Other Slack messages suggest that Roth met regularly, even weekly, with the FBI and DHS. The FBI also reported tweets for spreading election misinformation, sometimes prompting Twitter to take action.
This is the aspect of content moderation that should provoke the greatest concern from the general public. While Twitter’s opaque and inconsistent policies are undoubtedly enraging, they are a private company’s terms of service; ultimately, users can (and should) complain, and encourage new leadership—i.e. Elon Musk—to change course, but there isn’t a strong public policy connection.
Dictates from law enforcement, on the other hand, are absolutely matters of public policy. Is it proper for agents of the state to encourage private entities to suppress misinformation, even as national political figures excoriate these entities for not moderating more aggressively? The First Amendment might have something to say about that.
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