Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi sounded the alarm on government collusion with Big Tech in a recent discussion with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
Taibbi discussed his initial bombshell findings blowing the lid off the backdoor channels that the government used to coordinate censorship with Big Tech in addition to the impact the discoveries had on his life. Taibbi said he was “thankful,” for the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit that reached the same conclusions about the Biden administration’s collusion with Big Tech that he did, albeit independently. The bombshell lawsuit cited original research by MRC Free Speech America using its CensorTrack.org database to track the extent of Big Tech's efforts to censor Biden detractors. When asked what Twitter Files finding surprised him the most, Taibbi said he and his team were shocked to see that the U.S. government “briefed” social media companies on world trends like the war in Ukraine. “That was shocking to me because that showed the entire arrangement in one picture,” he said.
Taibbi also warned against the jargon used by Big Tech social media companies, like the term “de-amplify,” that in reality is just censorship.
“Once they start down that road, suddenly they’re doing it all over the place, and before you know it you have a completely artificial representation of reality,” he said.
Taibbi was also asked about allegations that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) targeted his tax returns because of his reporting. He said that while he cannot be sure the government targeted him directly because of his reporting, presidential administrations certainly have a history of going after journalists.“Both Republican and Democratic administrations have been caught up in this problem of using the IRS,” he said, arguing that he believes the goal is to intimidate reporters from uncovering government abuses.
The Twitter Files continue to expose intentional censorship efforts by the government overwhelmingly. MRC Free Speech America reported last month that the latest Twitter Files drop by Andrew Lowenthal, author of the Network Affects Substack, implicated members of the United States government in colluding with Big Tech social media platforms to censor Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Lowenthal noted that The Twitter Files corroborated Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH)’s accusations of Government-Big Tech collusion to censor Kennedy. He added that not only did the White House ask Twitter to muzzle Kennedy but Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) apparently did the same.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
