A Republican congressman is urging Elon Musk, Twitters new owner, to hand over all records related to the social media companys suppression of a story about Hunter Bidens laptop in the weeks leading to the 2020 presidential election.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, said in a letter that he expects Twitters new leadership to cooperate with the investigation into the Biden familys pattern of influence peddling to enrich themselves and President Bidens involvement in these schemes.
As part of this investigation, Committee Republicans are reviewing the role Big Techincluding Twitterplayed in supporting the Biden campaign in 2020 by suppressing certain stories implicating the Bidens, Comer wrote in an Oct. 28 letter (pdf) to Musk.
A previous attempt to obtain relevant information from Twitter was unsuccessful, according to Comer, as former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal never responded to the congressional request that the company preserve all documents and communications regarding the decision to limit the reach of a New York Post article about emails retrieved from Hunter Bidens laptop.
Those emails, according to the Post, showed a direct link then-presidential candidate Joe Biden had with his sons dubious business dealings in China and Ukraine. Shortly after the storys publication, Twitter not only prohibited users from sharing it, but also suspended the Posts account for two weeks.
Users who tried to share the storys link were greeted with a message saying, We cant complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful. Those who tried to open the link in existing posts were also warned that it was potentially spammy and unsafe.
Meanwhile, Facebook also algorithmically censored the laptop story after getting a general warning against Russian disinformation from the FBI.
Musk has expressed sympathy with the Post, saying in April that suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate.
In a more recent post, the billionaire said the reason he acquired Twitter is that it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.
Musk can honor his pledge to freedom of speech and information by correcting the error made by the companys former leadership, Comer wrote.
Specifically, the congressman asked Musk to hand over all documents and communications to, from, between and among Twitter and Twitter employees related to the October 2020 New York Post articles on Hunter Bidens laptop by Nov. 11. He also asked for all of the records between Twitter and the FBI or any other U.S. law enforcement or intelligence agency regarding that matter.
Comer also asked Musk to provide all documents and communications regarding the decision to censor or suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story on Twitters platform.
We believe open communication and access to information is a fundamental principle for any free people, and the American people deserve to know the reason Twitter suppressed or censored the Biden laptop story shortly before the 2020 election.
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Bill Pan is a reporter for The Epoch Times.
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House Republican Asks Elon Musk for Records on Twitter Censorship of ...
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