Headline RoundupDecember 21st, 2022

Twitter Aided Pentagon Accounts Used For Foreign Influence

Summary from the AllSides News Team

The latest entry in the “Twitter Files” saga details how the social media platform aided the Pentagon in its foreign influence operations, providing special privileges to accounts used to spread favorable messaging in Middle Eastern countries.

Key Quotes: The report was released by investigative journalist Lee Fang (Not Rated). Fang tweeted that “despite promises to shut down covert state-run propaganda networks, Twitter docs show that the social media giant directly assisted the U.S. military’s influence operations.” Fang stated that Pentagon-affiliated accounts, many of which were not marked as state-operated, “tweeted frequently about U.S. military priorities in the Middle East, including promoting anti-Iran messages, promotion of the Saudi Arabia-U.S. backed war in Yemen, and ‘accurate’ U.S. drone strikes that claimed to only hit terrorists.” Fang added, “emails from throughout 2020 show that high-level Twitter executives were well aware of DoD’s vast network of fake accounts & covert propaganda and did not suspend the accounts.”

For Context: Elon Musk purchased Twitter in October. Recently, he has given select journalists access to internal documents and messaging at Twitter, detailing Twitter’s correspondence with the FBI, account censorship, and the suppression of certain news and accounts in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. 

How the Media is Covering It: Up until now, the Twitter Files have been covered more heavily in right-rated outlets, but this latest entry is receiving increased coverage from left-rated outlets.

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