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Matt Taibbi released the latest drop of the Twitter Files on Thursday, bringing the receipts on the lies of Russiagate. It was alleged by many Democrats that then-President Donald Trump had colluded with Russia about all sorts of things, including to win the 2016 general presidential election.
Taibbi said in summation "A consistent theme of the #TwitterFiles has been concrete evidence that Russiagate headlines were manufactured by politicians and media — the thread below blows up the absurd #ReleaseTheMemo panic stoked by @SenFeinstein, @SenBlumenthal, and @AdamSchiff, among others."
In 2018, Twitter responded to a letter from California Senator Diane Feinstein et al, in which they apparently claimed that Twitter had been violated by Russian bots spewing "Russian disinformation" and propaganda, saying that their "initial inquiry, based on available data, has not identified any significant activity connected to Russia with respect to Tweets posting original content to" #ReleaseTheMemo.
That hashtag emerged in January 2018 after the House Intelligence Committee moved to send a memo from Rep. Devin Nunes to Trump to be declassified. It alleged that there had been abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and that the FBI has committed abuses "in obtaining FISA surveillance authority against Trump-connected figures, including the crucial role played by the infamous 'Steele Dossier,'" Taibbi reported.
At the time, adviser to Trump, Kellyanne Conway, was told that the hashtag encouraging the release of that memo had been perpetuated by Russian bots as part of a campaign to discredit democracy, etc.
"In the space of a few hours on January 18, #releasethememo exploded on Twitter," Politico reported, "evolving over the next few days from being a marker for discussion on Nunes’ memo through multiple iterations of an expanding conspiracy theory about missing FBI text messages and imaginary secret societies plotting internal coups against the president. #releasethememo provided an organizational framework for this comprehensive conspiracy theory, which, in its underpinnings, is meant to minimize and muddle concerns about Russian interference in American politics."
Politicians said that #ReleaseTheMemo was a Russian troll campaign, yet Twitter told politicians and media that this assertion "not only lacked evidence," Taibbi reported on Thursday, but that they "had evidence the accounts weren't Russian." Twitter was ignored and the rumors that the memo was a Russian plot continued to spread.
Feinstein, and fellow Californian Rep. Adam Schiff, claimed that Nunes allegations about the Steele Dossier, and that the claims Trump colluded with Russia were fake, were a product of a Russian disinformation campaign. It was later shown that Hillary Clinton and those associated with her campaign had essentially faked the dossier that led to Trump's first impeachment.
By December 2019, the "Nunes assertions would virtually all be verified in a report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz."
But congressional Democrats like Feinstein, Schiff and Connecticut's Blumenthal, stuck with the claims that "the Nunes memo "distorts" classified information, but note they didn't call it incorrect."
Their source, Taibbi reports, was "the Hamilton 68 dashboard created by former FBI counterintelligence official Clint Watts, under the auspices of the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD)." Which was entirely "vague in how it reached its conclusions."
Twitter remained skeptical, noting that "All the swirl is based on Hamilton."
Twitter couldn't find a Russian connection. Instead, #ReleaseTheMemo was driven by "Very Important Tweeters, including Wikileaks and congressman Steve King."
Democrats pressed on with their narrative anyway. Twitter pushed back, suggesting, in the case of one communique between Twitter and Blumenthal, that Blumenthal "lay off," since it would likely prove to be incorrect.
Twitter execs "grew frustrated," Taibbi reports, "over what they saw as a circular process – presented with claims of Russian activity, even when denied, led to more claims."
Twitter execs began to see the congressional Democrats as trolls themselves, wherein every time they would look into something, and provide answers, the "trolls" would come back wanting more, eschewing their answers, and pushing on with their narrative.
This bled into mainstream media, which then used the concept of Russian trolls, bots, and disinformation for nearly everything.
"Russians weren’t just blamed for #ReleaseTheMemo but #SchumerShutdown, #ParklandShooting, even #GunControlNow – to 'widen the divide,' according to the New York Times."
Despite this, Twitter was clear that #ReleaseTheMemo was an organic trend on the platform. While mainstream media outlets that pushed the narrative refused to comment to Taibbi about these revelations, Nunes was happy to go on the record.
"Schiff and the Democrats falsely claimed Russians were behind the Release the Memo hashtag, all my investigative work... By spreading the Russia collusion hoax, they instigated one of the greatest outbreaks of mass delusion in U.S. history," Nunes said.
Taibbi said in summation "A consistent theme of the #TwitterFiles has been concrete evidence that Russiagate headlines were manufactured by politicians and media — the thread below blows up the absurd #ReleaseTheMemo panic stoked by @SenFeinstein, @SenBlumenthal, and @AdamSchiff, among others."
In 2018, Twitter responded to a letter from California Senator Diane Feinstein et al, in which they apparently claimed that Twitter had been violated by Russian bots spewing "Russian disinformation" and propaganda, saying that their "initial inquiry, based on available data, has not identified any significant activity connected to Russia with respect to Tweets posting original content to" #ReleaseTheMemo.
That hashtag emerged in January 2018 after the House Intelligence Committee moved to send a memo from Rep. Devin Nunes to Trump to be declassified. It alleged that there had been abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and that the FBI has committed abuses "in obtaining FISA surveillance authority against Trump-connected figures, including the crucial role played by the infamous 'Steele Dossier,'" Taibbi reported.
At the time, adviser to Trump, Kellyanne Conway, was told that the hashtag encouraging the release of that memo had been perpetuated by Russian bots as part of a campaign to discredit democracy, etc.
"In the space of a few hours on January 18, #releasethememo exploded on Twitter," Politico reported, "evolving over the next few days from being a marker for discussion on Nunes’ memo through multiple iterations of an expanding conspiracy theory about missing FBI text messages and imaginary secret societies plotting internal coups against the president. #releasethememo provided an organizational framework for this comprehensive conspiracy theory, which, in its underpinnings, is meant to minimize and muddle concerns about Russian interference in American politics."
Politicians said that #ReleaseTheMemo was a Russian troll campaign, yet Twitter told politicians and media that this assertion "not only lacked evidence," Taibbi reported on Thursday, but that they "had evidence the accounts weren't Russian." Twitter was ignored and the rumors that the memo was a Russian plot continued to spread.
Feinstein, and fellow Californian Rep. Adam Schiff, claimed that Nunes allegations about the Steele Dossier, and that the claims Trump colluded with Russia were fake, were a product of a Russian disinformation campaign. It was later shown that Hillary Clinton and those associated with her campaign had essentially faked the dossier that led to Trump's first impeachment.
By December 2019, the "Nunes assertions would virtually all be verified in a report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz."
But congressional Democrats like Feinstein, Schiff and Connecticut's Blumenthal, stuck with the claims that "the Nunes memo "distorts" classified information, but note they didn't call it incorrect."
Their source, Taibbi reports, was "the Hamilton 68 dashboard created by former FBI counterintelligence official Clint Watts, under the auspices of the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD)." Which was entirely "vague in how it reached its conclusions."
Twitter remained skeptical, noting that "All the swirl is based on Hamilton."
Twitter couldn't find a Russian connection. Instead, #ReleaseTheMemo was driven by "Very Important Tweeters, including Wikileaks and congressman Steve King."
Democrats pressed on with their narrative anyway. Twitter pushed back, suggesting, in the case of one communique between Twitter and Blumenthal, that Blumenthal "lay off," since it would likely prove to be incorrect.
Twitter execs "grew frustrated," Taibbi reports, "over what they saw as a circular process – presented with claims of Russian activity, even when denied, led to more claims."
Twitter execs began to see the congressional Democrats as trolls themselves, wherein every time they would look into something, and provide answers, the "trolls" would come back wanting more, eschewing their answers, and pushing on with their narrative.
This bled into mainstream media, which then used the concept of Russian trolls, bots, and disinformation for nearly everything.
"Russians weren’t just blamed for #ReleaseTheMemo but #SchumerShutdown, #ParklandShooting, even #GunControlNow – to 'widen the divide,' according to the New York Times."
Despite this, Twitter was clear that #ReleaseTheMemo was an organic trend on the platform. While mainstream media outlets that pushed the narrative refused to comment to Taibbi about these revelations, Nunes was happy to go on the record.
"Schiff and the Democrats falsely claimed Russians were behind the Release the Memo hashtag, all my investigative work... By spreading the Russia collusion hoax, they instigated one of the greatest outbreaks of mass delusion in U.S. history," Nunes said.
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