Posted on 07/12/2023 6:47:16 AM PDT by Pete Dovgan
The FBI colluded with a Russian-infiltrated intelligence agency in Ukraine to censor American speech, according to a new document out Monday.
In an interim report published by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, House investigators exposed the FBI’s cooperation with foreign agents to orchestrate online censorship.
“The Committee’s analysis of these ‘disinformation’ registries revealed that the FBI, at the request of the [Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)], flagged for social media companies the authentic accounts of Americans, including a verified U.S. State Department account and those belonging to American journalists,” the report reads. “At times, the FBI would even follow up with the relevant platform to ensure that ‘these accounts were taken down.'”
The SBU was notoriously infiltrated by the Kremlin’s Federal Security Service (FSB), whose agents were instrumental in President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. In March last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired the head of the SBU’s Crimean branch, who is accused of being a double agent. Ivan Bakanov, who ran the entire SBU, was let go in July last year over the service’s status as a compromised agency.
The FBI, lawmakers added, “had no legal justification for facilitating the censorship of Americans’ protected speech on social media.”
House investigators compiled the report based on subpoenas to Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and Alphabet, which oversees Google and YouTube.
“The inclusion of American accounts on the SBU’s lists indicates that the FBI either did not properly vet the SBU’s requests or was aware of their domestic nature, and nonetheless carried them out,” lawmakers concluded.
At the heart of the operation was FBI Agent Elvis Chan in the San Francisco field office, who served as the “primary liaison” between the FBI and Silicon Valley. Chan also coordinated meetings between the FBI and social media companies during both the 2020 and 2022 elections. House investigators reported the SBU wasn’t purged of Russian agents until months after the Ukrainian security service began colluding with the FBI to censor U.S. citizens.
The FBI and SBU reportedly sent “massive spreadsheets” that contained “thousands of accounts” for censorship to Meta. The FBI also “facilitated” the SBU’s requests for censorship on Alphabet platforms. Posts flagged for removal were often supportive of Ukraine and critical of Putin.
One episode of censorship on Instagram included the suspension of a verified account run by the State Department with the username “@usaporusski.”
“Neither the FBI nor the SBU provides an explanation as to how the U.S. State Department account was ‘involved in disinformation,'” lawmakers noted.
One censorship request also included an American journalist whose name has been redacted.
The government coordination with Silicon Valley ran so deep that Meta even proposed a “24/7 channel” with foreign agents to facilitate censorship. The operation continued at least into May, even after Twitter’s Yoel Roth warned U.S. officials about the SBU’s targeting of American accounts.
“The full extent of the FBI’s collaboration with the SBU to censor American speech is unknown,” investigators wrote, but added, “To be clear, the FBI’s participation in the SBU’s censorship enterprise was a willing and intentional choice by the FBI, involving no fewer than seven agents across the Bureau.”
Does it really matter with whom they colluded? Why is the FBI doing censorship at all? I guess collusion with foreign actors might make it worse, but they are already way out of bounds to begin with.
Mugshots to follow?
The current copy of The Economist has much material about the war worth a read.
Bookmark
The large point to this is that, long before the non-NATO-Ukraine-non-NATO-Russia war, the FBI was busy running cover for the money laundering of the Bidens, Pelosis, Kerrys, and friends of Romney, as well as very likely a number of European political elite.
Why has this war becomes such a flash-point? I conclude that as poor a nation as was Ukraine (and poorer now) was used by some in the worldwide political elite as their semi-private scam, quite in the same way as the FBI (and DOJ under Biden) is busy "defending" the Biden clan's corruption and criminal acts. Banana republic time, this.
Makes one wonder if foreign agents are registered as FIB agents?.
Nations hostile to US➡️Soros/Clintons/Obama/Bidens➡️Democrat party
So all this time the Freepers Timber_Rattler and Williams are FBI agents.
I always suspected as much, by all their Ukraine propaganda.
The FBI is America’s KGB. They are our state security agency.
We have a huge, ideological, activist Fed.gov - what did we expect?
Every massive government, since the beginning of time, has an internal intelligence/security service which protects “the realm.” Its job is to know everything, estimate all threats, and protect the power of the Party and government - sometimes from peasants, sometimes from foreigners, and always from high-level players inside the government itself.
While of course not completely the same, the KGB is an apt comparison for what DHS and the FBI have (and will) become.
I still find it hard to believe that these actions aren’t FELONY FRAUD deserving of a lenghy prison sentence.
Beat me to it. Really, who are they working because they haven’t been working for the US for years.
.
And the people that said FBi was telling Twitter and Facebook what to do were called Conspiracy Nuts.
Remember, they lied to label Hunter’s Laptop as Russian Disinformation and Federal Raids were executed to get Joey’s daughter’s Diary.
Nice try and save. Ukrainian secret police was giving the FBI orders. And they’re pretending its Russia infiltration. What got censored was any anti-Ukrainian or pro Russian viewpoint.
“Really, who are they working because they haven’t been working for the US for years.”
My initial thoughts exactly. Who does the FBI really work for? The certainly don’t work for the American people, nor do they show any interest in the US Constitution. They want the American People to pay the bills, while they run an agenda that destroys the nation that supports them. They no longer function for the purposes they were created for. They have turned themselves into a parasite on the Republic.
And its more than just them. Their rote, automatic responses are from from a strictly approved narrative. Remember, FBI is highly bureaucratic. Agents wouldn't piss if their pants were on fire unless that was approved up and down the Agency hierarchy.
They were not Infiltrated by Russians!
They were infiltrated by Nazis.
“The inclusion of American accounts on the SBU’s lists indicates that the FBI either did not properly vet the SBU’s requests or was aware of their domestic nature, and nonetheless carried them out,” lawmakers concluded.”
So as long as the foreign intelligence service request is properly vetted, the FBI will censor Americans at the request of a foreign government. Good thing to know.
While I agree with your sentiment, you misidentified the players.
The FBI is more akin to the Soviet NKVD, not the KGB (neither of which, in any event, exists anymore...at least under those identities). Our CIA would be akin to the KGB.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.