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.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Left
Twitter Aided the Pentagon in Its Covert Online Propaganda CampaignTwitter executives have claimed for years that the company makes concerted efforts to detect and thwart government-backed covert propaganda campaigns on its platform.
Behind the scenes, however, the social networking giant provided direct approval and internal protection to the U.S. military’s network of social media accounts and online personas, whitelisting a batch of accounts at the request of the government. The Pentagon has used this network, which includes U.S. government-generated news portals and memes, in an effort to shape opinion in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, and beyond.
The accounts in...
From the Center
Twitter aided Pentagon influence operations: reportA new installment of the “Twitter Files,” by reporter Lee Fang alleges the social media company aided the military and Department of Defense in shaping public opinion about U.S. activities in other countries.
The Twitter Files are a number of internal documents that were shared with and later published by independent journalists including Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss and Michael Shellenberger. In the first batch, Taibbi focused on Twitter’s decision to limit the spread of a story by the New York Post about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Each of the document dumps...
From the Right
Twitter boosted Pentagon propaganda efforts in the Middle East, files showTwitter has allowed the Defense Department to use the social media platform to carry out a covert online propaganda and influence campaign for at least the last five years, the latest “Twitter Files” revealed Tuesday.
At the behest of the US military, the social media giant verified and “whitelisted” accounts affiliated with US Central Command in a bid to shape public opinion in countries including Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Kuwait.
The campaign was uncovered by reporter Lee Fang of The Intercept, who said that he was allowed to make unrestricted...
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