Twitter Files: FBI Director claims bureau doesn't exert pressure on social media companies to censor stories

In a recent interview, FBI Director Christopher Wray made a statement indicating that the bureau does not engage in policing the accuracy of content on social media platforms.

However, this assertion seems to conflict with information uncovered in the "Twitter Files" that suggest the FBI exerted pressure on Twitter to censor a story related to Hunter Biden's laptop.

“The FBI does not, is not in the business of functioning as the truth police,” Wray asserted. “We don’t tell social media companies to censor anything or remove account information.”

Bret Baier, the anchor for Fox News, challenged the assertion by referring to the information revealed in the Twitter Files.

Baier said:

I mean, there was an FBI request numerous times. Taibbi puts it out. FBI San Francisco request to ban certain accounts. Twitter personnel in this case went on to look for reasons to suspend all four accounts that the FBI wanted to ban or suspend.

Was — is it appropriate to flag social media accounts for — on Twitter or elsewhere due to politics or government policies when it comes to COVID? Is it appropriate in any way? You’re saying it doesn’t happen, but there’s evidence that it had.

“We don’t tell social media companies to ban accounts,” Wray stated. “What we do is tell social media companies about information that we have about foreign disinformation campaigns by foreign actors, by foreign intelligence services.”

FBI Director Chris Wray claims that the FBI “is not in the business of functioning as the truth police” despite the Twitter Files showing that agents reached out to the company to censor material.

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— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 1, 2023