An FBI agent testified that the federal agency met weekly with social media companies ahead of the 2020 presidential election to warn about “disinformation” and regularly sent lists of content to be taken down, according to the U.S. attorney general. Missouri, Eric Schmitt.
Those warnings may have led to Twitter and Facebook’s controversial deletion of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story, which has been an enduring focal point of social media’s free-speech issue.
According to Schmitt, Chan testified that he and others in the federal government had meetings with social media companies to warn them about suspected Russian disinformation. The meetings became more frequent as the 2020 presidential election neared.
Schmitt disclosed that Chan said the meetings were joined by the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and senior officials from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Chan testified that he personally warned the social media companies of a possible Russian “hacking and leaking” operation. These warnings may have led to restrictions on the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Twitter temporarily banned sharing of the Post’s story, but reversed its policy a day later. Facebook limited the spread of the story through its algorithm, which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said was because the FBI warned the company to “be on the lookout” for an incoming “dump” of Russian disinformation.
According to Schmitt, Chan also testified that the FBI “regularly” sent social media companies lists of websites and accounts it suspected of being “malign foreign influence operations” and followed up to see if the companies had eliminated
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