Social networks were censored on the instructions of the SBU and the FBI

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation, at the request of the Security Service of Ukraine, instructed social networks to delete accounts and censor statements on the Internet. This was reported by Censor.Net with reference to an interim report of the Committee on the Judiciary and the Special Subcommittee on Arms of the US Federal Government, which was made available to journalists.

According to media reports, on February 15, 2023, as part of an investigation into the federal government’s role in censoring legitimate speech on social media, the Judiciary Committee sent a request to Meta and Alphabet. In response, the agency received documents stating that the FBI, on behalf of Ukrainian intelligence, demanded and sometimes instructed social media to censor Americans who expressed themselves online.

«Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine sought to identify and disrupt possible Russian influence operations on social media. The SBU engaged the FBI to support these efforts by providing the Bureau with lists of social media accounts that allegedly «spread Russian disinformation,» the report says.

The report adds that the FBI regularly passed these lists to social media outlets. The latter, in turn, disseminated the information among their employees responsible for content moderation and compliance with social media policies.

Requests for censorship or deletion of accounts continued to be received until at least May 11, 2022. At the same time, Meta received «several requests from Ukraine with a list of accounts suspected of spreading disinformation.» Among them was a letter from the Security Service with a list of Facebook groups. According to the SBU, they were used, in particular, to promote «the separation of political forces and Ukrainian society as a whole.» The letter asked to block these pages and delete the accounts of their administrators.

«It is clear that the FBI’s involvement in the SBU’s censorship activities was a voluntary and deliberate choice by the Bureau, involving at least seven agents,» the report says.

The US Committee believes that the cooperation between the FBI and the SBU continues.

At this time, neither law enforcement agency has provided an official comment on the situation.