The FBI's claim that the "Twitter Files" were the work of "conspiracy theorists" set off a firestorm online this week.
The FBI issued its controversial response after an installment of the "Twitter Files" found the agency regularly contacted employees at Twitter to flag accounts that were deemed as spreading "misinformation."
It wasn't long before the agency labeled the "Twitter Files" themselves as "misinformation."
"It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency," the FBI wrote.
George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley said the FBI’s response was "chilling."
"It is not clear what is more chilling: the menacing role played by the FBI in Twitter’s censorship program or its mendacious response to the disclosure of that role. This week saw another FBI 'nothing-to-see-here' statement to the Twitter files," Turley wrote.
FBI RESPONDS TO TWITTER FILES DISCLOSURES, SAYS IT DIDN'T REQUEST 'ANY ACTION' ON SPECIFIC TWEETS
Journalist Glenn Greenwald summed up the FBI’s apparent position on the "Twitter Files."
"Anyone who questions the FBI -- or finds it disturbing that they're ‘partnering’ with Big Tech on what should and should not be permitted to be said on the internet -- is a hateful, crazy, unhinged anti-American conspiracy theorist," Greenwald wrote.
"Un-freaking-real," one user wrote in a mega-viral post with over 78,000 likes on Twitter.
"If the FBI was smart they wouldn’t have said anything about the Twitter Files," human trafficking advocate Eliza Bleu wrote.
Another user reacted to the news: "When you thought the world couldn’t get any crazier, the FBI now claims that the words of its own agents in tons of emails revealed by #TwitterFiles are conspiracy theories and misinformation."
Former Rolling Stone journalist and Substack writer Matt Taibbi shared hidden communications between Twitter and FBI employees in the days surrounding the contentious 2020 presidential election. The viral Twitter thread revealed several posts that the FBI flagged as concerning for Twitter employees.
Taibbi related a tweet from one of the accounts on Nov. 8, "I want to remind republicans to vote tomorrow, Wednesday November 9."
Another tweet flagged by the FBI was an apparent joke about voting times: "Americans, Vote today. Democrats you vote Wednesday 9th."
Taibbi argued that a third tweet, referenced in an email by an FBI employee, was satirical: "For every negative comment on this post, I'm adding another vote for the democrats" and "If you're not wearing a mask, I'm not counting your vote."
Three of the four accounts were suspended, according to the email chain, and the fourth account was subject to review by another Twitter employee, according to the email chain.
Fox News' Jake Gibson and Adam Sabes contributed to this report.
