Matt Taibbi's 'Twitter Files' Testimony | WSJ Opinion — Transcript

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1. 0:00this kind of thing where the government
2. 0:02is looking for information about
3. 0:04reporters it's usually a canary in the
4. 0:06coal mine that something worse is coming
5. 0:09in terms of uh an effort to exercise
6. 0:12control over the press this is the
7. 0:14second in a series of videos distilling
8. 0:16some of the testimony from the
9. 0:18weaponization of federal government
10. 0:20hearings shared by Jim Jordan in part
11. 0:23one we heard Chuck grassley's testimony
12. 0:25next up Matt taibi and Michael
13. 0:28shellenberger recipient of the so-called
14. 0:31Twitter files the original promise of
15. 0:33the internet was that it might
16. 0:35democratize the exchange of information
17. 0:38globally a free internet would overwhelm
18. 0:41all attempts to control information flow
19. 0:43its very existence a threat to
20. 0:46anti-democratic forms of government
21. 0:47everywhere today American taxpayers are
22. 0:50unwittingly financing the growth and
23. 0:52power of a censorship industrial complex
24. 0:55run by America's scientific and
25. 0:57technological Elite which endangers our
26. 0:59liberties and democracy from the very
27. 1:01start of the two-hour session there
28. 1:03seemed to be two objectives at play
29. 1:06committee Republicans were focused on
30. 1:08the findings of the so-called Twitter
31. 1:09files while Democrats seemed more
32. 1:12focused on The witness's journalistic
33. 1:14credibility the Republicans have brought
34. 1:16in two of Elon Musk public scribes to
35. 1:20release cherry-picked outof context
36. 1:22emails and screenshots designed to
37. 1:25promote his chosen narrative currently
38. 1:28the Federal Trade Commission is
39. 1:30conducting an investigation into Twitter
40. 1:32looking at issues including the recent
41. 1:34layoffs there as well as trying to get
42. 1:36owner Elon musk's internal
43. 1:39Communications the fdc's first demand in
44. 1:42that first letter after the Twitter
45. 1:43Files come out is identify all
46. 1:46journalists I'm I'm quoting identify all
47. 1:48journalists and other members of the
48. 1:50media to whom
49. 1:51Twitter worked with I do find it scary I
50. 1:55I I think it's none of the government's
51. 1:57business what uh with chal a private
52. 2:00company talks to and why um I think
53. 2:03every journalist should be concerned
54. 2:05about that and the absence of interest
55. 2:07in that issue by um my fellow colleagues
56. 2:11in the mainstream media is an indication
57. 2:14of how low the business has sunk in fact
58. 2:17there were some moments during the
59. 2:18hearing where it sounded like committee
60. 2:19Democrats were trying to get Mr taibe to
61. 2:22reveal his sources who was the
62. 2:25individual that uh gave you permission
63. 2:27to access the emails well the
64. 2:28attribution from my story is sources at
65. 2:30Twitter and that's what I'm going to
66. 2:31refer to when was the first time that Mr
67. 2:35musk approached you about writing uh uh
68. 2:38the Twitter
69. 2:39files again congresswoman that
70. 2:42would I just need a date sir but I can't
71. 2:46give it to you unfortunately because
72. 2:48this this is a question of sourcing and
73. 2:49I don't give up I'm joural I don't re is
74. 2:52a question of chronology no that's a
75. 2:54question because you earlier said that
76. 2:56that someone had sent you through the
77. 2:57internet some message about whether or
78. 2:59not you would be interested in some
79. 3:01information yes and I refer to that
80. 3:03person as a source uh did Mr musk
81. 3:06contact you Mr T again the attribution
82. 3:09from my story is sources at Twitter Mr
83. 3:11shellenberger did Mr musk contact you uh
84. 3:14actually no I was brought in by my
85. 3:17friend Barry Weiss and so this story
86. 3:20there's been a lot of misinformation
87. 3:22disinformation about Mr Ty M Weiss thank
88. 3:24you I do think it's worth pointing out
89. 3:26that you know I have co-sponsored I
90. 3:28think some of my colleagues have
91. 3:29co-sponsored The Shield
92. 3:31act in previous congresses with
93. 3:34Democrats to protect what we see them
94. 3:36trying to do today protect journalists
95. 3:38from having to reveal their sources to
96. 3:41government like the previous
97. 3:43weaponization of federal government
98. 3:45hearing there's been very little
99. 3:47mainstream media coverage but perhaps
100. 3:49that's because so many Publications have
101. 3:52been implicated another troubling aspect
102. 3:54is the role of the press which should be
103. 3:56the people's last line of defense in
104. 3:57such cases but instead of investigating
105. 4:00these groups journalists partnered with
106. 4:02them if Twitter declined to remove an
107. 4:04account right away government agencies
108. 4:06and NOS would call reporters for the New
109. 4:08York Times Washington Post and other
110. 4:10outlets who in turn would call Twitter
111. 4:12demanding to know why action had not yet
112. 4:14been taken effectively news media became
113. 4:17an arm of a state sponsored thought
114. 4:19policing system yes the Twitter files
115. 4:22would likely have received more coverage
116. 4:24had Mr musk released the documents for
117. 4:27all journalists to inspect independ
118. 4:30dependently but that doesn't mean that
119. 4:32developments should be ignored this
120. 4:34morning we saw a stunning display of
121. 4:35their attack of your character we
122. 4:37shouldn't be surprised this is what the
123. 4:39Defenders of big government corruption
124. 4:41do this is the Playbook they destroy the
125. 4:44messenger we just saw it here on live
126. 4:45television and everybody can see it for
127. 4:47themselves fortunately Mr taibe and Mr
128. 4:49shellenberger remained largely unfazed
129. 4:52throughout proceedings and I thought
130. 4:54they got their point across quite well
131. 4:56we learned Twitter Facebook Google and
132. 4:59other companies
133. 5:00developed a formal system for taking in
134. 5:02moderation requests from every corner of
135. 5:05government from the FBI the DHS the HHS
136. 5:08DOD the global engagement Center at
137. 5:11State even the
138. 5:13CIA importantly the bar for bringing in
139. 5:15military-grade government monitoring and
140. 5:17speech countering techniques has moved
141. 5:19from quote countering terrorism to quote
142. 5:21countering extremism to countering
143. 5:23simple misinformation otherwise known as
144. 5:26being wrong on the internet for every
145. 5:29government agency scanning Twitter there
146. 5:31were perhaps 20 quasi private entities
147. 5:33doing the same thing including
148. 5:35Stanford's election Integrity
149. 5:37partnership News Guard the global
150. 5:39disinformation index and many others
151. 5:42many taxpayer funded the government no
152. 5:44longer needs a predicate of calling you
153. 5:46a terrorist or an extremist to deploy
154. 5:48government resources to counter your
155. 5:50political activity the only predicate it
156. 5:52needs is simply the assertion that the
157. 5:54opinion you expressed on social media is
158. 5:56wrong Democrats are denouncing the House
159. 5:58GOP invest investigation into the
160. 6:00weaponization of federal government but
161. 6:02that's largely because Republicans
162. 6:04appear to be getting somewhere and it
163. 6:06doesn't end with a Twitter files we
164. 6:08haven't talked about Facebook but we we
165. 6:10now know that we have the we have the
166. 6:13White House demanding that Facebook take
167. 6:16down factual information and Facebook
168. 6:18doing that