Twitter has stated that it will collaborate with Reuters and the Associated Press to filter so-called "misinformation" on the site, while actively pushing "genuine" news items. Both of these news organizations are trusted mouthpieces for Western governments, but Reuters goes a step further.
Reuters was financed by the British government during the first cold war to produce anti-Soviet propaganda and distribute falsehoods in the Middle East and Latin America that benefited UK foreign-policy goals. Reuters continues to cooperate closely with the British government today. Max Blumenthal, the editor of Grayzone, disclosed how the media business was involved in a secret UK Foreign Office information warfare operation intended at instilling "attitude modification" in Russian journalists, "weakening Russia," and promoting NATO geopolitical aims.
Indeed, it was the release of that factual report that prompted Twitter to issue an unusual warning label on all tweets linking to Blumenthal's piece, informing users that the documents demonstrating Reuters' involvement with the British government "may have been obtained through hacking."
The dubious actions of Reuters don't end there. Government Global Business Director Dawn Scalici, a former senior official entrusted with "advancing Thomson Reuters' capacity to satisfy the diverse demands of the US Government," had previously served as a CIA operative for at least 33 years.
The Associated Press has a long history of repeating false talking points from Western governments. In the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq, the newswire carried many items erroneously stating that Saddam Hussein possessed "weapons of mass devastation" (WMDs). It had previously published bogus news reports about soldiers removing alleged Kuwaiti infants from incubators. Emily Wilder, an Associated Press reporter, was dismissed in May for her anti-Israel tweets and previous student activism in support of Palestinian rights.
Twitter's collaboration with these deeply tainted organizations is part of a larger trend in which Silicon Valley internet firms join up with Western governments to suppress independent media and alternative sources of information.
As Middle East Eye first reported, Twitter's top executive in charge of curating Middle East-related material on the platform also works with the British Army's psychological warfare unit, the 77th Brigade, which specializes in information warfare.
The alleged threat of "disinformation" or "misinformation" has been a popular justification for shutting down independent news organizations. The talking point has been adopted by hawkish, government-funded research institutes in Washington to justify de-platforming and suppressing views that contradict Western corporate and foreign-policy interests. Top US government officials and de facto spokespeople at these think groups have often said that "disinformation" is a "national security issue."
Social media companies have deleted sites maintained by alternative media outlets that the US Department of Justice accused of being foreign state-backed misinformation, despite the lack of proof. The US government has even gone so far as to seize their online domain names unilaterally.
Twitter worked with right-wing advocacy organizations backed by the US and European governments to ban international media sources, according to The Grayzone. Twitter is also paid by US government propaganda agencies such as the CIA-created Voice of America to propagate falsehoods against Washington's opponents.
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