Missouri Attorney General and U.S. Senator-elect Eric Schmidt noted in a short Twitter thread on Friday that an FBI official has admitted under oath that the bureau collaborates with the social media majors to quash speech and censor 'inconvenient' viewpoints.
"BREAKING: In our deposition of FBI agent Elvis Chan on Tuesday, we found that the FBI plays a big role in working with social media companies to censor speech -- from weekly meetings with social media companies ahead of the 2020 election to asks for account takedowns," his thread began.
"Chan, the FBI's FITF, and senior CISA officials had meetings with social media companies in the lead-up to the 2020 election, in which Chan personally told the social media companies that there could potentially be a Russian 'hack and leak' operation shortly before the election," he continued.
Chan, the FBI's FITF, and senior CISA officials had meetings with social media companies in the lead-up to the 2020 election, in which Chan personally told the social media companies that there could potentially be a Russian “hack and leak” operation shortly before the election.
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) December 2, 2022
"Those meetings were initially quarterly, then monthly, then weekly heading into the 2020 election," Schmidt, a Republican who replaced retiring GOP Sen. Roy Blunt, continued.
"Chan stated that the FBI regularly sent social media companies lists of URLs and social media accounts that should be taken down because they were disinformation from 'malign foreign influence operations.' The FBI then inquired whether the platforms have taken down the content," he wrote.
Chan stated that the FBI regularly sent social media companies lists of URLs and social media accounts that should be taken down because they were disinformation from “malign foreign influence operations.” The FBI then inquired whether the platforms have taken down the content.
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) December 2, 2022
"On many occasions, the platforms took down the accounts flagged by the FBI," he added in a post containing a link to a Fox News story noting that the FBI met regularly with big tech platforms ahead of the 2020 election -- meaning that, literally, the FBI was involved in election interference that cost their boss, President Donald Trump, his reelection.
The outlet noted in an exclusive:
An FBI agent testified to Republican attorneys general this week that the FBI held weekly meetings with Big Tech companies in Silicon Valley ahead of the 2020 presidential election to discuss "disinformation" on social media and ask about efforts to censor that information.
Chan, who serves in the FBI’s San Francisco bureau, was questioned under oath by court order about his alleged "critical role" in "coordinating with social-media platforms relating to censorship and suppression of speech on their platforms."
During the deposition, Chan said that he, along with the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and senior Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency officials, had weekly meetings with major social media companies to warn against Russian disinformation attempts ahead of the 2020 election, according to a source in the Missouri attorney general's office.
Former top FBI lawyer James Baker, who left his post amid the "Russiagate" scandal to become deputy lead counsel for Twitter, also was involved in signing off on censoring information regarding Hunter Biden's scandalous laptop, first reported in October 2020 by the New York Post.
“I support the conclusion that we need more facts to assess whether the materials were hacked. At this stage, however, it is reasonable for us to assume that they may have been and that caution is warranted,” Baker wrote during a discussion among top officials at Twitter about the decision to limit the reach of the story under the site’s “hacked materials” policy.
The message was released on Friday as part of Twitter boss Elon Musk's huge dump of internal files.
“There are some facts that indicate the materials may have been hacked, while there are others indicating that the computer was either abandoned and-or the owner consented to allow the repair shop to access it for at least some purposes,” Baker claimed. “We simply need more information.”
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