US security services team up with Twitter and Meta against disinformation

Several US security services are said to be working with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, among others, to combat various forms of disinformation. That is what leaked and made public internal documents suggest, according to The Intercept.

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, among others, reportedly have “close ties” to social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. For example, DHS could directly report disinformation through a separate Facebook portal at “facebook.com/xtakedowns/login.” This would only be possible if a government email address is used. Instagram would use a similar portal. Meta’s subsidiaries have not responded to the disclosures.

Twitter said in a statement to the medium that the platform does not “coordinate with other content moderation entities.” Court documents indicate that DHS has approached at least one Twitter representative with information from the FBI about a potential threat to “the integrity of the US political voting system.” Twitter would then have internally looked at whether the tweets were indeed in violation of the terms of use.

Internal documents from Homeland Security, which, according to The Intercept, have come out during lawsuits and through leaks, would show that a strategy was formulated to combat ‘inaccurate information’. This would include topics such as the corona pandemic, vaccinations and the policy surrounding the conflicts in Afghanistan and Ukraine. These topics would have been raised on social media in specific cases.

The Intercept emphasizes that fighting disinformation has been incorporated into DHS’s program since the 2016 US presidential election. Under President Biden, efforts were then alleged to have been made to combat misinformation, often shared with malicious intent, by establishing the Disinformation Governance Board. This branch of Homeland Security was disbanded after a few months because of the many criticisms. In contrast, behind the scenes, the program still remains relevant to DHS in practice, the documents alleged.