2. My name is Andrew Lowenthal. For almost 18 years, I was Executive Director of Engage Media, an NGO devoted to protecting digital rights and freedoms. In recent years, I watched with concern and then despair as a dramatic change swept through my field.
Join: The Twitter Files
Join: The Twitter Files
❤8👍2
3. Organizations & peers began de-emphasizing freedom of expression, instead promoting surveillance & censorship to combat 'disinformation'. Here Automated Controversy Detection & the Center for an Informed Public boast of their online monitoring capabilities.
Join: The Twitter Files
Join: The Twitter Files
👍8🤯1
4. I knew things were bad. When I started work on the #TwitterFiles, I learned: they're far worse. The Files show an uncanny alliance of academics, journalists, intelligence operatives, military personnel, government bureaucrats, NGO workers and more. Some I know personally.
Join: The Twitter Files
Join: The Twitter Files
👍10🤬2
5. I had always understood "civil society" to mean "not the military." The former exists to check the latter. So I was shocked to see the depth of collaboration. For instance, "civil society" groups coordinating with Pentagon officials in an "election tabletop" exercise. Why?
Join: The Twitter Files
Join: The Twitter Files
❤5🤬2
6. Also startling: Twitter emails and Slack communications suggesting heightened levels of data access for the military. Or military contractors like Mitre being part of the Aspen Institute's "Information Disorder" report along with NGO and academic colleagues.
Join: The Twitter Files
Join: The Twitter Files
👍5
7. In a functioning democracy there’s dynamic tension between government, civil society organizations, news media, and industry, all advancing their own interests, in theory keeping one another honest. In the #TwitterFiles we find them all working together, cartel-style.
Join: The Twitter Files
Join: The Twitter Files
👍8🤬2
8. In the #TwitterFiles, tech firms collaborate with each other, and the state. Companies organize "IndustrySynch," "Industry comms," "pre-sync," and "Multi-Party Information Sharing," collaborating on a "whole range" of subjects, from election security to state-media labeling.
Join: The Twitter Files
Join: The Twitter Files
👍5🤬1
9. Tech companies not only collaborate on content, they gather regularly for "private sector engagement" with the FBI, DOD, DHS, House and Senate Intel Committees, and others, each agency getting its own meetings:
Join: The Twitter Files
Join: The Twitter Files
🤬7🤯1
10. Here Twitter staff ask for Twitter General Counsel (& former FBI Deputy General Counsel) Jim Baker's blessing for EIP and Virality Project partner Graphika to "inform their partners in USG 3-5 days before publication" of a report detailing Pentagon disinformation operations.
Join: The Twitter Files
Join: The Twitter Files
🤬7
11. Graphika receives money from the Pentagon, Navy, and Air Force, while simultaneously supporting human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Working with both the perpetrators & those representing the victims is very 2023.
Join: The Twitter Files
Join: The Twitter Files
🤬7❤1
12. During the War on Terror the DHS was harshly criticized by progressives for civil rights violations and targeting of Muslims. Now DHS sub-entities like CISA work closely with progressive tech. Here Twitter warmly welcomes a DHS/CISA staffer's job application.
Join: The Twitter Files
Join: The Twitter Files
🤬7