Twitter Files Reveal Dem Rep. Adam Schiff Repeatedly Demanded Twitter Censor & Ban His Critics

P. Gardner Goldsmith | January 15, 2023
DONATE
Text Audio
00:00 00:00
Font Size

Put this on the “Feeling Arrogant, Entitled, and Thin-Skinned” highlight reel, and subtitle it: “Fascism on Parade.”

And California Congressman Adam Schiff (D), once more, is the star.

In his January 13 posts on the most recent tranche of Twitter files, independent reporter Matt Taibbi shows that the big-government-loving Schiff and his staffers also seemed so full of love for Schiff, his staffers, and Joe Biden, that he repeatedly contacted Twitter to have them censor humorous posts critical of the aforementioned political powers.

Evidently, Mr. Schiff thought that one of the most grievous acts of “engaging in comedy” was a clearly satirical digital, April 2020 reworking of President Biden looking like a tongue-wagging cur.

Wrote Taibbi:

“2.Staff of House Democrat @AdamSchiff wrote to Twitter quite often, asking that tweets be taken down. This important use of taxpayer resources involved an ask about a ‘Peter Douche’ parody photo of Joe Biden. The DNC made the same request:”

And Taibbi provided screenshots of the corresponding Twitter communications discussing the requests.

And as time went on, and that spoof tweet got more attention – especially from Donald Trump, the left-wing political pressure increased. Taibbi again cites the internal Twitter messages, and he notes:

“3. The real issue was Donald Trump retweeted the Biden pic. To its credit Twitter refused to remove it, with Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth saying it had obvious ‘humorous intent’ and ‘any reasonable observer’ - apparently, not a Schiff staffer - could see it was doctored.”

Given Schiff’s already established facility with fakery and make-believe, such as when he made up a “transcript” of a conversation between Donald Trump and a Ukrainian official that – literally – NEVER happened, one might think that he and his staffers would appreciate a civilian creating a spoof of the real Joe Biden.

Nope.

Related: Twitter Doc Dump Reveals Stunning Leftist Tilt - Now Additional Lefty 'Journalist' Spin | MRCTV

In fact, like Schiff did in Congress circa 2019, making up the Trump conversation that never happened, his office also attempted to tell Twitter that Tweets questioning the authenticity of the so-called “Steele Dossier” (questions that were justified), the Schiff team pushed to Twitter the bogus notion that such posts were “QAnon related activity.”

Writes Taibbi:

“6.Even when Twitter didn’t suspend an account, that didn’t mean they didn’t act. Schiff’s office repeatedly complained about ‘QAnon related activity’ that were often tweets about other matters, like the identity of the Ukraine ‘whistleblower’ or the Steele dossier”

And Taibbi follows-up by explaining how, even if not all of the Schiff office’s requests prompted Twitter staff to eliminate certain posts, or ban the users, some were “deamplified”:

“7.Twitter policy at the time didn’t ban QAnon, but ‘deamplified’ such accounts. About the batch of tweets that included those above, Twitter execs wrote: ‘We can internally confirm that a number of the accounts flagged are already included in this deamplification.’”

But – get this! – Schiff’s office was so concerned about the existence of the minds behind the public critiques, they started revealing their concern that the “deamplification” of Tweets could make it harder for “law enforcement” to find the people posting the Tweets!

Writes Taibbi:

“8.Schiff’s office had a concern about ‘deamplification,’ though: it might make it harder for law enforcement to track the offending Tweeters.”

As opposed to Schiff’s “transcript” idiocy, that’s NOT made up.

And Taibbi adds the actual words of the Schiff office, sent to Twitter:

“We are curious whether any deamplification measures implemented by Twitter’s enforcement team – which we appreciate greatly – could… impede the ability of law enforcement to search Twitter for potential threats about Misko and other HPSCI staff.”

And as Roberto Wakerell-Cruz reports for the Post-Millennial:

“Previous Twitter Files by Taibbi showed that Schiff's office sent several communications to Twitter. November 2020, California Congressman Adam Schiff reached out to Twitter to ask them to specifically ban journalist Paul Sperry. Schiff alleged that Sperry, who is an investigative reporter for Real Clear Investigations, had ‘repeatedly promoted false QAnon conspiracies and harassed [name redacted.]’"

Which inspires one to observe, “SO WHAT, Mr. Schiff?” Even if these reports were incorrect, if Schiff or someone else believed that they were slandered or defamed, there are traditional avenues of jurisprudence that allow for lawsuits to prove the matter.

Of course, given Schiff’s tenuous relationship with truth, one can assume there really wasn’t a problem with Sperry’s reporting at all.

There was a problem with Schiff’s arrogance and conceit, and, more important, his use of government pressure to try to sway Twitter.

Observes Wakerell-Cruz:

This reinforces previous Twitter File drops that showed that Schiff lobbied the big tech platform to ban journalists and even ideas.” 

The Schiff highlight reel keeps getting longer.

Reminiscent of royalty that’s become so paranoid they can’t handle reality, or even the jokes of the jester… similar to the offensive way Barack Obama tried use the Espionage Act to threaten more journalists and whistleblowers than all other previous U.S. Presidents COMBINED since the act was passed in World War I, the Schiff skin appears so thin that even if one were to call him see-through, it would be an understatement.

Likely the pop media will not ask Schiff about this gargantuan display of entitlement and governmental abuse, using our tax cash to work on Twitter and massage public images.

But as long as his censorious bunch does not take full control of our ability to communicate – and, heck, via the FCC, the feds openly have been attacking freedom of speech for a long time – we still have a chance of getting out valuable information.

And sometimes, we can laugh as we do.

Related: The Twitter Files: Dems' Claims of Russian Influence Were Bogus - and Twitter Knew It | MRCTV

donate