Republicans open investigation into social media's censoring of Hunter Biden laptop report

Hunter Biden’s laptop

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The House Judiciary Republicans have opened an investigation into Facebook and Twitter for censoring the New York Post’s October 2020 report on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

The Republican members of Congress accused the social media platforms Thursday of censoring the report and limiting its reach to protect Joe Biden from “increased scrutiny about the impropriety detailed in the Post article,” ahead of the 2020 election.

When the report initially surfaced, many mainstream publications, including NPR were quick to dismiss it as a conspiracy theory.

“We don’t want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions,” wrote Terence Samuels, NPR’s managing editor, on why the publication refused to cover the “laptop from hell” revelations.

Why haven't you seen any stories from NPR about the NY Post's Hunter Biden story? Read more in this week's newsletter➡️ https://t.co/CJesPgmGvo pic.twitter.com/jAi7PnpbZf

— NPR Public Editor (@NPRpubliceditor) October 22, 2020

It’s been almost two years since the report surfaced, which is now confirmed by both the New York Times and the Washington Post.

In an open letter to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal on Thursday, the Republicans wrote, “Shortly before the 2020 election, Twitter suppressed an explosive New York Post article detailing how Hunter Biden used the position and influence of his father, now-President Biden, for personal gain, with the apparent awareness of President Biden.”

“We wrote to Twitter at the time with important questions about Twitter’s knowing suppression of First-Amendment protected activity. Twitter ignored our letter and, in the months since, has avoided any meaningful accountability for its actions,” the letter continued.

“Now, with even the New York Times confirming the accuracy of the Post’s reporting, we are investigating Twitter’s actions to interfere in free and fair election-related public discourse on its platform to the benefit of President Biden and the detriment of former President Trump.” it concluded.

A separate letter was dispatched to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to point out that “Facebook’s actions gave rise to other news outlets, tech platforms, and even Biden himself dismissing the Post story as disinformation or untrue — when, in fact, it had never been rebutted.”

“The Post article was likely to have significant implications for the presidential election,” the letter continued. “Although the Post explained exactly how it obtained the emails on which it reported and included pictures of certain emails, Facebook still suppressed the article. The mainstream media followed Facebook’s lead, wrongly claiming the Post story was ‘disinfo’ and unverified.”

“It appears that Facebook knowingly and deliberately used its platform to control election related information accessible to the American people shortly before the 2020 election, and that Facebook did so to the primary benefit of then-Vice President Biden,” the Republicans stated.

“This irresponsible conduct demands a thorough investigation so that we may understand how Big Tech wields its enormous power over the free flow of information to the detriment of free and fair elections,” it concluded.

Speaking to Fox Business, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan slammed the Big Tech companies for colluding with the Democrats and the media to prevent “critical information” from the public in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.

pic.twitter.com/wjnCvSIFxj

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) March 31, 2022