The Virality Twitter File

The Virality Twitter File
By Terry A. Hurlbut
On Saint Patrick’s Day, Matt Taibbi managed to ruffle more feathers in the leftist community of which he was once a part. Whether he still is, only he can answer now – he and his colleague Mike Shellenberger. This much we can say: the leaders of that community have lied to him, and he’s calling them out. The current case in point is Stanford University’s Virality Project, which he has made the subject of Twitter Files 19.
The real founders of the Virality Project
Greed, for lack of a better term, is good. Greed works.
Actor Michael Douglas, as Gordon Gekko, in Wall Street (1987)
That movie Wall Street (Oliver Stone, director and lead writer) illustrates the real roots of the Virality Project. Freeman Spogli and Company is a private-equity firm that does leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations of American consumer-goods and distribution companies. Students of the Roaring Eighties actually remember it as Riordan, Freeman and Spogli. (The Riordan is Richard Riordan, who later became Mayor of Los Angeles.) They are, in point of fact, the Gordon Gekkos in that investment sector. What Drexel Burnham was to high-yield low-quality commercial paper, Riordan, Freeman and Spogli were to middle-market mergers and acquisitions. This firm helped Malone and Hyde buy out Piggly Wiggly Stores, to cite one example.
In 1987, Messrs. Freeman and Spogli gave Stanford University $50 million to found the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. (Mr. Spogli went on to become U.S. Ambassador to Italy.) That institute, with Stanford Law School, founded the Stanford Cyber Policy Institute. They in turn founded the Stanford Internet Observatory, which has borne mention before in the Twitter files. And from the Stanford Internet Observatory came the Virality Project. We can now describe the Virality Project: rooted in greed, vanity, and monumental arrogance.
What is the Virality Project?
The Virality Project has only a little to do with “Internet memes going viral.” Rather, it has to do with COVID-19 and the acceptance of vaccination against same. Source links from Stanford University, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Project itself say what they are about. From the Stanford link comes this list of the collaborators with the Virality Project:
In January 2020, the Stanford Internet Observatory expanded this project in collaboration with colleagues at New York University, the University of Washington, the National Council on Citizenship, and Graphika.
The Rockefeller Foundation provided moral support by hosting a webinar and inviting Virality Project directors to speak. On February 24, 2022, the Virality Project issued its Final Report:
Memes, Magnets and Microchips: Narrative dynamics around COVID-19 vaccines.
Tellingly, that report carries the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Non-derivative 4.0 International License. Therefore CNAV will not host it directly. Obviously Project administration, the Stanford Internet Observatory, and the Freeman Spogli Institute are very sensitive about the use of this report by any possible critics.
With their associations, one can readily appreciate the source of the arrogance that pervades their self-description. The Executive Summary of their report reeks with belittling comments about all who disagree with them. It also lists some other usual Twitter Files suspects, like the Digital Forensic Research Laboratory, and an unusual suspect: the National Council on Citizenship. Apart from the usual WTF-style question, only their cowardice – hiding behind a non-commercial, non-derivative license – matches that arrogance.
The thread
An unfazed Matt Taibbi released this thread showing the relationship of the Virality Project to Twitter. As ever, here are the odd numbers:
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729166631432195
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729171995926528
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729177511456770
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729182712483842
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729187716268035
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729192489336835
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729197707100162
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729203323273216
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729210713645056
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729216644382720
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729222679986176
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729229097201665
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729235837526016
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729241109659650
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729246172291078
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729250840543233
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729256225931267
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729261745733633
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729268557234176
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729274789949440
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729280653565955
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729286357925888
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636731608098041857
In addition, these links, which CNAV has teased from the thread, are relevant. Among other things, Mr. Taibbi refers to his testimony before the House Judiciary Weaponization Subcommittee. He also refers to this YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsooGvgLh7U
Mr. Taibbi also mentioned certain concepts CNAV has reported on before, like the Disinformation Governance Board.
Reaction, as usual with the Twitter Files, is either “What did I tell you?” or “Why don’t you shut up?” Herewith a small sample:
https://twitter.com/thedarkerdawn/status/1637155837868220418
https://twitter.com/GymRat3820/status/1637131629809246209
This last is important because the Delta and Omicron variants were successively more transmissible but less virulent. Which is exactly how viruses change under micro-evolutionary pressure. Viruses that kill everyone who catches them, die with their victims. Viruses that cause an annoyance but let their victims live, survive. Simple as. And with Delta and Omicron, that’s what we all saw.
This user made the most important criticism:
https://twitter.com/tweet_Harding/status/1637158815257731072
Even the Texas Nationalist Movement couldn’t resist!
https://twitter.com/TexasNatMov/status/1637150212312449024
Oddly enough, one “Shut Up” reply actually repeated the Virality Project’s central premise: that true stories can constitute misinformation. Matt Taibbi corrected him on that point:
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1637079520208384001
and the user then deleted his tweet.
Analysis
The Virality Project Executive Summary in fact accuses “domestic actors” of dusting off what it considered the same-old, same-old arguments. Which amount to this: artificial active acquired immunity is not and never has been either:
1. As effective as natural immunity, or
2. Without side effect.
The medical school curriculum, at least when your editor attended, included warnings that side effects did occur. But these, the professors said, were rare and did not bear mentioning to a scared public. However, lawyers for the firm of Fulbright and Jaworski (yes, THAT Jaworski!) took exception to the withholding of information in their Texas Medical Jurisprudence Course.
All that to illustrate that the debate on the utility of immunization is far from settled. True, the public reveres Saints Edward (Jenner), Jonas (Salk), and Albert (Sabin), and Sir Gunnar Kasson, Knight Commander of the Most Noble Order of Iditarod. But the debate continued – until the present crisis, when a think tank presumed to tell the government to stop it. What’s infinitely worse, and absolutely inexcusable, is that the government took that think tank’s suggestion to heart.
Those four men arguably saved more lives than they took. One cannot say the same for Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., or the un-worthies at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. And one certainly cannot say that of The Virality Project.
Link to:
The article:
https://cnav.news/2023/03/19/editorial/talk/virality-twitter-file/

Virality Project home and final report download page:
https://www.viralityproject.org/
https://purl.stanford.edu/mx395xj8490

FSI and Rockefeller testimonials about VP:
https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/content/virality-project
https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/video/how-communicators-can-fight-misinformation-with-the-virality-project/

The thread:
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729166631432195
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729171995926528
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729177511456770
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729182712483842
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729187716268035
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729192489336835
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729197707100162
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729203323273216
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729210713645056
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729216644382720
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729222679986176
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729229097201665
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729235837526016
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729241109659650
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729246172291078
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729250840543233
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729256225931267
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729261745733633
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729268557234176
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729274789949440
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729280653565955
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729286357925888
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1636731608098041857

Video: Introducing Renee DiResta:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsooGvgLh7U

Reaction:
https://twitter.com/thedarkerdawn/status/1637155837868220418
https://twitter.com/GymRat3820/status/1637131629809246209
https://twitter.com/tweet_Harding/status/1637158815257731072
https://twitter.com/TexasNatMov/status/1637150212312449024
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1637079520208384001

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https://twitter.com/DecTruth

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https://cnav.news/

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