Twitter peddled Democrats and the media with false narratives about “Russiagate” — though they found no evidence of Moscow’s involvement, according to a new dump of files from the social media company.
The 14th part of the Twitter files published by a journalist Matt Taibbi revealed that in 2018 executives tried to warn senior Democrats about a debunked “Russian bot” theory.
Her allegation was a memo that exposed flaws in the investigation that linked Donald Trump to Russia before the 2016 election, which was promoted by Kremlin-backed organizations on social media.
Twitter officials said the claims were untrue and shared their findings with Democrats, but their efforts were in vain and politicians pushed the theory anyway.
Instead of publicly contesting the claims, Twitter was instead ordered by an outside attorney to issue a vague statement saying they take bots and foreign interference “seriously,” Taibbi writes.
It is further evidence of how Russiagate theories and the discredited Steele dossier could be released without much challenge.
Twitter stood by, letting Democrats spread false narratives about “Russiagate” — although they found no evidence of Moscow’s involvement, according to a new dump of files from the social media company. Rep. Adam Schiff (left) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (right) made false claims that Russia was behind a campaign
The 14th episode of Twitter files released by journalist Matt Taibbi showed executives trying to warn senior Democrats about a debunked “Russian bot” theory in 2018
“Twitter warned politicians and the media that not only did they lack evidence, but they had evidence that the accounts were not Russian — and they were flatly ignored, Taibbi wrote.
In 2018, Democrats discredited a Republican memo about abuses of FBI surveillance by falsely claiming it was being promoted by “Russian bots” using the hashtag ReleaseTheMemo.
Former Congressman Devin Nunes’ memo pointed to flaws in the probe into Trump’s alleged ties to Moscow.
Nune’s memo was reviewed by the Justice Department a year later.
California Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam Schiff wrote an open letter saying the ReleaseTheMeo hashtag was sponsored by “Russian influence operations.”
And Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) then said it was “reprehensible that Russian agents were so eager to manipulate innocent Americans.”
Taibbi wrote, “Feinstein, Schiff, Blumenthal, and members of the media all pointed to the same source: the Hamilton 68 dashboard created by former FBI counterintelligence officer Clint Watts under the auspices of the Alliance for Securing Democracy.”
The dashboard claimed to uncover Twitter activity related to a “Russian disinformation campaign.”
Global Policy Communications Chief at Twitter Emily Horne, who went on to work at the White House and National Security Council, told her colleagues to be “skeptical” of the Hamilton 68 dashboard, saying it was a “communications game” for the Alliance for Securing Democracy.
Twitter executives wrote to Feinstein and Schiff and said they had found no evidence of Russian activity related to the “Release The Memo” hashtag
Internally, Twitter execs responded by saying, “We feed congressional trolls,” comparing the situation to the story, “If you give a mouse a cookie.”
Their own internal investigations into the “bot” theory had found “no…significant activity related to Russia.”
Former trust and security chief Yael Roth, who resigned over her role in censoring Hunter Biden’s laptop story, could also find no Russian connection to the attempt to discredit the memo.
“Just checked the accounts that posted the first 50 tweets with #releasethememo,” Roth wrote, according to Taibbi. “None of them shows any sign of belonging to Russia”.
Twitter reached out to Senator Blumenthal’s office to explain that bots weren’t responsible, but they were ignored.
Staffers even attempted to offer the Democrat other information that could be considered “wins” for him.
“It might be worth nudging Blumenthal’s staff that it might be in his boss’s best interest not to go there because it might come back and make him look silly,” wrote one Twitter contributor.
But Blumenthal went ahead and posted the bogus claims anyway, and Twitter execs became “frustrated” that their work was being swept under the rug.
Their efforts to counter the claims waned, and they did not release any statements on the files that the “bot” theory was wrong.
Meanwhile, news outlets continued to push the false narrative.
Twitter execs responded internally by saying, “We’re feeding congressional trolls.”
They also said Democrats were putting the “cart before the horse” by assuming the social media campaign was started by Russia.
Twitter executives likened the situation to the story, “When you give a mouse a cookie.”
“He’ll want a glass of milk, which will lead to a wave of other exhausting requests, at the end of which he’ll want a glass of milk. And one more cookie,” Taibbi wrote.
Regarding the bombastic claims, Nunes told Taibbi, “Schiff and the Democrats falsely claimed that Russians were behind the “Release the Memo” hashtag of all my investigative work
“By propagating the Russian collusion hoax, they have instigated one of the greatest outbreaks of mass insanity in US history.”
Taibbi concluded: “This #ReleaseTheMemo episode is just one of many in the #TwitterFiles. The Russiagate scandal rested on the cowardly dishonesty of politicians and reporters who for years ignored the lack of data to scare fictional headlines.