from the did-you-put-in-a-ticket dept
I wrote final week concerning the bizarrely bad House Oversight hearing that was supposed to reveal how Twitter, the deep state, and the, um “Biden Crime Household” conspired to suppress the NY Submit’s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop computer. In fact, wishful considering doesn’t make info, and we already know that story is totally false. The listening to not solely reconfirmed that the GOP’s fantasy situation by no means occurred, as a substitute it revealed that the Trump White Home truly demanded tweets that insulted the President get taken down and that Twitter bent over backwards to provide Trump extra leeway, even after he broke clear guidelines. It was one thing of a catastrophe listening to for the GOP.
However, one of many craziest bits of the listening to got here from new Congressional Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who labored for Turning Level USA and PragerU earlier than being elected. Her 5 minutes has garnered some further consideration for being even crazier than both Reps. Lauren Boebert or Marjorie Taylor Greene, each of whom had fairly loopy rants.
Specifically, Rep. Luna (who has been going through some interesting news reporting of late) made some claims about there being a conspiracy between Twitter and the federal government to speak by way of “the personal cloud server”… Jira.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/image-7.png?resize=589%2C551&ssl=1)
In fact, as anybody with even the slightest little bit of understanding about, properly, something, would inform you, it’s that Jira is a matter and mission monitoring software program, usually used for issues like bug monitoring. Luna claimed this was a violation of the first Modification, as a result of she apparently hasn’t the slightest clue how the first Modification truly works.
From the transcript (helpfully supplied by Tech Coverage Press, although we’ve corrected it primarily based on the video), you possibly can see former Twitter exec Yoel Roth’s confusion over all this. For anybody who understands this, you possibly can acknowledge Roth’s confusion as a result of he acknowledges that she’s fully misconstruing Jira and what it does. However, to Rep. Luna, she appears to assume she’s caught Roth out in a large conspiracy.
Rep. Anna Luna (R-FL):
Mr. Roth. Mr. Roth, have you ever communicated with authorities officers ever on a platform referred to as Jira? Sure or no? Actual fast reply, we’re on the clock, sure or no?
Yoel Roth:
To not the most effective of my recollection.
Rep. Anna Luna (R-FL):
To not your recollection. Nice. Have, if you happen to did within the occasion, talk who would’ve had entry to this platform.
Yoel Roth:
That’s the character of my confusion. JIRA’s…
Rep. Anna Luna (R-FL):
Okay. Did you ever communicate to authorities officers on Jira relating to taking down social media posts?
Yoel Roth:
Once more, to not the most effective of my recollection.
Rep. Anna Luna (R-FL):
Are you able to clarify to me why the federal authorities would ever have curiosity in speaking by means of Jira? Thoughts you, a personal cloud server with social media corporations with out oversight to censor American voices? I wanna let you already know that this can be a violation of the First Modification and the federal authorities is colluding with social media corporations to censor People. Mr. Chairman, I ask for unanimous consent to submit these graphics into file. And Mr. Roth, I’m gonna refresh your reminiscence for you this move chart.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY):
With out objection so ordered.
Rep. Anna Luna (R-FL):
Thanks chair. This move chart exhibits the next Federal company’s social media corporations, Twitter, leftist, nonprofits, and organizations speaking relating to their model of misinformation utilizing Jira, a personal cloud server. On this chart, I wanna annotate that the Division of Homeland Safety, which has a following branches, cybersecurity and infrastructure safety company, often known as CISA Countering Overseas Intelligence Process Power, now often called the Misinfo, Disinfo and Mal-information, MDM, this was once more, used towards the American individuals. The Election Partnership Institute or Election Integrity Partnership, EIP, which incorporates the next, Stanford Web Observatory, College of Washington Heart for Knowledgeable Public, Graphika and Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Analysis Lab. And doubtlessly in response to what we discovered on the ultimate report by EIP, the DNC, the Heart for Web Safety, CIS- a nonprofit funded by DHS, the Nationwide Affiliation of Secretaries of State, often known as NASS and the Nationwide Affiliation of State Election Administrators, NASED.
And on this case, as a result of there are different social media corporations concerned, Twitter, what do all of those teams although, have in widespread? And I’m going to refresh your reminiscence. They had been all speaking on a personal cloud server often called Jira. Now, the screenshot behind me, which is an instance of one among hundreds exhibits on November third, 2020, that you just, Mr. Roth, a Twitter worker, had been exchanging communications on Jira, a personal cloud server with CISA, NASS, NASED, and Alex Stamos, who now works at Stanford and is a former safety of safety officer at Fb to take away a posting. Do you now keep in mind speaking on a personal cloud server to take away a posting? Sure or no?
Yoel Roth:
I wouldn’t agree with the traits.
Rep. Anna Luna (R-FL):
I don’t care if you happen to agree. Do you, that is, that is your stuff, sure or no? Did you talk with a personal entity, the federal government company on a personal cloud server? Sure or no?
Yoel Roth:
The query was, if I…
Rep. Anna Luna (R-FL):
Sure or no? Yeah, I’m on time. Sure or no?
Yoel Roth:
Ma’am, I don’t consider I may give you a sure or no.
Rep. Anna Luna (R-FL):
Properly, I’m gonna inform you proper now that you just did and we now have proof of it. This girls and gents, is joint motion between the federal authorities and a personal firm to censor and violate the First Modification. That is additionally recognized, and I’m so glad that there’s many attorneys on this panel, joint state actors, it’s extremely unlawful. You’re all engaged on this motion, and I need you to know that you can be all held accountable. Ms. Gadde, are you continue to on CISA’s Cybersecurity Advisory Council? Sure or no?
Vijaya Gadde:
Sure, I’m.
Rep. Anna Luna (R-FL):
Okay. For many who have stated that this can be a pointless listening to, and I simply wanna allow you to guys all know, we discovered that Twitter was certainly speaking with the federal authorities to censor People. I’d wish to remind you that this was all in place earlier than January sixth. So, to say that these mechanisms weren’t in place, and to make it about January sixth, I wanna let you already know that you just guys had been truly in charge of the entire content material and clearly have proof of that. Now, if you happen to don’t assume that that is necessary to your constituents and the American individuals from these saying that this was a pointless listening to, I recommend you discover different jobs. Chairman, I yield my time.
In case you truly wish to watch all this play out, it’s at 5 hours and 31 minutes in this video (the hyperlink ought to take you to that time). You’ll be able to see how proud Luna is of herself as she thinks she’s confirmed “joint state motion” and located the key “Jira personal cloud server” the place social media and authorities actors colluded to censor individuals.
The issue, in fact, is that none of that is even remotely true. Whether or not Luna is aware of it’s not true, has very silly staffers who advised her one thing false, or if they simply don’t care as a result of it sounds good… I don’t know. I do know that Luna has continued to take a victory lap on this nonsense, together with claiming on Steve Bannon’s podcast that she caught Roth “mendacity” beneath oath to a member of Congress, and he or she insisted that the panelist’s surprised faces weren’t as a result of they had been realizing simply how confused Luna was about all this, however (she stated) as a result of all of them wished to right away textual content their attorneys about how in hassle they had been.
So, let’s debunk all of this nonsense. And, I gained’t even hassle digging into the truth that on the time of this supposed smoking gun, Trump was in workplace, and his hand appointed director ran CISA. There’s a lot different dumb stuff, I don’t even have time to spend any extra time on that.
Now, as soon as once more, Jira is a ticketing system, and a extensively used one. It isn’t a “personal cloud server” for “speaking.”
All the particulars of what’s happening right here had been completely public already. The Election Integrity Partnership, which was a personal mission run by the Stanford Web Observatory, UW Heart for an Knowledgeable Public, Graphika, and the Digital Forensic Analysis Lab, have been fairly open and public about what they did to attempt to monitor and monitor election mis- and dis-information.
They launched an enormous report, referred to as The Long Fuse in 2021 that particulars how they used Jira to trace doable election disinfo vectors. They used it internally, however they had been additionally in a position to “tag” in several organizations in the event that they thought it was needed. That is described fairly clearly and publicly within the report on web page 18 and 19:
As an instance the scope of collaboration varieties mentioned above, the next case
research paperwork the worth derived from the multistakeholder mannequin that the
EIP facilitated. On October 13, 2020, a civil society companion submitted a tip by way of
their submission portal about well-intentioned however deceptive info in a
Fb put up. The put up contained a screenshot (See Determine 1.4).Of their feedback, the companion acknowledged, “In some states, a mark is meant
to indicate a follow-up: this recommendation doesn’t apply to each locality, and should
confuse individuals. An area board of elections has responded, however the meme is
being copy/pasted throughout Fb from varied sources.” A Tier 1 analyst
investigated the report, answering a set of standardized analysis questions,
archiving the content material, and appending their findings to the ticket. The analyst
recognized that the textual content content material of the message had been copied and pasted
verbatim by different customers and on different platforms. The Tier 1 analyst routed
the ticket to Tier 2, the place the superior analyst tagged the platform companions
Fb and Twitter, in order that these groups had been conscious of the content material and will
independently consider the put up towards their insurance policies. Recognizing the potential
for this narrative to unfold to a number of jurisdictions, the supervisor added within the
CIS companion as properly to supply visibility on this rising narrative and share the
info on unfold with their election official companions. The supervisor then
routed the ticket to ongoing monitoring. A Tier 1 analyst tracked the ticket till
all platform companions had responded, after which closed the ticket as resolved.
In line with two completely different individuals I spoke to on the EIP, this Tier 2 setup, the place corporations obtained tagged in occurred not often. As an alternative, these tickets had been principally simply used internally for EIP’s personal analysis efforts. However, both method, observe the difficulty. That is not authorities workers telling social media to take down posts. That is the EIP, principally a bunch of disinformation researchers, conducting analysis, and escalating points to corporations to be “independently evaluated towards their insurance policies.”
Now, as for the “smoking gun” which Luna confirmed the place she claimed she’s confirmed “state motion,” it’s very blurry and inconceivable to see within the C-SPAN video, and he or she didn’t tweet it both. Maybe as a result of it kinda debunks right here complete argument.
The screenshot additionally isn’t something secret. It was a part of EIP’s personal presentation explaining how the EIP labored! In this 12 minute video, Stanford’s Alex Stamos explains the entire course of, and at 4 minutes and 14 seconds, he exhibits a particular instance, which seems to be the blurry instance that Luna claimed was her smoking gun. Besides if you have a look at it, you see it’s truly an merchandise that (1) EIP discovered and highlighted (not authorities officers) of precise election disinfo (somebody claiming to be a ballot employee burning ballots for anybody who voted for Trump). (2) They tagged in Yoel Roth from Twitter, who reasonably than simply take it down, truly pushed again saying “Is there any proof establishing that this was a hoax.” (3) EIP then reached out to the related election board to see if that they had any proof that it was a hoax, and (4) them getting again a press launch from the Election Board saying it was a hoax.
That’s… not the federal government colluding to censor People. Neither is it Yoel Roth speaking with authorities officers. It’s EIP (not a gov’t org) elevating a possible challenge that clearly violates Twitter’s insurance policies, however reasonably than instantly taking it down, Roth needs precise proof. That then causes EIP to achieve out to different orgs who can communicate to the federal government officers and discover out if there’s any additional proof.
In different phrases, nothing proven within the screenshot is Yoel speaking with authorities officers (solely with EIP). Nothing proven is authorities officers demanding Twitter censor anybody. As an alternative, it exhibits personal actors flagging some doubtlessly consequential election disinfo. Lastly, nothing in it exhibits that Twitter is fast to censor content material primarily based on these requests, reasonably it exhibits Yoel’s sole communication within the chain pushing again on what appears to be fairly clear disinfo, however demanding precise proof that it’s false earlier than he’s prepared to take motion. Additionally, none of it was secret! EIP actually posted it themselves to brag about how their system labored to share helpful details about election disinfo.
As soon as once more, America, I encourage you: elect higher individuals.
Filed Beneath: alex stamos, anna paulina luna, disinformation, election disinformation, elections, hearings, house oversight committee, information sharing, jira, ticketing system, yoel roth
Firms: atlassian, election integrity partnership, stanford, twitter
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