Latest Twitter File Reveals US Government Ties To COVID-19 Censorship Online - Taibbi

The US government helped drive an effort to censor COVID-19 information online in coordination with Big Tech companies and other third-party entities, journalist Matt Taibbi said on Friday in the latest release of the so-called Twitter Files

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th March, 2023) The US government helped drive an effort to censor COVID-19 information online in coordination with Big Tech companies and other third-party entities, journalist Matt Taibbi said on Friday in the latest release of the so-called Twitter Files.

The Virality Project was a cross-platform effort to monitor social media posts for alleged disinformation related to COVID-19, driven by Federal agencies, state-funded non-governmental organizations and Stanford University, Taibbi said.

The project was first pitched to Twitter by Stanford in February 2021, shortly after US President Joe Biden took office, Taibbi said.

"We've since learned the Virality Project in 2021 worked with government to launch a pan-industry monitoring plan for COVID-related content," Taibbi said in a Twitter thread. "Government, academia and an oligopoly of would-be corporate competitors organized quickly behind a secret, unified effort to control political messaging."

The Virality Project reviewed content on a mass scale for sites including Twitter, Google, Medium and TikTok, Taibbi said. The project knowingly targeted true material and legitimate political opinion, while often being factually wrong itself, he said.

Taibbi noted that Twitter's policy on COVID-19 misinformation through July 2020 required a story be "demonstrably false" or an "assertion of fact" to be actioned. However, the Virality Project asserted that true stories that could "fuel hesitancy" should be considered misinformation, he said.

Stories of "true vaccine side effects" or countries banning certain vaccines could be considered misinformation under the Virality Project's guidance, Taibbi said, citing an email from the project to Twitter.

"The Virality Project was specifically not based on 'assertions of fact,' but public submission to authority, acceptance of narrative, and pronouncements by figures like (former chief presidential medical advisor) Anthony Fauci," Taibbi said.

On April 26, 2022, the Virality Project issued a report calling for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish a center focused on mis- and disinformation. The next day, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the creation of a Disinformation Governance Board, which was later dissolved following widespread criticism of the board and its chief, Nina Jankowitz.

The Virality Project's federal partners also included the Office of the Surgeon General and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Taibbi said.

The latest Twitter File release comes following testimony by Taibbi to Congress last week on collusion between Twitter and the federal government on moderation decisions. Taibbi dubbed the network of tech companies, government agencies and private organizations involved in moderating online content the "Censorship-Industrial Complex."

The network would flag posts deemed misinformation, such as those related to COVID-19 origins or the Hunter Biden laptop story. The Twitter Files have also revealed cooperation between Twitter and the US military to boost psychological operations accounts.