US Rep. Adam Schiff repeatedly asked Twitter to remove critical tweets: Twitter Files

HOUSTON, United States

The latest batch of Twitter Files released on Friday paint a damning picture of Democratic US Rep. Adam Schiff's repeated requests for the social media giant to take down critical tweets regarding US President Joe Biden and his Schiff's staff.

"Staff of House Democrat @AdamSchiff wrote to Twitter quite often, asking that tweets be taken down," tweeted journalist Matt Taibbi. "This important use of taxpayer resources involved an ask about a 'Peter Douche' parody photo of Joe Biden. The DNC made the same request."

Taibbi explained that Schiff's office hounded Twitter to remove that particular post after former president Donald Trump retweeted it.

"To its credit Twitter refused to remove it, with Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth saying it had obvious 'humorous intent' and 'any reasonable observer' - apparently, not a Schiff staffer - could see it was doctored." Taibbi continued. "Schiff staffer Jeff Lowenstein didn’t give up, claiming there was a 'slippery slope concern here.'"

Taibbi also said that Schiff's office asked Twitter repeatedly to take down comments regarding members of his office.

"Twitter also refused requests for bans of content about Schiff and his staff, e.g. 'complete suppress[ion of] any and all search results about … Committee staffers. "Twitter said this would not be 'conceivable,'" Taibbi added.

The Twitter Files also exposed Schiff's office's attempts to complain about accounts or content that were not shut down or removed by the social media platform.

"Even when Twitter didn’t suspend an account, that didn’t mean they didn’t act. Schiff’s office repeatedly complained about 'QAnon related activity' that were often tweets about other matters, like the identity of the Ukraine 'whistleblower' or the Steele dossier," Taibbi continued. "Twitter policy at the time didn’t ban QAnon, but 'deamplified' such accounts... Twitter execs wrote: 'We can internally confirm that a number of the accounts flagged are already included in this deamplification.'"

Even with Twitter's explanation, Schiff's aides doubled down on their complaints.

"Schiff’s office had a concern about 'deamplification,' though: it might make it harder for law enforcement to track the offending Tweeters," tweeted Taibbi.

Schiff's staffers followed up with “WE APPRECIATE GREATLY” but went further with their justification of their requests to Twitter.

“We are curious whether any deamplification measures implemented by Twitter’s enforcement team – which we appreciate greatly – could… impede the ability of law enforcement to search Twitter for potential threats about … other HPSCI (House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence) staff.”

Taibbi concluded his post by clarifying his reporting of the internal Twitter files.

"Twitter had no editorial input. Searches were carried out by third parties, so the documents could be limited," he said.