In March 2022, just as the Russia-Ukraine war was kicking off, the FBI helped Ukraine's intelligence agency, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), try to censor and obtain the personal information of social media users and journalists, leaked emails from the 'Twitter Files' show.
According to reporting by Aaron Maté, on March 27, 2022, Aleksandr Kobzanets, an FBI special agent and assistant legal attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, sent an email to two Twitter executives, copying four of his FBI colleagues in the exchange.
Kobzanets begins, "Hello Marlena and Yoel [Roth],
"Thank you very much for your time to discuss the assistance to Ukraine on Thursday. As discussed I am including a list of accounts I received over a couple of weeks from the Security Service of Ukraine. These accounts are suspected by the SBU in spreading fear and disinformation. For your review and consideration."
Attached was a list of 175 names the SBU requested be censored.
Following the exchange between Twitter and the FBI, the SBU expressed its "gratitude for the existing level of interaction."
In a memo forwarded by the FBI, Ukraine's SBU asked Twitter to "block" the accounts "and provide us with user data specified during registration."
Had the request been granted, Twitter would have taken action to ban the users on the list and disclose their personal information, including phone number, date of birth, and email address, to both the FBI and SBU.
In response to Kobzanets, Twitter's then-head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, wrote that Twitter would "review the reported accounts under our Rules."
But, Roth warned, the list contained "a few accounts of American and Canadian journalists," including Maté himself. Roth then informed the FBI that Twitter would conduct the review and "focus first and foremost on identifying any potential inauthenticity." Adding that journalists "who cover the conflict with a pro-Russian stance are unlikely to be found in violation of our rules absent other context that might establish some kind of covert/deceptive association between them and a government. Any additional information or context in those areas is of course welcome and appreciated."
Despite asking for more context, Kobzanets informed Roth that it was "unlikely there will be any additional information or context."
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