Twitter Files: Schiff Lobbied Twitter to Ban Accounts, Censor Content

As part of the latest Twitter Files dump on Tuesday, independent journalist Matt Taibbi released screenshots showing that in November 2020, Rep. Adam Schiff’s office requested that journalist Paul Sperry, an investigative reporter for Real Clear Investigations, be permanently banned from the platform, claiming that Sperry had “repeatedly promoted false QAnon conspiracies” and harassed one of the California congressman’s staffers.

“Remove any and all content about Mr. Misko and other Committee staff from its service- to include quotes, retweets, and reactions to that content,” the request to Twitter read. “Suspend the many accounts, including @GregRubini and @paulsperry, which have repeatedly promoted false QAnon conspiracies.”

Schiff’s office also requested that the platform “label and minimize the display of any content” to prevent the “spread of further disinformation on Twitter” about committee staff.

“Even Twitter declined to honor Schiff’s request at the time,” Taibbi observed, and repeatedly told Schiff’s office that “we don’t do this.” However, both Sperry and Rubini were eventually suspended.

Related: THE TWITTER FILES, Part VII: The FBI All Up in Twitter’s Business

According to Taibbi, Twitter “also received an astonishing variety of requests from officials asking for individuals they didn’t like to be banned.”

27.They also received an astonishing variety of requests from officials asking for individuals they didn’t like to be banned. Here, the office for Democrat and House Intel Committee chief Adam Schiff asks Twitter to ban journalist Paul Sperry: pic.twitter.com/SXI1ekqi13

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, 2023

Many defenders of Twitter’s censorship have argued that as a private company, Twitter has the right to moderate content and restrict users as they please. However, the evidence of government agencies requesting that Twitter censor accounts and information has been growing. “Twitter was taking requests from every conceivable government body, beginning with the Senate Intel Committee (SSCI),” Taibbi wrote.

Last month, we learned the FBI also reached out to Twitter to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story and protect Joe Biden before the 2020 election. Now we have evidence of multiple government agencies (including the State Department, Treasury, HHS, the NSA, and more) and at least one Democrat congressman’s office pushing one of the world’s top social media platforms to censor stories and suspend accounts they didn’t like under false pretenses.