Matt Taibbi published a fresh batch of “Twitter Files” on Thursday (March 2). In it, he described how the Atlantic Council’s US-funded Digital Forensic Research (DFR) Lab sought to restrict Twitter handles purportedly linked to “Hindu nationalism” and the BJP in particular.
On June 8, 2021, an analyst by the name of Andy Carvin wrote to senior Twitter executives, “Hi guys. Attached you will find… around 40k Twitter accounts that our researchers suspect are engaging in inauthentic behaviour… and Hindu nationalism more broadly.”
Around 40,000 accounts were highlighted by a DFR Lab analyst who claimed they were paid or unpaid volunteers for the BJP, the country’s main political party.
5. Twitter agreed, one reason many of the accounts remain active. “Thanks, Andy,” replied Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth. “I spot-checked a number of these accounts, and virtually all appear to be real people.” pic.twitter.com/HCf1YPjpFa
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 2, 2023
DFR Lab sought to censor well-known and affiliated with the BJP RW accounts. The Soros-funded, India-focused DFR lab at the Atlantic Council has been at the forefront of training “truth checkers.” This discussion confirms what many accounts have known for some time: that a political and religious witch hunt silenced their views.
Matt Taibbi previously claimed that Twitter staffers had not discovered any proof of Russian interference in the 2016 US elections. But, they persisted in allowing Democrats and other outlets to use their platform to spread the lie that Trump was supported by Moscow.
Amongst the top donors to the @AtlanticCouncil are the @StateDept, @DeptofDefense and the @FCDOGovUK. Specially, @DFRLab is funded by the US government’s @TheGEC which is headed up by special envoy James Rubin: https://t.co/vqc1gYlWaO.
This is state-sponsored censorship. pic.twitter.com/7HoMNvyDzJ
— Surya Kanegaonkar (@suryakane) March 2, 2023
And the organisation used its affiliation with the BJP and the cause of Hindu nationalism as justification. Here is the list of the accounts that were censored:
- Abhijat Mishra
- Amar Prasad Reddy
- Anubha Tripathi
- Arjun Bhati
- Arun Yadav
- Asha Nakum
- Ashish Merkhed
- Ashok Goel
- Baby Kumari BJP
- Bamba Lal Diwakar
- Barkha Shukla Singh
- Bhupesh Chaubey BJP
- Colonel Rohit Dev (RDX)
- Deomani Dwivedi
- Dinesh Chaudhary
- Dr. Pankaj Shukla
- Dr. Sarojini Agarwal MLC
- Gajendra Chauhan
- Gopal Krishna Dwivedi
- Hariom Pandey
- Harjinder Singh Kukreja
- Jitu Jirati ( jitendra jirati )
- Kapil Mishra
- khemchand sharma
- Kishore Ajwani
- Kuljeet Singh Chahal
- Manish Kaushik
- Manoj Manu
- Manu Bhaker
- Meena Das Narayan
- N Ramchander Rao
- Narendra Kumar
- Narendra Kumar Chawla
- Naveen Kumar Jindal
- Naveen Thacker
- NCIB Uttar Pradesh
- Neelkant Bakshi
- Parmod Kumar Vij
- Piyush Goyal Office
- Piyush Mishra
- Pradipsinh Vaghela
- Prakash Dwivedi
- Pravin Alai
- Priyanka Singh Rawat
- RaghavjiBhai Patel
- Rahees Singh
- Rajan Tewari
- Ramesh Solanki
- Rameshnaidu Nagothu
- Ramvichar Netam
- Ravi Rana
- ROHIT CHAHAL
- Sandeep Mittal, IPS
- Santosh Ranjan Rai
- Serv’ed,Call me Servüôè(Ravi Mantha )
- Shinjini Das
- Shishir
- Sumit
- Suresh Nakhua
- Swapnil Kamal Rani Varun
- Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga
- Uday Mahurkar
- UP MSMe
- VARANASI AIRPORT
- Varun Puri
- Vijesh Lunawat
The Atlantic Council, a group that works to advance US interests abroad, has created the DFR Lab as a self-described “fact-checking” project. Pakistan’s Prime Minister is a member of the organization’s board of outside advisers. Though the exact reason a US-based organisation connected to George Soros wanted Twitter to censor BJP-affiliated social media handles is not yet clear, the fact that Soros recently suggested that one of his goals was to weaken Modi politically may shed some light on the matter in the larger context.
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