Twitter Files: Ex-FBI Lawyer Tried to Label Trump ‘Don’t be afraid of Covid’ Post as Misinformation; Top Twitter Lawyer James Baker Suggested Censoring Trump’s ‘Don’t fear COVID’ Tweet, and other C-Virus related stories
Twitter Files: Ex-FBI lawyer tried to label Trump ‘Don’t be afraid of Covid’ post as misinformation:
A top Twitter executive wanted to label as misinformation President Trump’s upbeat post telling Americans “Don’t be afraid of Covid” after he overcame the viral disease in October 2020.
According to documents released Monday as part of Elon Musk’s “Twitter Files,” James Baker, Twitter’s since-fired deputy general counsel, linked to the post in an email to Yoel Roth, the social media giant’s head of trust and safety.
Mr. Baker, a former FBI lawyer and a key facilitator of the bureau’s much-criticized investigation into purported Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 presidential election, asked why the presidential tweet was not a “violation of our COVID-19 policy” on misinformation.
Mr. Trump sent the post upon ending his convalescence at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after testing positive for COVID-19.
“Feeling really good!” Mr. Trump tweeted. “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
Mr. Baker, a staunch anti-Trump commentator for CNN in between his tenures at the FBI and at Twitter, was adamant that the president’s post had gone too far. —>READ MORE HERE
Top Twitter lawyer James Baker suggested censoring Trump’s ‘Don’t fear COVID’ tweet:
James Baker, the former top FBI lawyer who left to become Twitter’s deputy general counsel, was shot down by the company’s then-watchdog Yoel Roth when Baker suggested an exhortation from then-President Donald Trump urging Americans not to let COVID-19 “dominate” their lives should be censored.
As Trump, now 76, prepared to leave Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. on Oct. 5, 2020, after undergoing three days of treatment for the virus, he tweeted to his 86 million followers: “I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good!
“Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!” the 45th president added.
That afternoon, Baker dashed off an email to Roth and another senior Twitter legal executive, Stacia Cardille, asking them: “Why isn’t this POTUS tweet a violation of our COVID-19 policy (especially the ‘Don’t be afraid of COVID’ statement)?”
Roth explained that the tweet was “a broad, optimistic statement” that “doesn’t incite people to do something harmful, nor does it recommend against taking precautions or following mask directives (or other guidelines). It doesn’t fall within the published scope of our policies. Curious whether you have a different read on it, though.” —>READ MORE HERE
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