<p>'Twitter Files' journalist Matt Taibbi is calling it quits from the microblogging website and parting ways with CEO Elon Musk after the rivalry between Substack and the platform deepened. Musk chose Taibbi for "Twitter Files" to reveal the alleged conspiracies&nbsp;between former Twitter management and the federal government to restrict conservatives.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><strong>Why is Matt Taibbi leaving Twitter now?&nbsp;</strong></h2>

<p>Matt Taibbi is one of the most well-known contributors on Substack, Twitter's social media rival platform.&nbsp;A couple of days ago, Substack announced the launch of Substack Notes, a new service that resembles Twitter in some ways.</p>

<p>Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/3-injured-in-shooting-at-christiana-mall-in-us-state-of-delaware-police-580564">Three injured in shooting at Christiana Mall in US state of Delaware: Police</a></p>

<p>“It turns out Twitter is upset about the new Substack Notes feature, which they see as a hostile rival,” Taibbi wrote in a Substack post.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Titled “The Craziest Friday Ever,” Taibbi added in the post, “I’m staying at Substack. You’ve all been great to me, as has the management of this company. Beginning early next week, I’ll be using the new Substack Notes feature (to which you’ll all have access) instead of Twitter, a decision that apparently will come with a price as far as any future Twitter Files reports are concerned.”</p>

<h2><strong>How did the Twitter-Substack controversy start?&nbsp;</strong></h2>

<p>It all started when reports indicated that Twitter has blocked users to access Substack posts. Not just that, it was also reported that a warning message is shown by Twitter reading that links to Substack may be dangerous.</p>

<p>Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/uae-envoy-abdulnasser-alshaali-praises-indias-g20-leadership-says-honored-by-new-delhis-invitation-580566">UAE envoy Abdulnasser Alshaali praises India's G20 leadership, says honoured by New Delhi's invitation</a></p>

<h2><strong>Elon Musk breaks silence</strong></h2>

<p>In reaction to Matt Taibbi's announcement of leaving Twitter, Elon Musk put out a Tweet on Saturday. He called Taibbi a liar.</p>

<p>“Substack links were never blocked. Matt’s statement is false,” Musk tweeted.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The unveiling of Substack Notes, a short-form social media capability is seen as a potential rival to Musk, as per Forbes. Musk further claimed that Substack attempted to download data from Twitter in order to aid in the development of this new feature, Substack Notes.</p>

<p><img alt="Elon Musk and Matt Taibbi " data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="19738abd-6f91-43b7-85a1-c1c048d89bd3" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Elon%20Musk%20Substack%20.png" /></p>

<p><strong>World at War | Russia welcomes Finland's NATO membership with nuclear Iskander missiles</strong></p>

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<p>“Substack was trying to download a massive portion of the Twitter database to bootstrap their Twitter clone, so their IP address is obviously untrusted,” Musk added in a three-pointer tweet. “Turns out Matt is/was an employee of Substack,” he added.&nbsp;</p>

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<p>In reality, Forbes reported that the warning is there and the substack post links are blocked too.&nbsp;Twitter shows a notice which reads, “Some actions on this Tweet have been disabled by Twitter.”&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;</p>

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'Twitter Files' journalist Matt Taibbi is calling it quits from the microblogging website and parting ways with CEO Elon Musk after the rivalry between Substack and the platform deepened.

'Twitter Files' journalist Matt Taibbi is calling it quits from the microblogging website and parting ways with CEO Elon Musk after the rivalry between Substack and the platform deepened. Musk chose Taibbi for "Twitter Files" to reveal the alleged conspiracies between former Twitter management and the federal government to restrict conservatives. Why is Matt Taibbi leaving Twitter now? Matt Taibbi is one of the most well-known contributors on Substack, Twitter's social media rival platform. A couple of days ago, Substack announced the launch of Substack Notes, a new service that resembles Twitter in some ways. Also Read | Three injured in shooting at Christiana Mall in US state of Delaware: Police “It turns out Twitter is upset about the new Substack Notes feature, which they see as a hostile rival,” Taibbi wrote in a Substack post. Titled “The Craziest Friday Ever,” Taibbi added in the post, “I’m staying at Substack. You’ve all been great to me, as has the management of this company. Beginning early next week, I’ll be using the new Substack Notes feature (to which you’ll all have access) instead of Twitter, a decision that apparently will come with a price as far as any future Twitter Files reports are concerned.” How did the Twitter-Substack controversy start? It all started when reports indicated that Twitter has blocked users to access Substack posts. Not just that, it was also reported that a warning message is shown by Twitter reading that links to Substack may be dangerous. Also Read | UAE envoy Abdulnasser Alshaali praises India's G20 leadership, says honoured by New Delhi's invitation Elon Musk breaks silence In reaction to Matt Taibbi's announcement of leaving Twitter, Elon Musk put out a Tweet on Saturday. He called Taibbi a liar. “Substack links were never blocked. Matt’s statement is false,” Musk tweeted. The unveiling of Substack Notes, a short-form social media capability is seen as a potential rival to Musk, as per Forbes. Musk further claimed that Substack attempted to download data from Twitter in order to aid in the development of this new feature, Substack Notes. World at War | Russia welcomes Finland's NATO membership with nuclear Iskander missiles × “Substack was trying to download a massive portion of the Twitter database to bootstrap their Twitter clone, so their IP address is obviously untrusted,” Musk added in a three-pointer tweet. “Turns out Matt is/was an employee of Substack,” he added. In reality, Forbes reported that the warning is there and the substack post links are blocked too. Twitter shows a notice which reads, “Some actions on this Tweet have been disabled by Twitter.” WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

Matt Taibbi and Elon Musk split. What is the Substack-Twitter rivalry?

<p>The sixth part of “Twitter Files”, which was released by Independent journalist Matt Taibbi on Friday, revealed how Twitter was treated as a “subsidiary” by the FBI along with different law enforcement organisations, as various accounts were flagged by the government body for harmful “misinformation” since January 2020.</p>

<p>Taibbi said that the FBI and Twitter's relationship had a “master-canine quality” and that the bureau and the tech giant remained in “constant and pervasive” contact.</p>

<p>“Between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth,” Taibbi tweeted, pointing to the executives who worked towards suppressing the report prepared by The Post on the extensive overseas business of US President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden.</p>

<p><strong>ALSO READ|</strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/twitter-files-30-reveal-how-donald-trump-was-de-platformed-by-supreme-court-of-moderation-541763">Twitter Files 3.0 reveal how Donald Trump was deplatformed by ‘Supreme Court of moderation’</a></p>

<p><strong>Holding the tech giant's reins&nbsp;</strong></p>

<p>The journalist also revealed that Twitter received a “surprisingly high number” of missives from the FBI requesting “Twitter to take action on election misinformation,” which also included some jokes posted by accounts which had less number of followers.</p>

<p>Recently on November 22, an email was sent to Twitter from the FBI’s San Francisco office in which four accounts were flagged that “may potentially constitute violations of Twitter’s Terms of Service”.</p>

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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">1. THREAD: The Twitter Files, Part Six<br />
TWITTER, THE FBI SUBSIDIARY</p>
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1603857534737072128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 16, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<p>One of those accounts had the most satirical tweets, however, the employees at Twitter still hurriedly started to “look for reasons to suspend” the mentioned account for “civic misinformation”.</p>

<p>Although Twitter has been accused by the conservatives of unfairly targetting them through their enforcement actions, Taibbi claimed that left-wing accounts were also flagged by Twitter for policing overzealous speech.&nbsp;</p>

<p>In one such case, a user was noted by the FBI with the name “ULTRA MAGA” after he posted a tweet on November 8, which was the day of mid-term elections, saying, “Americans, Vote today. Democrats you vote Wednesday 9th.”</p>

<p>In a different incident, an account of a user, who according to Taibbi, “kids a lot,” and tweeted, “I’m a ballot counter in my state. If you’re not wearing a mask, I’m not counting your vote. For every negative comment on this post, I’m adding another vote for the Democrats”, was also flagged by the FBI.</p>

<p>“Anyone who cannot discern obvious satire from reality has no place making decisions for others or working for the feds,” said the user, @ClaireFosterPHD while speaking to Taibbi about the flagging.&nbsp;</p>

<p>During the 2016 elections, FBI authorities' focus increased on social media, as its social media-focused task force unit grew to 80 agents and outside security think tanks and contractors were partnered with the Department of Homeland Security partnering “to pressure Twitter to moderate content”, Taibbi revealed.&nbsp;</p>

<p>“You have to prove to me that inside the f—ing government you can do any kind of massive data or AI search,” said a former intelligence officer as quoted by the journalist.</p>

<p><strong>WATCH|&nbsp;Twitter Files 4.0 reveal how executives changed policies to permanently ban Trump</strong></p>

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<p><strong>Twitter presence in FBI meetings&nbsp;</strong></p>

<p>The sixth instalment also talked about Twitter's presence in the monthly meetings of not only the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, and also the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department.&nbsp;</p>

<p>A letter was sent to Twitter's former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker on September 16, in which notes of the meetings were shared by Twitter legal executive Stacia Cardille, who also stated they were “soon to be weekly”.</p>

<p>As per Cardille's letter, Twitter and the FBI shared such a good relationship that the feds were “adamant” that the classified information can be shared with executives.</p>

<p>A packet containing “products” was sent by the FBI to Cardille in March 2021, which she later passed on to other Twitter employees, which Taibbi said were “really DHS bulletins stressing the need for greater collaboration between law enforcement and ‘private sector partners.'”</p>

<p>The alleged threat of the spread of Iranian and Russian misinformation on the social media platform was highlighted in the FBI bulletins, along with the “Domestic Violent Extremist Threat.”</p>

<p>The aggressiveness of Federal law enforcement in sending “possible violative content” to Twitter for review was so much that one of the materials sent to review was described by an employee as a “monumental undertaking” which required help from several employees.</p>

<p>Taibbi's report highlighted the flagging of similar content by the state governments, DHS as well as partner organisations like the Center for Internet Security, which was described by the journalist as a “DHS contractor”, and the Election Integrity Project of Stanford University, which he called “one of a series of government-affiliated think tanks that mass-review content.”</p>

<p>Summing up his tweets, Taibbi said, “Instead of chasing child sex predators or terrorists, the FBI has agents — lots of them — analysing and mass-flagging social media posts. Not as part of any criminal investigation, but as a permanent, end-in-itself surveillance operation. People should not be okay with this.”</p>

<p><strong>ALSO READ|</strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/elon-musks-second-installment-of-twitter-files-reveals-how-right-wing-users-were-targeted-541462">Elon Musk's second installment of Twitter Files reveals how right-wing users were targeted</a></p>

<p><strong>FBI's response to its engagements with Twitter</strong></p>

<p>Responding to the allegations, The FBI, speaking to the New York Post on Friday, said that it “regularly engages” with companies to send them information about malicious foreign actors' activities.&nbsp;</p>

<p>However, the bureau refused to comment on Taibbi’s characterisation of Twitter and the FBI's relationship and did not disclose if any classified information was provided by the social media platform.</p>

<p>“The FBI regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identified foreign malign influence actors’ subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities. Private sector entities independently make decisions about what, if any, action they take on their platforms and for their customers after the FBI has notified them,” stated the FBI, in its statement.&nbsp;</p>

<p><em>(With inputs from agencies)</em></p>

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The sixth part of “Twitter Files”, which was released by Independent journalist Matt Taibbi on Friday, revealed how Twitter was treated as a “subsidiary” by the FBI along with different law enforcement organisations, as various accounts were flagged by the government body for harmful “misinformation” since January 2020.

The sixth part of “Twitter Files”, which was released by Independent journalist Matt Taibbi on Friday, revealed how Twitter was treated as a “subsidiary” by the FBI along with different law enforcement organisations, as various accounts were flagged by the government body for harmful “misinformation” since January 2020. Taibbi said that the FBI and Twitter's relationship had a “master-canine quality” and that the bureau and the tech giant remained in “constant and pervasive” contact. “Between January 2020 and November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth,” Taibbi tweeted, pointing to the executives who worked towards suppressing the report prepared by The Post on the extensive overseas business of US President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden. ALSO READ| Twitter Files 3.0 reveal how Donald Trump was deplatformed by ‘Supreme Court of moderation’ Holding the tech giant's reins The journalist also revealed that Twitter received a “surprisingly high number” of missives from the FBI requesting “Twitter to take action on election misinformation,” which also included some jokes posted by accounts which had less number of followers. Recently on November 22, an email was sent to Twitter from the FBI’s San Francisco office in which four accounts were flagged that “may potentially constitute violations of Twitter’s Terms of Service”. 1. THREAD: The Twitter Files, Part Six TWITTER, THE FBI SUBSIDIARY — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 16, 2022 × One of those accounts had the most satirical tweets, however, the employees at Twitter still hurriedly started to “look for reasons to suspend” the mentioned account for “civic misinformation”. Although Twitter has been accused by the conservatives of unfairly targetting them through their enforcement actions, Taibbi claimed that left-wing accounts were also flagged by Twitter for policing overzealous speech. In one such case, a user was noted by the FBI with the name “ULTRA MAGA” after he posted a tweet on November 8, which was the day of mid-term elections, saying, “Americans, Vote today. Democrats you vote Wednesday 9th.” In a different incident, an account of a user, who according to Taibbi, “kids a lot,” and tweeted, “I’m a ballot counter in my state. If you’re not wearing a mask, I’m not counting your vote. For every negative comment on this post, I’m adding another vote for the Democrats”, was also flagged by the FBI. “Anyone who cannot discern obvious satire from reality has no place making decisions for others or working for the feds,” said the user, @ClaireFosterPHD while speaking to Taibbi about the flagging. During the 2016 elections, FBI authorities' focus increased on social media, as its social media-focused task force unit grew to 80 agents and outside security think tanks and contractors were partnered with the Department of Homeland Security partnering “to pressure Twitter to moderate content”, Taibbi revealed. “You have to prove to me that inside the f—ing government you can do any kind of massive data or AI search,” said a former intelligence officer as quoted by the journalist. WATCH| Twitter Files 4.0 reveal how executives changed policies to permanently ban Trump Twitter presence in FBI meetings The sixth instalment also talked about Twitter's presence in the monthly meetings of not only the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, and also the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department. A letter was sent to Twitter's former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker on September 16, in which notes of the meetings were shared by Twitter legal executive Stacia Cardille, who also stated they were “soon to be weekly”. As per Cardille's letter, Twitter and the FBI shared such a good relationship that the feds were “adamant” that the classified information can be shared with executives. A packet containing “products” was sent by the FBI to Cardille in March 2021, which she later passed on to other Twitter employees, which Taibbi said were “really DHS bulletins stressing the need for greater collaboration between law enforcement and ‘private sector partners.'” The alleged threat of the spread of Iranian and Russian misinformation on the social media platform was highlighted in the FBI bulletins, along with the “Domestic Violent Extremist Threat.” The aggressiveness of Federal law enforcement in sending “possible violative content” to Twitter for review was so much that one of the materials sent to review was described by an employee as a “monumental undertaking” which required help from several employees. Taibbi's report highlighted the flagging of similar content by the state governments, DHS as well as partner organisations like the Center for Internet Security, which was described by the journalist as a “DHS contractor”, and the Election Integrity Project of Stanford University, which he called “one of a series of government-affiliated think tanks that mass-review content.” Summing up his tweets, Taibbi said, “Instead of chasing child sex predators or terrorists, the FBI has agents — lots of them — analysing and mass-flagging social media posts. Not as part of any criminal investigation, but as a permanent, end-in-itself surveillance operation. People should not be okay with this.” ALSO READ| Elon Musk's second installment of Twitter Files reveals how right-wing users were targeted FBI's response to its engagements with Twitter Responding to the allegations, The FBI, speaking to the New York Post on Friday, said that it “regularly engages” with companies to send them information about malicious foreign actors' activities. However, the bureau refused to comment on Taibbi’s characterisation of Twitter and the FBI's relationship and did not disclose if any classified information was provided by the social media platform. “The FBI regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identified foreign malign influence actors’ subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities. Private sector entities independently make decisions about what, if any, action they take on their platforms and for their customers after the FBI has notified them,” stated the FBI, in its statement. (With inputs from agencies)

Twitter Files 6.0: Twitter acted as a 'subsidiary', shared “master-canine quality” relationship with FBI

#twitterfiles is trending currently on Twitter. The files are an Elon Musk endorsed expose, revealing internal documents about how the company handled a news article.

The Twitter files: How Twitter handled Hunter Biden story?

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Matt Taibbi and Elon Musk split. What is the Substack-Twitter rivalry?

Twitter Files 6.0: Twitter acted as a 'subsidiary', shared “master-canine quality” relationship with FBI

The Twitter files: How Twitter handled Hunter Biden story?