EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Jim Banks Demands Answers From Facebook Over New York Post’s Reporting On Hunter Biden

Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks sent a letter Thursday to Facebook policy communications director Andy Stone asking him if the company ever did a third-party fact check of the New York Posts’ reporting on Hunter Biden while mentioning Stone’s ties to Congressional Democrats.

The Daily Caller first obtained the letter from Banks which demands answers from the tech giant for censoring reports from the New York Post that allege Joe and Hunter Biden met with a Burisma executive in 2015. In October of 2020, Stone announced that Facebook was reducing the article’s reach on the platform even before it had been reviewed by third-party fact-checkers.

Stone then sent out a tweet to a link of a Facebook policy explantation, saying: “This is part of our standard process to reduce the spread of misinformation. We temporarily reduce distribution pending fact-checker review.”

“On October 14, 2020, you tweeted: ‘While I will intentionally not link to the New York Post, I want be clear that this story is eligible to be fact checked by Facebook’s third-party fact checking partners. In the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform.’ You continued: ‘This is part of our standard process to reduce the spread of misinformation. We temporarily reduce distribution pending fact-checker review,’” Banks wrote in the letter.

“Facebook subsequently suppressed the New York Posts’ reporting on emails obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop. The emails showed Hunter Biden had introduced then-Vice President Joe Biden to Burisma executives a year after Burisma hired Hunter Biden on a $50,000 a week salary,” Banks added. (RELATED: Both Of The Media’s Reasons For Suppressing The Hunter Biden Story Turned Out To Be ‘False’)

He then began listing off Democratic members of Congress that Stone has worked for. Banks also asked if Facebook ever completed a third-party fact check of the New York Posts’ reporting and where it is, if that was the case.

READ THE LETTER HERE:

(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers

“You’ve worked in communications for Congressional Democrats’ House Majority PAC, Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat House Member Jerry McNerney and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Because of your extensive experience in communications and the gravity of Facebook’s decision ahead of the 2020 election, I’m assuming you didn’t just make the tweet up and received permission to tweet from your Facebook superiors,” Banks continued. (RELATED: ‘Actively Interfering In This Election’ — GOP Senators Want To Subpoena Twitter And Facebook CEOs Over New Censorship)

“So: Did Facebook ever complete a third-party fact check of the New York Posts’ reporting? Where is it?” he asked.

The email the New York Post first reported on allegedly shows talks between Burisma executive Vadym Pozharsky and Hunter Biden.

“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent some time together,” Pozharskyi allegedly wrote to Biden in an April 2015 email. “It’s really an honor and pleasure.”

The Daily Caller has not independently confirmed the authenticity of the email, although a cybersecurity expert previously authenticated the email.

“Big Tech’s censorship of conservatives is so aggressive and wide-ranging its head spinning. It’s hard to remember which conservative beliefs now qualify as ‘disinformation,’ and it’s easy to forget that Facebook suppressed a legitimate and damaging story weeks ahead of 2020 in order to put Joe Biden in the White House. Facebook committed a serious crime against our democracy that they still haven’t answered for. We shouldn’t forget or forgive until they do,” Banks told the Daily Caller.