Elon Musk promised to increase transparency at Twitter. And now he’s done it by releasing internal documents surrounding the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story in the days leading up to the 2020 election. Despite the media’s attempts to largely ignore the facts, it can officially be said that Twitter’s actions had a major effect on the presidential election.
Both Democrats and Republicans could theoretically ask for the censoring of posts they objected to, but in reality, Twitter primarily honored requests from Biden apologists and the Democratic National Committee.
The effort to suppress a New York Post article on the laptop went so far as to use measures previously limited to blocking child pornography (much of which went unchecked). And although the story was blocked due to being based on hacked material, many Twitter staff weren’t buying it. Nonetheless, in the end, Donald Trump simply couldn’t be allowed to win reelection.
Joe Biden had other friends as well. In the months ahead of the 2020 election, the FBI met monthly with representatives from Twitter. As the election drew nearer, these meetings occurred weekly. They included warnings that just as Russia had attempted to influence the 2016 presidential campaign, it could be expected to dump a new batch of discredited hacked material on the laptop.
None of this should have been surprising. Five months prior to the 2020 election, the FBI’s top attorney, James Baker, who pushed the Trump/Russia collusion narrative before leaving the agency, was hired by Twitter. From there, he was instrumental in censoring the New York Post article and other sensitive information.
Interestingly, Baker was recently fired by Elon Musk after it was determined Baker tried to intercept the flow of new and damaging information. And Twitter was swarming with other former FBI and CIA agents. Just what were they all doing?
Another batch of information released by Musk revealed that Twitter teams built blacklists, prevented disfavored tweets from trending and actively limited entire accounts or trending topics like COVID in secret without telling users. Such activity was even concealed from then Twitter-head Jack Dorsey, who testified on Capitol Hill that Twitter did not censor.
Of course, none of this matters to the press. Not even when they perpetually feign outrage over Russian interference in U.S. elections while Twitter apparently did the same thing.
For according to a largely ignored post by Musk, Twitter likely interfered in Brazil’s recent presidential election by editorializing on trending topics leading up to the vote. What remains unclear is if the U.S. government was involved in an election which Brazil’s former socialist president Luiz Lula da Silva won by a razor-thin margin.
Whether the controversy pertains to Twitter’s role in domestic politics or foreign elections, the sound of crickets is deafening. Coordinated censorship is perfectly fine and there is no news to be found, so long as the progressive cause moves on. And all the while, the left displays its mastery of accusing its opponents of what it actually gets away with.
So, as the left rails on about the importance of democracy and freedom, legitimate elections are secondary to the maintenance of power. The duty of the press is to provide cover in advancing the progressive agenda around the world, and discrediting anyone who gets in the way. And in the end, Constitutionally-guaranteed free speech is the greatest casualty.
In the case of the Hunter Biden laptop, Democrats didn’t care what sordid, criminal information it contained that might extend to Joe Biden. The threat presented by a second term of Donald Trump justified any means to destroy him. This same process is now being used to call for the launching of varied investigations against Elon Musk, even as he just disbanded Twitter’s “Trust and Safety Council.”
The Twitter fiasco exemplifies the unequal application of rules when it comes to left vs. right. No amount of wishing this weren’t so will change it. Conservatives must follow Musk’s model and dedicate themselves to gaining control of institutions playing a vital role in maintaining the founding values of America and keeping it strong for future generations.
Mark Figley is a political activist and guest columnist from Elida. His column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Lima News editorial board or AIM Media, owner of The Lima News.
