DNC flagged Hunter Biden’s laptop coverage for Twitter censorship, new files show.

Newly Released “Twitter Files” Expose DNC’s Efforts to Censor Hunter Biden’s Laptop Coverage

A recently leaked batch of emails, known as the “Twitter Files,” has shed light on the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) attempts to pressure Twitter into censoring accounts that shared media coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 election.

Independent reporter Matt Taibbi published the new emails on Wednesday, revealing that DNC officials requested Twitter to remove accounts that shared a link to a Gateway Pundit story containing “airbrushed images from Hunter Biden videos, as well as information on how to look up and view the videos in question.” Twitter deemed this content as a violation of its rules.

While Twitter considers “non-consensual nudity” a violation, internal correspondence among Twitter employees shows that even they did not believe many of the flagged tweets warranted removal under this rule.

For example, an email from an unidentified Twitter employee on Oct. 29, 2020, revealed that the DNC sent the company several tweets related to a Hunter Biden story on Gateway Pundit and asked them to review them for non-consensual nudity. Twitter’s GETSupport team reviewed the flagged posts and found them non-actionable under this rule. However, the tweets were still referred for a spam review, which resulted in the suspension of nearly all those accounts shortly after.

A separate letter from a senior Twitter attorney documented the close relationship between Twitter and the DNC. The attorney mentioned working with the DNC on high-profile escalations, including parody accounts, whitelisting URLs, and posts related to voter suppression. Notably, the letter did not mention any corresponding notation for the Republican National Committee.

The Federalist reached out to the RNC for comment on whether they engaged in similar activities with Twitter or other Big Tech platforms before the 2020 election, but did not receive a response.

The mention of Twitter’s partnerships with federal agencies is significant in light of a recent court ruling that confirmed the Biden administration colluded with Big Tech to censor Americans exercising their constitutional rights. In Missouri v. Biden, Judge Terry Doughty issued a preliminary injunction stating that departments like the FBI and DHS cannot coordinate with or coerce platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google to silence their political enemies.

“Although this case is still relatively young, and at this stage the Court is only examining it in terms of Plaintiffs’ likelihood of success on the merits, the evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario,” wrote Doughty. The Biden administration’s motion to stay was subsequently dismissed by the court.

Collusion between Big Tech companies and the federal government to censor information about Hunter Biden’s laptop is not a new revelation. In the months leading up to the 2020 election, the FBI, which had authenticated the laptop as early as November 2019, warned Twitter and Facebook about “Russian propaganda” and “hack-and-leak operations” by state actors.

After the New York Post broke its bombshell story on the laptop weeks before the 2020 contest, both platforms went out of their way to censor the story and limit its reach. On Twitter, users were not allowed to share the story, even via direct message. The platform also removed links and posted warnings that the content may be unsafe. Similarly, Facebook announced that it would reduce the story’s distribution pending verification by third-party fact-checkers.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action, and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood