A year after the Twitter Files, Big Tech commissars still loom large

I recently came across an old propaganda poster from the Soviet Union. Vladimir Lenin stands in front of a giant red Soviet emblem. His right arm stretches forward with a caption that reads: “To the bright future of communist society, universal prosperity, and enduring peace.”

The Politburo, party officials, and the KGB would use the phrase “to the bright future” as an excuse to lay a heavy hand on their people.

You don’t like reporting on anything but propaganda and lies in the Soviet media? Don’t worry — it’s for your safety. To the bright future!

You don’t want your family member to go to the re-education camp? Don’t worry — it’s for your safety. To the bright future!

For all the people suffering under Communist control, the phrase became a sort of coping mechanism. Sure, this is all terrible, but ... to the bright future, I guess?

In the name of securing “universal prosperity and enduring peace,” the Soviets injected political commissars and KGB thugs into every aspect of society: industry, pseudo-businesses, the media. The state — which is always called “the people” for some reason — had its tentacles in everything. No decisions were made without state approval, order, or manipulation.

The Twitter Files showed us how outside political actors have a far too friendly relationship with Big Tech, and these companies are all too willing to do their bidding.

We see this in totalitarian leftist governments all over the world. Chinese companies are completely infiltrated by their politburo overlords. Under Xi Jinping, a national intelligence law signed in 2017 states: “Any organization or citizen shall support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work according to law.”

Think about that the next time you use a phone made by Huawei, or you fire up TikTok to watch a string of cat videos with funny music, or you purchase a Chinese-made watch that looks suspiciously like a near-perfect clone of an Apple watch.

The product you are using can be used to support Chinese national intelligence work. They’ve told us this up front, of course, but we use them all anyway.

Knowing the way both the Soviets and the Chinese treat businesses and their own people, it’s worth asking how is our current system any different?

Social media collusion

The FBI, the political commissars themselves, admitted last year to holding regular meetings with all the big social media companies. The bureau and the companies maintained “relationships,” to use their words, and “met weekly.”

Mark Zuckerberg hinted on a Joe Rogan podcast at what some of the meetings involved. He said the FBI warned Facebook about some Russian propaganda that was about to be released. We now know that this referred to Hunter Biden’s laptop.

But here’s the thing: The FBI already had a copy of the laptop’s contents. Authorities knew it wasn’t Russian propaganda. So why was the FBI feeding misinformation to social media companies to give a little “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” on what they should do when Hunter’s laptop came out?

We already know the FBI didn’t want Donald Trump to become president. We saw that when an FBI lawyer was caught falsifying evidence in order to get a FISA warrant to spy on Trump campaign official Carter Page.

Awaiting accountability

Speaking of FBI lawyers, it was the FBI’s top lawyer, James Baker, who helped facilitate the meeting between Democratic operative Michael Sussman and FBI investigators to look into the bogus Trump/Alfabank smear.

Baker would then leave the FBI, and guess who quickly hired him: Twitter, of course. We now know from Elon Musk’s Twitter Files disclosure that James Baker, as Twitter’s top lawyer, helped to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story.

But wait! There’s more!

When Musk tried to release the files showing how Twitter suppressed the story, Baker intercepted the evidence to “vet” as it was about to get released. Did he do that to remove all the parts that showed FBI involvement? Musk wasn’t amused and fired James Baker. I wouldn’t be surprised if he just returned to his old job at the FBI.

Last year, the Twitter Files showed us how outside political actors, usually from the left, have a far too friendly relationship with Big Tech, and these companies are all too willing to do their bidding.

We knew all of this already. It was obvious. But it’s a heck of a sight to see it from their own emails. One year later, has anyone been held accountable?

Let’s return to my original question: What’s the difference between us and the Soviet Union and China? The difference is that the people of the Soviet Union and China had this kind of behavior forced on them. Today, Silicon Valley and the media do it of their own accord. As the saying goes, “To the bright future!”

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