The emerging scope of liberal complicity in pushing false information is becoming even more apparent. The Democrat party spent years attempting to remove a sitting president for “Russian collusion” by using misinformation, and Twitter helped them do it despite knowing that the “evidence” being pandered was false, according to the Twitter Files.
The Twitter Files are documents revealing the inner workings of Twitter, particularly concerning content moderation decisions made by its employees before Elon Musk purchased the platform in October of 2022. These files gained the attention of independent journalists like Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, and Michael Shellenberger, who analyzed the internal documents to shed light on how the company made its decisions, including the ban on former President Donald Trump in January 2020.
Tlibbi recently created an X thread in support of an article initially published by Wall Street Reporter Susan Schmidt. The thread delves into Schmidt’s coverage of the activities of New Knowledge, a company hired by the Senate, which aimed to convince Twitter to censor accounts that were linked to a Russian government organization accused of interfering in the 2016 election.
New Knowledge is a private cybersecurity company that allegedly focuses on monitoring and analyzing online disinformation campaigns and providing insights into online influence operations, particularly those on social media platforms. New Knowledge gained attention for its “research” related to disinformation and foreign interference in the context of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Tallibi’s X thread and Schmidt’s article argue that New Knowledge was, ironically, involved in interfering with American elections by using “Russian bots” as a cover. The journalists explained that the pressure on Twitter to censor alleged Russian accounts can be traced back to 2018 when the Senate Intelligence Committee tasked New Knowledge with investigating foreign interference claims.
The report that followed led to the creation of false news stories, with then-Senate Intelligence Committee Vice-Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) enthusiastically supporting the narratives, describing the report as a “bombshell.”
However, Twitter employees had a different perspective, as revealed in The Twitter Files. Executives were doubtful about the extent of Russian social media activity, and senior employees recognized that a flawed research method conducted by the Senate-hired company, New Knowledge, was generating numerous false news stories.
When former Trust and Safety Chief Yoel Roth reviewed five accounts flagged in the New Knowledge report, he showed no concern about potential “social media activity.” Roth, in an email to colleagues, dismissed the accounts, stating that there was “nothing to see here.” Roth even identified some accounts as spam or American, not suspicious, and was cautious not to validate the New Knowledge report by deleting the flagged accounts.
But while New Knowledge was reportedly focused on preventing alleged “Russian election interference,” the organization participated in its own Russian election interference campaign in a Senate race in Alabama in 2017 through a project called “Project Bermingham.” The extent of New Knowledge’s interference in the election became known only through a revealing New York Times investigation.
In what New Knowledge described as a “false flag” operation, New Knowledge created thousands of fake Russian bots to follow Republican candidate Judge Roy Moore during a contested special election. Reports suggested that the Kremlin favored Moore. Additionally, New Knowledge ran a phony Facebook page that supported a write-in Republican candidate to siphon votes away from Moore. They also created another page where Moore purportedly advocated banning alcohol in Alabama. Ultimately, Democrat Doug Jones won the election by a narrow margin.
Schmidt and Taibbi revealed that the Alabama projects were orchestrated by former Obama administration official Mikey Dickerson and funded by billionaire Reid Hoffman, who later apologized for his involvement.
Schmidt noted that, as of now, there have been no consequences for the participants in Project Birmingham, who were allegedly responsible for an election interference operation involving misinformation. In contrast, Douglass Mackey faced potential imprisonment for creating an election-related meme during the 2016 election that encouraged people to vote via text.
In May 2022, X owner Elon Musk declared his shift from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party because the left Is a “party of division and hate.” Musk has actively worked to address credibility concerns associated with Twitter since his acquisition of the platform in April 2022. His efforts include reinstating banned accounts and releasing information regarding the extensive censorship on the platform, primarily affecting conservative voices.
Uncovering these nuggets sometimes leads to a huge pot of gold, like this one. And Americans, starved for the truth, are all about the pot of gold.