Tech entrepreneur unpacks Twitter Files, what ‘weaponized’ agencies did to Americans

Submitted by Dave Hodges on Tuesday, May 23, 2023 - 16:57.

by Gabriela Pariseau

Sacks applauded The Twitter Files for unveiling how federal agencies weaponized their authority against Americans in an interview on Benny Johnson’s The Benny Show Sunday. He credited Twitter owner Elon Musk for releasing the files. “I think we would have very little knowledge of what was actually happening inside these social media companies if Elon hadn’t opened up The Twitter Files,” Sacks said. “The only conclusion you can come away with is you know we have these security agencies that have been weaponized against the American people. They’re propagandizing the American people. They’re surveilling the American people. They’re censoring the American people. They’re completely out of hand and unacceptable.”

?@DavidSacks breaks down the revelations of the #TwitterFiles and how they worked with intelligence agencies to censor speech:

“They were doing so, in many cases, in violation of their own stated policies”

Subscribe To The Benny Show:https://t.co/eFopXPngL4 pic.twitter.com/9dptlnEVpq

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 7, 2023

The pair discussed the weight of what the now 21 Twitter Files have revealed to the American public. He compared The Twitter Files to peeling back onion layers and at the heart of the metaphorical onion lies the FBI’s entangled relationship with Twitter.

“[Twitter censorship] wasn’t just a case of corporate bias. Their actions were being guided by the deep state. You have 80 former FBI agents who were flagging posts to be taken down from social media,” Sacks told Johnson. “And then we find out that it wasn’t just the FBI… you have the Department of Homeland Security, you have the global engagement center which was originally created to create propaganda to propagandize other countries but it had been set loose on us, on the American people. You had representatives of the CIA who were participating in this meeting.”

To top it tall off, Sacks added, the FBI was not merely involved. It was involved for “fabricated” reasons. “The pretext they were giving us for their involvement, for the FBI’s involvement in the first place was all about malign foreign influence. It was that we have these foreign governments involved in Twitter running propaganda campaigns trying to influence our elections. This was the stated reason for their authority, for them trying to have this giant FBI operation,” he said, noting the FBI’s claims of uncovering Russian disinformation operations. He later added that “Even the rationale that they gave for their involvement, for the FBI’s involvement in the first place was a fabrication and Twitter knew it.”

Sacks referred to internal communications found in Twitter Files parts 11 and 15 showing Twitter employees discussing among themselves that the alleged massive amounts of Twitter disinformation did not exist. Many of the accounts flagged by intelligence agencies as posting “Russian disinformation” were merely small domestic accounts belonging to everyday Americans.