FBI Director Christopher Wray expressed via a recently held interview that the bureau is not around to be in the business of trying to police the truth across the various social media platforms, which is a sentiment that has been contrasted with the revelations coming from the recently unveiled Twitter Files that the bureau recently exerted insane pressure on Twitter to heavily censor the Hunter Biden laptop story.
“The FBI does not, is not in the business of functioning as the truth police,” exclaimed Wray. “We don’t tell social media companies to censor anything or remove account information.”
Brett Baier, an anchor with Fox News, was quick to push back against his claim, highlighting the contents that were released in the recently unveiled Twitter Files.
“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,” stated Baier. “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,” exclaimed Wray. “What we do is tell social media companies about information that we have about foreign disinformation campaigns by foreign actors, by foreign intelligence services.”
WATCH:
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.
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 1, 2023
TRANSCRIPT:
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: So let’s talk about the FBI and what you told big tech, or some agents did, about the authenticity and provenance of Hunter Biden’s laptop. What about that, from an FBI perspective?
CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: The FBI does not, is not in the business of functioning as the truth police.
BAIER: Understood.
WRAY: We don’t tell social media companies to censor anything or remove account information.
BAIER: Well, the Twitter files suggest something different.
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.
WRAY: We don’t tell social media companies to ban accounts.
BAIER: But you suggest?
WRAY: What we do is tell social media companies about information that we have about foreign disinformation campaigns by foreign actors, by foreign intelligence services.
And those companies then make decisions about what, if anything, they want to do about it.
