Arguing that the FBI infringed on Americans’ First Amendment rights by using proprietary backchannels and its influence at Twitter to unconstitutionally crush free speech, the retired congressman and former US Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul stated on Monday that the agency should be abolished.
Paul notes that recently released internal communications between Twitter employees and government officials in the FBI and other agencies confirm the social media giant -which has previously skirted accusations of violating Americans’ right to free speech by arguing it is a private corporation- was acting as a surrogate of the state.
Writing in his weekly column for his website, the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, the former Texas congressman underscored that they now have proof that the US intelligence agencies, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI have been manipulating what American citizens are allowed to say when communicating with each other by acting through private social media companies.
Referencing his long-standing call to liquidate the US’ privately-held central bank, Paul called to “end the Fed”, concluding that Americans do not need the FBI and CIA, and other federal agencies viewing them as the enemy and attacking US Constitution.
According to internal communications released by Twitter CEO Elon Musk earlier this month, Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth have been emailed about 150 times between 2020 and 2022 by FBI agents with most emails involving censorship requests.
It turned out at the end that Twitter lawyer Jim Baker, who is a former FBI general counsel, was allegedly ‘vetting’ the messages without Musk’s knowledge even as the billionaire was releasing the Twitter documents.
Baker was dismissed after this was brought to Musk’s attention but not before he had reshaped the narrative.
Following the publication of the Twitter Files, the FBI said in a statement that it regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information specific to identify the subversive, undeclared, covert, or criminal activities of foreign malign influence actors.
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