Censorship of anti-Ukrainian narratives on Twitter

The latest Twitter documents show that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Pentagon, the FBI and other US intelligence and law enforcement agencies are pushing the platform to censor anti-Ukrainian narratives that are contrary to Washington’s foreign policy interests. American writer and journalist Matt Taibbi says the latest Twitter files show the FBI is acting as a doorman in a vast social media surveillance and censorship program that spans agencies across the federal government, from the State Department to the Pentagon. According to the released files and internal communications, Twitter has received many requests from US institutions and has been forced to prioritize them due to their sheer volume.

This is not the first time that such messages have been posted on social networks such as Twitter about censorship and removal of articles that are contrary to US interests. Previously, articles were published about blocking the account of former US President Donald Trump and deleting messages about the foreign economic activity of Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden.

The efforts of the US government and federal institutions such as the State Department, the Pentagon and the CIA to prevent the publication of articles that contradict the Washington-approved version of the crisis and war in Ukraine show how far from reality the claims of Western countries, especially the United States, to support and defend the principle of free speech , as well as free and unrestricted media activities, including social networks.

Of course, the misuse of Twitter and other social media by US authorities to promote foreign policy goals, disseminate targeted news and op-eds is not limited to the Ukraine issue. Recent revelations show that the Pentagon has been using Twitter to further their goals and create an environment to fight American enemies in West Asia.

Research by American journalist Li Fang using internal Twitter files suggests that Twitter collaborated with the Pentagon to increase media propaganda about US military activities in West Asia, and despite promises to suspend government influence campaigns, allowed fake accounts to publish narratives in support of the US. By the way, the new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, confirmed the correctness of this message. This revelation is the latest among messages released from internal Twitter files that Elon Musk has made available to many journalists and the press.

As for Ukraine, the Biden government launched a hybrid war against Russia. In addition to launching a political and economic campaign against Moscow and providing massive financial and military assistance to the pro-Western government of Kyiv in order to strengthen the Ukrainian forces and expand the current bloody war, she launched a media campaign against Russia, examples of which are the spread of Western narratives about the war in Ukraine and the prevention of publication Russian narratives. In fact, the current military conflict in Ukraine has another important side besides the military one, and this is the war of the media, the propaganda war.

As part of this, the U.S. government, by preventing Russian news channels such as Russia Today from broadcasting in Western countries, is trying to prevent the Russian perspective on the war in Ukraine from being heard and from spreading its own narrative about the war on social media such as Twitter, including reasons for its emergence and continuation, and to prevent the spread of Russian narratives about it.