Twitter suspended the Trump campaign’s account Thursday after the social media team posted a video that labeled Joe Biden a liar for his dishonesty about his knowledge of his son’s business dealings, which the New York Post revealed on Wednesday after obtaining a copy of one of Hunter Biden’s alleged hard drives.
“Twitter has suspended @TeamTrump for posting a video calling Joe Biden a liar who has been ripping off our country for years, as it relates to the @nypost article. 19 days out from the election,” wrote Mike Hahn, Director of Social Media for the Trump campaign.
Twitter has suspended @TeamTrump for posting a video calling Joe Biden a liar who has been ripping off our country for years, as it relates to the @nypost article.
19 days out from the election. pic.twitter.com/Z9FFzridyr
— Mike Hahn (@mikehahn_) October 15, 2020
The Trump Campaign says that this censorship is not only a direct attack on the election but also acts as a coverup for Biden.
“This is chilling censorship of a sitting President’s re-election campaign 19 days from an election, plain and simple. Twitter is interfering in the election and trying to stop the public from learning damning information about the Biden family’s corruption at all cost, but our campaign and our supporters will not be silenced,” Trump Campaign Rapid Response Director Andrew Clark said.
The suspension follows an alarming pattern of big tech companies such as Facebook and Twitter censoring or locking prominent and verified users out of their accounts for sharing the Post’s findings.
Not only was Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s personal account locked on Wednesday for an unspecified amount of time after she shared the Post’s bombshell article, but the news outlet’s own Twitter account was also suspended for apparently violating Twitter’s “hacked material” policy.
“The Post’s primary Twitter account (@nypost) has also been locked because the Hunter Biden stories violate its rules against the ‘distribution of hacked material,’ per email we received from Twitter,” wrote Post business reporter Noah Manskar.
The Post's primary Twitter account (@nypost) has also been locked because the Hunter Biden stories violate its rules against "distribution of hacked material," per email we received from Twitter https://t.co/wbeYd6c3CA
— Noah Manskar (@noahmanskar) October 14, 2020
In addition to these suspensions, Twitter and Facebook also began blocking users from sharing and even privately direct messaging the Post’s article on their platforms.
Facebook blatantly stated their censorship intentions, claiming that they would be limiting the distribution of the article link until it could be “fact-checked,” but Twitter did not release a formal statement about their actions and the incident until well into the evening.
The images contained in the articles include personal and private information — like email addresses and phone numbers — which violate our rules.https://t.co/plPa5SZ3we
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 14, 2020
Commentary on or discussion about hacked materials, such as articles that cover them but do not include or link to the materials themselves, aren’t a violation of this policy. Our policy only covers links to or images of hacked material themselves.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 14, 2020
While Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted his company’s handling of the event was poor, he did not apologize or acknowledge an overstep by censoring news from a verified media organization.
Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable. https://t.co/v55vDVVlgt
— jack⚡️ (@jack) October 14, 2020
Shortly after the censorship began on both Facebook and Twitter, multiple U.S. Representatives and Senators condemned the big tech companies’ actions. Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley sent letters to Dorsey, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and the Federal Elections Commission asking for clarification, more information, and even action to prevent the infringement of speech and potential election interference from happening again.
