FACT CHECK: AOC Says Twitter Censorship of Hunter’s Laptop Was ’24-Hour Hiccup’

Claim: Twitter’s 2020 censorship of Hunter Biden’s laptop story was an act of censorship. “24-hour hiccup.”

AOC complains to the Oversight committee “talking about Hunter Biden’s half fake laptop story.”

“A whole hearing about a 24 hour hiccup in a right-wing political operation … it’s just an abuse of public resources and an abuse of public time.” pic.twitter.com/rb4DONhWC2

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) February 8, 2023

Who said it? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D., N.Y., who has made a career out of complaining about small-minded slights against others on social media.

Why it matters Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats are downplaying the electoral impact of Twitter’s decision to block users from sharing the laptop story—which included unflattering revelations about President Joe Biden and his family’s business activities—in the weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election.

Context: The House Oversight Committee is headed by Republican Rep. James Comer (Ky.). It is looking into whether Twitter improperly assisted the Biden campaign through suppressing the New York PostThe bombshell story by’s about the laptop. It included information about Hunter Biden’s suspicious foreign business deals, and his attempts to cash in on His Father’s political position.

An ex-official at Twitter told the committee Wednesday that Twitter initially suspected the allegations. PostBased on “Russian disinformation,” Many Biden supporters also supported this claim. Later, this claim was found to be unfounded and the ex-Twitter official stated that he now believes that the censorship was intentional. “mistake.”

Analysis: Twitter banned users from sharing the information PostThe article was published almost immediately after its publication on Oct. 14. It expressed concerns about the “origins of the materials” Citing the company’s anti-hacking policy. The social media site also blocked the access. PostThe paper’s Oct. 14 tweet was retweeted by’s twitter account and refused to remove a link from its article.

Twitter lifted the link ban, and users could tweet the article two days later on Oct. 16. Twitter refused to restore the link ban. Post‘s Twitter account until Oct. 30, however—16 days after the article was initially posted.

Sixteen days is more than 24 hours. Therefore, AOC’s claim of censorship being a one-day event seems absurd. “hiccup” This is inaccurate.

Twitter’s actions also contributed to the now-debunked claim of the Post‘s report was based on “Russian disinformation,” It discouraged many Americans to take the news seriously during the crucial days leading to the election. This claim could have caused further damage