The FBI Paid Twitter $3.4 Million for Processing Requests

The FBI paid Twitter millions of dollars to cover the costs of processing the agency's requests. "I am happy to report we have collected $3,415,323 since October 2019!" wrote someone with Twitter's Safety, Content, & Law Enforcement (SCALE) team in a February 2021 email, according to internal messages reported by journalist Michael Shellenberger today.

"In 2019 SCALE instituted a reimbursement program for our legal process response from the FBI," explained the email, whose author is redacted. "Prior to the start of the program, Twitter chose not to collect under this statutory right...