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Written by Lucas Leiroz, journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant
According to recent House’s report, the FBI participated in a joint operation with the Ukrainian intelligence to block verified social media accounts accusing them of “pro-Russian disinformation”. However, the plan was marked by several mistakes in the analysis process, resulting in the listing of accounts not actually linked to Russia.
The FBI is said to have received in 2022 reports from the Ukraine’s SBU containing data on social media accounts alleged to be posting pro-Russian content. Without properly verifying the authenticity of the information, the American institution forwarded the Ukrainian requests to Big Tech companies such as Meta, Google and YouTube. In addition to the banning of some verified accounts, it is possible that a lot of sensitive data of the users was unnecessarily handed over by companies to American and Ukrainian authorities.
The main problem is that there were many errors of investigation on the part of the SBU. Kiev authorities simply randomly selected accounts that posted Russian-language content about the conflict and described them as “misinformation” spreaders. On further analysis, it was concluded that several of these accounts were actually criticizing the military measures taken by the Russian Federation.
For example, the US State Department’s Russian-language Instagram account (@usaporusski) has been listed by the SBU and FBI as being engaged in “distributing content that promotes war, inaccurately reflects events in Ukraine, justifies Russian war crimes in Ukraine in violation of international law”. As an official page of the US government, the account was obviously not promoting any pro-Russian content, which shows the level of hasty and inaccurate analysis by the Ukrainian authorities and the FBI.
However, as an excuse for the inclusion of the US State Department in the list, the report points to the alleged “infiltration of Russian agents” in Ukrainian intelligence. The aim seems to try to avoid accusations against the Ukrainian partners, as the American investigators are also pro-Kiev, despite their dissatisfaction with the irresponsible work of the FBI. The accusation actually seems unfounded, with no reason to believe in any explanation other than the analytical inaccuracy of the SBU.
“It is unclear why the Ukrainian government would seek to remove one of the U.S. State Department’s verified Instagram accounts. As discussed above, however, according to President Zelensky, the SBU was widely infiltrated by Russian-aligned forces during this period. What is even more astonishing is that the FBI either negligently or intentionally relayed the SBU’s request to remove an official U.S. government account to Meta”, the report reads.
It was these errors of examination on the part of the authorities which made the case to become the subject of a thorough investigation by a special committee of the House, resulting in the aforementioned report. Investigators accuse the FBI of having “uncritically passed on information from the SBU”. So far, the FBI has not issued any response or press releases on the matter.
“The new information highlights the FBI’s unconstitutional role in enabling the SBU’s censorship regime and raises grave concerns about the FBI’s credibility, reliability, and competence as the nation’s premier law enforcement organization. The coordination between the FBI, SBU, and American social media companies is substantial, and the full extent of the FBI’s involvement with the SBU remains the subject of ongoing investigation”, a House’s statement on the report reads.
Indeed, it is curious to see how the unrestricted cooperation between US and Ukrainian authorities to censor Russian and pro-Russian content created problems for the US government itself. In practice, the House is interested in investigating the matter of FBI’s mistakes because there was real damage to the information security of a US government agency, but there does not seem to be any concern with the real problem of the case, which is the very existence of an international system of anti-Russian censorship.
It is very important that the investigations actually take place and lead to the punishment of the FBI agents involved in the operation, but it is necessary that the focus ceases to be the mere incompetence of the bureau in analyzing the SBU’s information and becomes the broad cooperation between both institutions.
This cooperation, by the way, goes far beyond the topic of censorship. For example, the FBI shares data with Ukrainian intelligence to expose people included on the “Myrotvorets” website – Kiev’s official kill-list. The site reveals the name, photos and personal data of blacklisted people and publicly points out the source of the information. Several people mentioned there had their data passed by the FBI, which is obviously illegal and reinforces the House’s conclusion about an unconstitutional role that the bureau would be playing.
In addition, it is necessary that the investigation also pay attention to the role of American Big Tech companies in the attempts to “cancel” Russia. Companies like Meta (currently banned in Russia due to terrorist activities) are widely engaged not only in banning pro-Russian content but also in inciting violence against Russian citizens, which should also be inspected by American authorities, if there is really an intention to ensure for legality and not just to punish the FBI.
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