The FBI asked Twitter to remove more than 160 accounts that Ukrainian intelligence agents claimed were \u201cspreading fear and disinformation,\u201d according to leaked emails seen by reporter Aaron Mate. The FBI also asked Twitter to forward the personal information of these accounts to Kiev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FBI Special Agent Aleksandr Kobzanets, who is based in the US embassy in Kiev, reached out to Twitter executives last March, passing them \u201ca list of accounts I received over a couple of weeks from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)\u201d according to an email published by Mate on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The attached document, compiled by the SBU, included 163 Twitter accounts. Among these were accounts belonging to RT and other Russian media outlets, and to American and Canadian journalists, Mate included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These accounts, the SBU stated, had been \u201cused to disseminate disinformation and fake news to inaccurately reflect events in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn order to stop Russian aggression on the information front,\u201d the SBU wrote, \u201cwe kindly ask you to take urgent measures to block these Twitter accounts and provide us with user data specified during registration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The request was not honored as the SBU wanted. Twitter\u2019s then-head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, replied to Kobzanets that he would investigate the accounts for \u201cinauthenticity,\u201d and would only suspend those hiding ties to foreign governments. Journalists \u201cwho cover the conflict with a pro-Russian stance are unlikely to be found in violation of our rules,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mate asked Kobzanets whether he had vetted the SBU\u2019s list before sending it to Twitter, and whether he revised his work with the SBU afterwards. The agent did not reply. Likewise, the FBI refused to comment when asked about whether its \u201c\u2018assistance to Ukraine\u2019 entailed censoring journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of the 163 accounts named by the SBU, 34 were suspended and 20 have since been deleted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to Elon Musk\u2019s purchase of Twitter last October, Roth and other executives regularly communicated with US intelligence agencies and government departments, and often agreed to their censorship requests. Internal communications given by Musk to independent journalists in recent months revealed that Twitter suppressed information damaging to Joe Biden\u2019s election campaign, colluded with the FBI to remove content the agency wanted hidden, assisted the US military\u2019s online influence campaigns, and censored \u201canti-Ukraine narratives\u201d on behalf of multiple US intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n