Elon Musk has revealed, through the reporting of journalist Matt Taibbi and author Michael Shellenberger, the extent of the FBI’s involvement in social media censorship through more installments of the Twitter Files.

“To be totally frank, almost every conspiracy theory that people had about Twitter turned out to be true,” Musk said on a December 24 interview with the All In podcast. “Is there a conspiracy theory about Twitter that didn’t turn out to be true? So far, they’ve all turned out to be true. If not more true than people thought.”

Last week, after Musk released screenshots of emails showing the level of involvement that the FBI had with Twitter (and revealing that many ex-FBI and CIA officials worked at the company), the FBI told the NY Post:

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. As evidenced in the correspondence, the FBI provides critical information to the private sector in an effort to allow them to protect themselves and their customers. 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.

Taibbi released a statement in response, saying that the agency “didn’t refute allegations.” 
 

On Christmas Eve, another installment of the Twitter Files showed that the CIA and other agencies also colluded with Twitter and held briefings with the company.

Taibbi continued, “Twitter had so much contact with so many agencies that executives lost track. Is today the DOD, and tomorrow the FBI? Is it the weekly call, or the monthly meeting?”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman, sent a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray, asking for records detailing the agency’s involvement with Twitter:

Newly released information shows the FBI has coordinated extensively with Twitter to censor or otherwise affect content on Twitter’s platform. These documents show that the FBI maintained this relationship with Twitter apart from any particularized need for a specific investigation, but as a permanent and ongoing surveillance operation.

 

These revelations sadly reinforce our deep concerns about the FBI’s misconduct and its hostility to the First Amendment.

The letter continued, asking for “all documents and communications between or among employees or contractors of the FBI referring or relating to content moderation on Twitter’s platform.”

The FBI has been accused of partisanship in other areas as well. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tweeted on December 5th, before the revelation of the agency’s collusion with Twitter:

Background:

As Taibbi explained in a prior installation of the Twitter Files, Twitter worked with a social media task force of the FBI called the FTIF, established in the midst of Trump’s election.

The FTIF worked with Twitter to pull down accounts and posts that they believed were in violation of terms or promoting “misinformation.” FBI agent Elvis Chan frequently corresponded with Twitter employees and arranged security clearances in 2020 for Twitter executives so that they could have access to information about election security threats.

Along with other bombshell reports and released emails, the Twitter Files also revealed that the FBI was paying Twitter to the tune of millions of dollars.

“Government paid Twitter millions of dollars to censor info from the public,” tweeted Musk, as he retweeted the thread from Shellenberger.

The FBI’s involvement in censorship continued through the 2022 midterms as well:

Republicans will take the majority in the House of Representatives on January 3rd, and have vowed to investigate government overreach into social media censorship.