Tag: Sarcasm

The FBI Paid Twitter $3.4 Million for Processing Requests

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

The FBI Paid Twitter $3.4 Million for Processing Requests

There’s been ample insinuation that these agencies were politically motivated. But all of this was happening at a time when President Donald Trump was in power and his people were running DHS and the FBI. Rather than agencies intent on swaying the 2020 election for Biden, their actions seem like run-of-the-mill paranoia and attempts at control.

This brings us back to the money the FBI gave Twitter for “time spent processing requests.” In the last installment of the Twitter Files, Matt Taibbi reported on some of those requests, many of which were related to potential election misinformation. Twitter looked into the flagged tweets and accounts, sometimes complying with the FBI and sometimes not.

…

Twitter’s “Guidelines for law enforcement” does state under a section titled “Cost reimbursement” that “Twitter may seek reimbursement for costs associated with information produced pursuant to legal process and as permitted by law (e.g., under 18 U.S.C. §2706).” But the fact that this garnered millions from the FBI was not, as far as I can tell, known until now.

Related:

No, The FBI Is NOT ‘Paying Twitter To Censor’

So, who was the Trump Administration targeting?!

But this is a misreading/misunderstanding of how things work. This had nothing to do with any “influence campaign.” The law already says that if the FBI is legally requesting information for an investigation under a number of different legal authorities, the companies receiving those requests can be reimbursed for fulfilling them.

…

I do think it remains a scandal the way that 2703(d) orders work, and the inability of users to push back on them. But that is the law. And it has literally nothing whatsoever to do with “censorship” requests. It is entirely about investigations by the FBI into Twitter users based on evidence of a crime. If you want, you can read the DOJ’s own guidelines regarding what they can request under 2703(d).

2703(d) order:

Under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, law enforcement must obtain a court order under 18 U.S.C. §2703(d) (2703(d) order) to compel a provider to disclose more detailed records about a customer’s or subscriber’s use of services, such as the following

Everything We Know About Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter Files’

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Everything We Know About Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter Files’

It’s odd that Musk and Matt Taibbi chose to focus on some racy photos of Hunter rather than all the evidence of the Bidens’ corruption involving Burisma, but maybe that’s what the next thread will be about.

…

This Is By Far Elon Musk’s Least Interesting Scandal

I mean, the guy killed some monkeys and keeps impregnating employees, for God’s sake.

Are Biden & Putin ACTUALLY Talking???

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Nov 9, 2022 – It’s been firmly established in the American media and by countless blue checks on Twitter that negotiation of ANY KIND with Putin’s Russia is unacceptable, appeasement and a betrayal of the Ukrainian people. Just ask the House progressives who were widely excoriated for penning a mildly-worded letter to the White House advocating diplomacy with Russia. Except now it turns out, according to a Wall Street Journal article, that White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is, in fact, engaging in diplomacy with his Russian counterparts.

Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss whether it’s a good idea for competing nuclear powers to discuss ways to avoid World War III.

Are Biden & Putin ACTUALLY Talking???

Biden Warns Americans That Ability To Even Pretend U.S. A Democracy At Stake

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Biden Warns Americans That Ability To Even Pretend U.S. A Democracy At Stake

WASHINGTON—Delivering a stark warning regarding the nation’s future, President Joe Biden gave a speech Wednesday night in which he cautioned Americans that the ability to even pretend the United States was a democracy was now at stake. “Today, our country teeters on a grim precipice, and if we aren’t careful, it will become completely impossible to embrace the charade that we are in any way a functioning democracy,” said Biden, describing how the upcoming midterm election could be the nation’s last chance to delude itself into believing its political system was actually built on the will of its people. “Please, I urge you to go out and exercise your right to vote while you are still capable of imagining it does something on the national or even the local level. This could be the last Election Day you can call America a democracy with a straight face.” At press time, spending on 2022 federal and state races was expected to reach a midterm record of $16.7 billion.