Twitter Files: How the social media giant suppressed the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop just before 2020 election

By
Suzanne Downing
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74
64

An independent journalist was given the scoop of a lifetime: Actual documents showing Twitter executives meddled in the 2020 presidential election.

Matt Taibbi released on Twitter what Elon Musk has called “The Twitter Files” on Friday, showing how Twitter suppressed a major story by the New York Post in 2020, which connected now-President Joe Biden with officials from a Ukrainian gas company. The executive of the gas company Burisma thanked Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, for “giving me the opportunity to meet your father.” The meeting was arranged when Biden was still vice president to Barack Obama.

Taibbi on Friday evening wrote on Twitter about an email that shows Twitter’s trust and safety team decided to suppress the story before the election because it violated the company’s policy for sharing “hacked material.”

Yet there was no basis for determining the material actually qualified as hacked. It was simply the decision of a small group of executives who shared similar partisan political viewpoints and who, it can be now proven, were intentionally interfering in the 2020 election by suppressing damaging material on the Biden connection to Ukraine and influence peddling by Hunter Biden, who was paid about $11 million by the Ukrainian company, as he served as a “board member” of the company.

Twitter’s former head of legal, policy, and trust, Viyaja Gadde, is said to have played a key role in suppressing the story. Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey is, so far, cleared of involvement.

The New York Post, in writing about the revelation, said that Twitter executives “just freelanced their baseless decision to censor The Post’s bombshell Hunter Biden laptop scoop in the run up to the 2020 election — with top-level workers at the social media giant agreeing that controversial decision was “f–ked,” damning insider communications released by CEO Elon Musk Friday reveal.” 

Musk tweeted a link to the account of Taibbi, who had started tweeting a series of proofs that Twitter executives had interfered in the elections by suppressing news.

Emails and comments from former Twitter employees showed that “everyone knew”  the social media giant’s suppression of The Post’s scoops about Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop, The New York Post wrote.

It was a story that, in 2020, other mainstream newspapers such as the New York Times and Washington Post discredited and called “Russian disinformation.” But earlier this year, both newspapers changed their tune and admitted that the Hunter Biden laptop story was legitimate. By then, Joe Biden had been president for more than a year.

In the weeks leading up to the election, the New York Times was especially dismissive.

“President Trump’s allies have promoted claims of corruption aimed at the former vice president’s son in an effort to damage the Biden campaign,” the New York Times wrote in October of 2020.

“President Trump’s allies have long promoted claims of corruption about Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son Hunter in a bid to damage Mr. Biden’s presidential campaign. The accusations intensified in recent days when some of Mr. Trump’s associates, including his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, provided material for a New York Post article detailing some of the allegations. The Post reported that the F.B.I. had seized a computer that purportedly belonged to Hunter Biden,” the New York Times wrote.

“The Biden campaign has rejected the accusations. Many questions remain about the origins of the allegations themselves, the laptop and what, if anything, agents are investigating,” the newspaper continued.

“The Post article relied on documents purportedly taken from the computer to try to buttress an unsubstantiated argument peddled by Mr. Giuliani and other Trump supporters: that as vice president, Mr. Biden had shaped American foreign policy in Ukraine to benefit his son. The events are the latest chapter in a more than two-year effort by the president and his allies to uncover damning information about the Bidens, a pursuit that also helped prompt Mr. Trump’s impeachment,” the New York Times printed, in an effort to discredit the damaging information.

“Mr. Biden has long said he knew nothing about his son’s business activities in Ukraine. But the article suggested that the former vice president met with an adviser to a Ukrainian energy company whose board Hunter Biden sat on, Burisma Holdings. The article referred to an email that the adviser, Vadym Pozharskyi, sent to Hunter Biden thanking him for ‘giving an opportunity to meet your father’”’ and to spend ‘“’some time together.'”

Between the New York Times and Washington Post, a concerted effort to discredit the story ramped up, and Twitter suppressed the story at the request of Democrat operatives.

Twitter even resorted to a seldom-used tactic of blocking the sharing of links to the New York Post story via direct message, a tool usually only used in “extreme cases,” such as to stop the distribution of child pornography, according to Taibbi.

More about this story at the New York Post.

74 COMMENTS

  1. What concerns me is that while all of this may be completely true, we, as a country may have passed the point where it matters. The degree of intellectual dishonesty and political and economic prostitution may permit the Left to hold power regardless of any wrongdoing or criticism. Enough people have been bought off. Donald Trump is so flawed that it is no longer possible for Republicans to argue for accountability based on principles. Hunter Biden? So what? Freedom of expression? Who cares? The USA may be finished.

    • It appears that you are still given to the person rather than the ideal. Republican/Conservative ideals are what individual Republicans/Conservatives promote. If all you can see is the person/personality of the individual Republican/Conservative, you miss the point. The Republican/Conservative ideal is what is worth fighting for. To acquiesce due to a person/personality shows your true depth of investment in America/ being an American. If you think all is lost, please leave and go to some other like thinking area governed the way that appeals to what you like. Perhaps China or N. Korea???

      • Donald Trump guarantees failure for conservatives. Until he goes away, the necessary majority will not entrust conservatives with power. Allowing the Left to remain in power for another six years will kill the noble experiment known as the United States of America. Conservatives must make a choice: To move forward with honorable, intelligent new leaders and moral clarity OR to continue on with a seventy-six year old erratic narcissist that will cause the destruction of the nation.

        (I hate to disappoint, but I am not booking travel to Pyongyang.)

        • For the present record it is worth including the following recent quote from the former President: “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

          This is totally irrational. No sane American can endorse this approach. Time to move on with new leadership.

    • Jmark, if early Americans and their antecedents thought like you do, we wouldn’t have a free society America today. How depressing you are.
      Dig your own foxhole when the bombs rain down. Don’t want you with me.

      • During the pandemic a very significant event occurred: The connection between the desire to spend (and print) money and the necessity to somehow pay for that spending through taxes and borrowing. Congress and the Executive looked around the room and silently agreed that the desired amount of money would simply be created – there is actually no need to even print it. Now that the connection is broken, the Left, in particular will press for creating/printing all the money necessary to satisfy political constituencies. They will just buy the necessary public support through handouts. In this regard we are now just like Argentina and the Weimar Republic. If the Left remains in power for the next six years under this circumstance there will be nothing left of the nation. I will resist this with every fiber of my being but want conservatives to understand the consequences of losing another election with the wrong and fatally-flawed leader.

  2. Of course Twitter and the major media passed on the Hunter Biden and Joe Biden corruption story. They were too busy running headline stories on Trump’s Russian collusion, two impeachments, golden showers in a Moscow hotel, Trump’s alleged affairs, Trump’s racism at the Border Wall and anything else they could dream up to disparage the greatest president in the USA.

    • Found this list of other things that grabbed the headlines during Trump’s reign:

      Tried to buy Greenland.
      Wanted to nuke hurricanes.
      Doctored a hurricane forecast map with a Sharpie.
      Attempted a coup to stay in power.
      Absconded with thousands of classified documents, lied about it and refused to give them back when the feds asked nicely.
      Sent unidentified federal officers to Portland, Oregon, to abduct protesters and spark a conflagration that could be used as a pretense for implementing martial law.
      Ordered peaceful protesters tear-gassed so he could pose for a photo-op with a Bible outside a church.
      Tried to blackmail Ukraine into manufacturing dirt for his 2020 campaign.
      Asked Russia for help in his 2016 campaign — and got it.
      Had a weird affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Remember the Helsinki summit?)
      Invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to an in-person meeting in the Oval Office, where he accidentally revealed top-secret intelligence.
      Wanted to withdraw the U.S. from NATO.
      Separated migrant parents from their children, locked the kids in cages and then failed to reunite them.
      Insisted that “raking” would prevent forest fires because “you’ve got to take care of the floors. You know the floors of the forest, very important.”
      Covered for Saudi Arabia after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the gruesome murder and dismemberment of a U.S. journalist with a bone saw. (Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, owes Saudi Arabia $2 billion, and the crown prince has reportedly bragged about having Kushner “in his pocket.”)
      Intervened to get Kushner top-secret clearance after he was denied over concerns about foreign influence.
      Put Kushner in charge of Middle East peace.
      Embraced rampant nepotism.
      Touted injecting disinfectant as a COVID-19 cure.
      Touted ultraviolet light as a COVID-19 cure.
      Touted hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 cure.
      Touted ivermectin as a COVID-19 cure.
      Told people not to wear face masks to cut down the spread of COVID-19, even though they work.
      Actively discouraged COVID-19 testing.
      Refused to send federal aid to New York City amid the first COVID-19 wave because the virus was hitting Democratic-voting states hardest.
      “Jokingly” said on multiple occasions that he deserved to be president for more than two terms.
      Thought climate change was a Chinese hoax.
      Built an incomplete border wall that doesn’t work, wasn’t needed and wasn’t paid for by Mexico.
      Started a trade war with China that mainly hurt U.S. consumers.
      Threw food when angry.
      Saw no problem with his vice president potentially being hanged by a violent mob he’d summoned and sent to the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the peaceful transition of power.
      Stared directly at the sun.
      U.S. President Donald Trump stares directly at the sun during a partial solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017.
      U.S. President Donald Trump stares directly at the sun during a partial solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017.NICHOLAS KAMM VIA GETTY IMAGES
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      Started his presidency with an easily disproved lie about the crowd size at his inauguration.
      Thought people needed an ID to buy cereal.
      Fired James Comey as FBI director because he didn’t like the bureau investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election. (Later, it was revealed that Trump’s campaign manager gave detailed internal polling data to a Russian intelligence agent.)
      Was a “fucking moron,” according to Rex Tillerson, his secretary of state.
      Fired the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s China-based pandemic response team — and then when a pandemic happened years later, said, “I don’t take responsibility at all” for COVID-19.
      Repeatedly embraced racism.
      Thought repeating “person, woman, man, camera, TV” would assure Americans of his mental stability.
      Tweeted literal gibberish — a lot.
      Lied all the time. (And still does.)
      Openly embraced and amplified QAnon conspiracy theories.
      Got impeached twice.
      Passed huge tax cuts for wealthy corporations ― and massively grew the national debt.
      Flip-flopped on whether the White House had ordered the USS John McCain be hidden so he wouldn’t get mad. (It did.)
      Called American military members who died in the line of duty “losers” and “suckers.”
      Claimed to have bone spurs to get out of military service.
      Binge-watched Fox News when he should have been working.
      Played so, so much golf.
      Raked in cash from foreign interests at his Washington hotel in an operation sometimes described as the “epicenter” of a corrupt presidency.
      Held a rally that may have led to the death of Herman Cain.
      Allegedly directed his lawyer to commit campaign fraud to cover up that Trump cheated on his wife after she had recently given birth.
      Was accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women.
      Dismissed any bad news about himself as “fake.”
      Lied about voluntarily turning over his tax returns.
      Ate well-done steak — with ketchup.
      Described white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, as “very fine people.”
      Grossly abused the presidential pardon on his way out the door.
      Used private communication services extensively after arguing that Hillary Clinton should be jailed for having a private email server.
      Refused to release White House visitor logs.
      Went to Puerto Rico and threw paper towels at people desperate for actual hurricane aid.
      Discouraged exercise because he believes bodies are like batteries, with a finite amount of energy.

      • Did you find that massive screed in the Washington ComPost, Lucinda?
        I’m betting so. I know that your febrile and illogical mind could never sit still long enough, or coherently enough, to compose that list of half-truths and outright lies.

      • TLDR lol you have way to much time to dedicate to your TDS you should think about getting a hobby or rescuing a cat

      • Lucinda, all of what you mentioned has been proven false. The Russian election meddling was all based on a lie, yet nobody will call Hillary Clinton an “election denier” for spreading it.

        Don’t believe every MSNBC headline you read.

      • Lucinda,
        You need intensive therapy. Your Trump Derangement Disorder occupies your life, your time, your very being. Do you not have an intimate partner or favorite music? Life is short. You’ll be in Assisted Living soon, rolling around in your wheelchair moaning about Trump. Get help soon.

  3. This should be interesting. While not Nixonian in scale (yet), clear evidence linking the then sitting VP Biden to profiting from his position.

    What’s gonna be interesting is seeing how the GOP bungles this. I have zero faith in their ability to do something constructive with it.

  6. Apparentlty Twits do not read the NY Post, or NY Times and rely only on Twitter for news on Hunter Biden. What MRAK has not reported is that the WSJ took a deep dive and found no connectiion between Burisma and Joe Biden. Republicans will lose more House seats in 2024 if they waste time on a lap top instead of China and inflation

  9. JMARK , statutes of limitations do not exist on fraud ,or corruption! The only way trust can be insured is for justice to take place, time is irrelevant to facts & actions. This nation will not survive without the rule of law. Please understand the soul of the people is being tested & right or wrong is reality and can not be swiped under the rug in a real time media ! Your opinion is excepted but doesn’t mean Trump or the Republicans are responsible for accountability based on principles or their independent actions! judicial reliability isn’t partisan & shouldn’t be! Justice is not a political process but is at the heart of freedom in America!

    • I support Ed Martin’s comment as follows. Before Gen Washington led his men to decisive victory at the battle of Trenton, after crossing the Delaware River (the famous painting), they were mired in the darkest of circumstances. They were cold, hungry, under-supplied, demoralized by an endless string of stinging defeats. Many of Washington’s generals and commanders opposed his audacious plan. Washington’s main weapons were: the element of surprise, the enemy’s belief Washington’s army was already defeated in practicality, and most importantly, Washington’s deep and abiding faith in the providential support of his god, Yahweh, the one true god of the entire cosmos.

      With faith, and bold action, we can save our republic.
      .

  11. Yawn! The United States has thoroughly devolved into a corrupt Banana Republic starting from the Clinton Administration when the Democratic Party first started embracing Fascism. Now the Dems have inextricably entwined themselves with the corporate/government model which is the classic definition of Fascism. The Republicans are, by and large, no different. We tolerate corruption, rigged elections and a politically weaponized justice system because it has become the norm nowadays. Alas, the United States is a dying Republic.

  12. The US government cooperating with a private entity to censor Americans. This should outrage everybody.

    But it won’t.

    • You’re right nobody will hold anybody involved accountable. It will be a dog and pony show is all. A sitting supposed president needs to be impeached at the least.

        • Lucinda, I refer you to

          ‘https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artII-S4-1-1/ALDE_00000282/

          which will help you understand that high crimes and misdemeanors is a general term that is considered lacking of formal definition. “The type of behavior that qualifies as impeachable conduct, and the circumstances in which impeachment is an appropriate remedy for such actions, are thus determined by, among other things, competing political interests, changing institutional relationships among the three branches of government, and legislators’ interaction with and accountability to the public.8 The weight of historical practice, rather than judicial precedent, is thus central to understanding the nature of impeachment in the United States.”

          Consider Biden’s abandonment of hundreds or possibly over 1,000 Americans in Afghanistan and his abandonment of highly valuable military equipment during the disastrous pull out.

          Or consider Biden’s unwillingness to secure the southern border as a crime that has cost many Americans’ lives. Since President Biden took office, 5.5 million illegal aliens have crossed the border, and this is by policy and political intention. Thousands a day, and we have no idea who is coming across.

          Both of those would qualify as high crimes and misdemeanors against the American people. I’m sure folks here can think of more.

        • Yes Biden is legitimately elected.

          Possible reasons to impeach include but not limited to:

          Corruption.
          Failure to protect and defend the US via ignoring the border.
          Abusing the rights of US citizens via the federal government; Covid, censoring speech, targeting political enemies, attempting to get foreign powers to influence the US election process.
          Going to war on the energy sector and imperiling the safety of the US people.
          Failure to deal with the supply chain crisis.
          Booting out warfighters for overtly political reasons.
          Nearly exhausting US military supplies and oil reserves to prop up foreign nations, putting the country at risk.

          I could go on and on and on.

          You like to paint yourself as a thought liberal. If so, you’d admit if these accusations were aimed at someone named Trump the left would be wetting itself to go after them.

          Impeachment is a political act. Since the left went after Trump three times now, the bar for impeachment has been lowered. Your side did it.

          Don’t be surprised when we use the precedents you set against you.

  14. Glenn Greenwald and Matt Tabbi are banging this drum hard. Neither are known for right of center tendencies.

  15. What’s truly sad is that a large part of not just the general public, but the voting public, still believes what these thoroughly discredited media organizations tell them. How many times will Lucy pull the ball away and how many times will Charlie Brown still try and kick it?

      • Radical leftists like Bill Yankee are not known for their intelligence, the recognition of metaphor being merely one aspect of their pervasive intellectual failures.

      • Bill,

        I’m glad to hear you recognize the style of writing and simplistic illustrated art called comic strips. However it seems like you are struggling with understanding the meaning behind these comic strips. As a part of your continuing reading education please pay attention.

        Comic strips are written for children so they can understand very basic concepts.

        Lucy pulling the ball away from Charlie Brown repeatedly tells children that sometimes they can’t trust people, especially when those people lie to them repeatedly.

        Your chosen media has been lying to you.

        You keep believing your chosen media.

        You are Charlie Brown.

        The media is Lucy.

        You will still believe that Lucy will let you kick the ball.

        • Steve-O, you have wigged out here and it appears you think that Charles Schulz gave you the code to his comic. Next you’ll be telling us that Schulz planned for your use, too.
          Yessir, Schulz planned on that basic concept and only you understand the “meaning behind these comic strips.” Next you’ll tell us what my chosen media is. Heheh!
          You get more full of chit as you age though.

          • Bill,
            It’s a comic strip, children understand the meaning of it…no code required, just the basic ability to read and comprehend. Oh right, I forgot sorry Bill. I thought the explanation might help you understand, but obviously not. Don’t worry buddy, keep working at it one step at a time.

  16. Huh. Didn’t realize Hunter Biden was running for President in 2020. Thought it was his dad. The Republicans are desperate. The spin is in hyperdrive.

    • hmmmm… I wonder if the censorship would have gotten this bad if it was don jr doing crooked business deals while getting human trafficed foot jobs smoking rocks and kicking 10% up to the orange guy
      i think it woulda made the NY times front page, what u think se’men

  17. Like Rupert Murdoch doesn’t decide what does and doesn’t get aired on his networks in order to influence elections…??

    You’re all just ticked because you got outplayed.

    • The difference is the US government was behind it. That makes it a first amendment violation. It wasn’t just a private company censoring content, it was government officials requesting it be censored for their own gain.

    • Can you prove that? There are significant trails my side can follow to Twitter, Facebook, CNN, etc.

      Show your cards.

    • So this loss of rights is “play”? Describe this recreational destruction of our capitalist representative republic form of government and admission that this outplaying was premeditated against trusting Americans and by whom.

  18. Laptop Hillary Laptop Hillary Laptop Hillary Laptop Hillary Laptop Hillary. Barf.

    Yeah, these are the things that really matter.

    • Left-wingers like the old fool above are closed-minded and truly uneducated to any form of reason or logic. Their simple truths are embedded in what little light passes through the synapses of the frontal cortex. It must be truly painful to be such an idiot.

    • very funny and not cringe at all, now do Russia gate.
      ongoing corruption at the highest level of the federal government really doesn’t matter(as long as it’s a democrat)!!!

    • They do. They are of far more consequence than anything Trump has been accused of so far.

      I’ve noticed you’re becoming less rational and more hysterical lately. Things OK at home?

        • Lucinda’s a fruitcake. A swishing, non-binary wannabee. Wishing she/he was a they/them. Too much time on hand and growing old by the minute. Time is of the essence because there isn’t much left of it. Adious, Lucinda.

  19. Weird the only Biden I remember on the ballot in 2020 was Joe, still wondering what
    his son has to do with how I voted. Also sounds like you cons want to get rid of a private organizations right to be free of government influence.

    • “10% for the big guy”.
      Have you seen the items on his laptop?

      Imagine if it was Donald Trump Jr who had that info on his laptop, the country would be outraged. And the videos of him smoking a crack pipe in his underwear…

      • Well we all know Don Jr smokes crack, have you seen that glazed look in his eyes, or maybe that’s just his mental illness, it runs in the family, but hey I don’t judge. It’s a free country.

        • Classic progressive smear. But I give you this. It’s effectively taught people to shut up instead of fighting back.

          I’m curious how you are so acquainted with the effects of crack. Personal experience?

  20. Oh and how many rabbit hole conspiracy’s are you righties gonna go down before you finally realize you are selling a sh*tty product that no one wants.

  21. So entertaining to read left leaning folks thrash around trying to unlearn the truth as it’s being revealed. Unfortunately, many are so indoctrinated that it’s easy for them to just ignore everything that doesn’t conform to their worldview.

    • Yeah that’s funny coming from a member of the MAGA cult. Y’all never ignore anything that doesn’t conform to your worldview. Hilarious hypocracy.

      • I’m curious. Is snark your only weapon? You seem to lack anything resembling intelligent rebuttal.

        And you might prove more effective in your snark if your grammar and punctuation were better. Public school grad?

    • It is just easier to defend the lies than to admit that you have been had. Some people still hold to the idea that the earth is flat. And they can prove it. This is better than the Sunday comics of yesteryear.

  22. This goes far beyond Twitter and the laptop story.

    I had hoped to see more specific evidence in this big release – names, dates, etc. But after learning about the direct involvement of none other than Jim Baker as Deputy General Counsel for Twitter, I was no longer surprised at the murkiness of it all. Baker was previously General Counsel for the FBI where he played a very active role in the Russia-Russia investigation against the Trump administration. After that siege failed, Baker was transferred to Twitter about 6 months before the 2020 election. That means Musk will never find any paper trail showing FBI’s involvement in canceling the NYPost Hunter laptop story at Twitter, because Baker himself is the smoking gun.

    Also, was anyone else (other than Miranda Devine) suspicious of the last-minute 3-hour delay in releasing the files to the Internet? Were portions removed from the final package?

    Who else has the FBI and DOJ embedded in the tech and media industry?

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