly letter/report from Carl Szabo of the research firm NetChoice, which had already polled 12 members of con	1.5×	0	53k	8.3k	223
73	Dec 6, '22	We can now tell you part of the reason why. On Tuesday, Twitter Deputy General Counsel (and former FBI General Counsel) Jim Baker was fired. Among the reasons? Vetting the first ba	1.5×	0	46k	9.8k	294
74	Dec 4, '22	Six Degrees from James Baker: A Familiar Figure Reemerges With the Release of the Twitter Files – JONATHAN TURLEY	1.5×	0	45k	11k	700
75	Dec 9, '22	3. We’ll show you what hasn’t been revealed: the erosion of standards within the company in months before J6, decisions by high-ranking executives to violate their own policies, an	1.5×	0	51k	8.4k	89
76	Dec 9, '22	@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 20. This post about the Hunter Biden laptop situation shows that Roth not only met weekly with the FBI and DHS, but with the Office of the Director of N	1.5×	0	42k	11k	322
77	Dec 6, '22	@bariweiss The news that Baker was reviewing the “Twitter files” surprised everyone involved, to say the least. New Twitter chief Elon Musk acted quickly to “exit” Baker Tuesday.	1.5×	0	50k	7.8k	126
78	Dec 6, '22	@bariweiss Reporters resumed searches through Twitter Files material – a lot of it – today. The next installment of “The Twitter Files” will appear @bariweiss. Stay tuned.	1.5×	0	50k	7.1k	144
79	Dec 9, '22	4. This first installment covers the period before the election through January 6th. Tomorrow, @Shellenbergermd will detail the chaos inside Twitter on January 7th. On Sunday, @Bar	1.4×	0	48k	8.6k	197
80	Dec 9, '22	@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 11. After J6, internal Slacks show Twitter executives getting a kick out of intensified relationships with federal agencies. Here’s Trust and Safety hea	1.4×	0	42k	9.4k	244
81	Dec 10, '22	@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham 27. Examining the entire election enforcement Slack, we didn’t see one reference to moderation requests from the Trump campaign, the Trump W	1.4×	0	43k	9.2k	303
82	Dec 9, '22	2. The world knows much of the story of what happened between riots at the Capitol on January 6th, and the removal of President Donald Trump from Twitter on January 8th...	1.3×	0	47k	7k	107
83	Dec 9, '22	@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 5. Whatever your opinion on the decision to remove Trump that day, the internal communications at Twitter between January 6th-January 8th have clear his	1.3×	0	45k	7.8k	90
84	Dec 9, '22	@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 6. As soon as they finished banning Trump, Twitter execs started processing new power. They prepared to ban future presidents and White Houses – perhaps	1.3×	0	42k	8k	128
85	Dec 9, '22	@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 16. The latter group were a high-speed Supreme Court of moderation, issuing content rulings on the fly, often in minutes and based on guesses, gut calls	1.3×	0	40k	8.6k	194
86	Dec 9, '22	@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 10. As the election approached, senior executives – perhaps under pressure from federal agencies, with whom they met more as time progressed – increasin	1.3×	0	43k	7.3k	146
87	Dec 3, '22	34.NetChoice lets Twitter know a “blood bath” awaits in upcoming Hill hearings, with members saying it's a "tipping point," complaining tech has “grown so big that they can’t even	1.3×	0	43k	7.1k	154
88	Aug 25, '22	How is this not a huge story?	1.3×	0	35k	8.6k	690
89	Dec 3, '22	35.Szabo reports to Twitter that some Hill figures are characterizing the laptop story as “tech’s Access Hollywood moment”:	1.3×	0	43k	6.9k	142
90	Dec 3, '22	There are multiple instances in the files of Dorsey intervening to question suspensions and other moderation actions, for accounts across the political spectrum	1.2×	0	41k	5.7k	169
91	Dec 9, '22	@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 7. Twitter executives removed Trump in part over what one executive called the “context surrounding”: actions by Trump and supporters “over the course o	1.2×	0	38k	7k	112
92	Dec 3, '22	The problem with the "hacked materials" ruling, several sources said, was that this normally required an official/law enforcement finding of a hack. But such a finding never appear	1.2×	0	37k	6.9k	218
93	Dec 9, '22	@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 8. The bulk of the internal debate leading to Trump’s ban took place in those three January days. However, the intellectual framework was laid in the mo	1.1×	0	39k	6.3k	59
94	Dec 9, '22	@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 9. Before J6, Twitter was a unique mix of automated, rules-based enforcement, and more subjective moderation by senior executives. As @BariWeiss reporte	1.1×	0	38k	6.5k	67
95	Dec 9, '22	@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 17. During this time, executives were also clearly liaising with federal enforcement and intelligence agencies about moderation of election-related cont	1.1×	0	36k	6.7k	96
96	Dec 6, '22	Over the weekend, while we both dealt with obstacles to new searches, it was @BariWeiss who discovered that the person in charge of releasing the files was someone named Jim. When	1.1×	0	35k	6k	108
97	Dec 10, '22	@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss @JohnBasham The FBI's second report concerned this tweet by @JohnBasham:	1.0×	0	33k	7.3k	118
98	Dec 9, '22	@ShellenbergerMD @bariweiss 12. These initial reports are based on searches for docs linked to prominent executives, whose names are already public. They include Roth, former trust	1.0×	0	35k	5.7k	55
99	Dec 7, '22	👀	1.0×	0	36k	2.6k	82
100	Dec 6, '22	@bariweiss Baker is a controversial figure. He has been something of a Zelig of FBI controversies dating back to 2016, from the Steele Dossier to the Alfa-Server mess. He resigned	1.0×	0	34k	5.3k	87

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