FBI responds to Twitter Files: 'We never direct or ask them to take action'

The FBI has responded to revelations published in the so-called "Twitter Files" about the agency's involvement with the social media platform by saying it never asked Twitter to "take action" to censor content. 

"We are providing it so that they can take whatever action they deem appropriate under their terms of service to protect their platform and protect their customers," the FBI told Fox News on Wednesday. "But we never direct or ask them to take action."

The files are a series of recent posts by several independent journalist about efforts by top Twitter executives and outside stakeholders before Elon Musk recently bought the social media platform to expose their efforts to censor or suppress content.

Such efforts – including those by the FBI and top Democrats – were revealed in emails and other internal and external communications. 

The revelations show that the FBI regularly contacted Twitter employees about content it deemed questionable, paid the social media platform for legal requests and discredited the Hunter Biden laptop scandal before the story was published on it.