Twitter Files: Not only FBI, but CIA, State, Pentagon targeted First Amendment freedoms

by WorldTribune Staff, December 25, 2022

The latest release of the “Twitter Files” show the FBI “acting as doorman to a vast program of social media surveillance and censorship, encompassing agencies across the federal government – from the State Department to the Pentagon to the CIA,” journalist Matt Taibbi noted in posting the latest edition on Dec. 24.

“The government was in constant contact not just with Twitter but with virtually every major tech firm,” Taibbi noted. “These included Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, Reddit, even Pinterest.”

Meanwhile, the censorship sections of Big Tech platforms are loaded with former members of the U.S. intelligence community, according to reports from Mint Press and the Daily Mail.

The ex-operatives are often found in the “trust and safety” or “misinformation” departments of tech companies, including:

• Aaron Berman: formerly a senior analytic manager for the CIA who spent 17 years preparing and editing the U.S. president’s daily intelligence briefing, now a senior policy manager for “misinformation” at Meta.

• Bryan Weisbard: formerly a CIA intelligence officer, now a director of “trust, safety, security and data privacy” at Meta. His LinkedIn previously described his work at the CIA as identifying “online social media information propaganda and covert influence campaigns.”

• Emily Vacher: formerly a FBI special supervisory agent, now director of trust and safety at Facebook.

• Daniel Aragnovich: formerly Director for intelligence at the National Security Council, now head of “global threat disruption” at Facebook.

• Matthew Williams: formerly an intelligence program manager at the FBI, now “senior director of public trust, revenue policy, counsel systems and analytics” at Twitter.

• Jacqueline Lopour: 10-year CIA veteran who was a “go-to writer” for presidential briefings, now a senior intelligence collection and trust and safety manager at Google.

• Nick Rossman: former FBI and CIA analyst who is now a senior manager of trust and safety at Google.

• Jeff Lazarus: former economic and political analyst at the CIA, who went on to work for Google’s trust and safety department and then Meta’s “strategic response” unit.


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