The #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag that spread like wildfire on Twitter did not originate from “Russian bots” but from organic sources—mostly Americans—the latest tranche of released internal Twitter communications confirmed.
While Twitter executives were clear on the matter, the social media platform did not challenge the claims publicly, journalist Matt Taibbi reported on Jan. 12 in the 14th installment of the Twitter Files.
Democrat lawmakers and legacy media outlets had propagated the false narrative.
The #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag topped Twitter’s trending list starting on Jan. 18, 2018 and reflected the widespread call to publicly release a then-classified memo submitted by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who was the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee at the time. Widely referred to as the Nunes memo (pdf), it was later declassified under then-President Donald Trump’s order on Feb. 2, 2018….