5 things to know about the first 2 installments of the 'Twitter Files'
2. Democrats urged Twitter to further censor the Hunter Biden laptop story.
On Oct. 15, 2020, one day after The New York Post published the story about the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop, Carl Szabo of the research firm NetChoice sent an email to Twitter's head of public policy, Lauren Culbertson, outlining the opinions of staffers working for members of the U.S. Congress about the company's actions related to the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Specifically, NetChoice "met informally with 9 Republican and 3 Democratic House staffers" who "hail from the House Judiciary Committee to Rep. Judy Chu's office."
According to Taibbi, "NetChoice [let] Twitter know a 'blood bath' awaits in upcoming Hill hearings, with members saying it's a 'tipping point,' complaining tech has 'grown so big that they can't even regulate themselves, so government may need to intervene.'"
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While Szabo reported that "both Democrats and the Republicans were very angry," he stated that Democrats believed social media companies were not doing enough to suppress the story.
"The Democrats, meanwhile, complained that the companies are inept: They let conservatives muddy the water and make the Biden campaign look corrupt even though Biden is innocent," he said. "They linked this to Hillary Clinton's email scandal: she did nothing wrong but because the press wouldn't let the story go, it became a scandal far out of proportion. In their mind, social media is doing the same thing: it doesn't moderate enough harmful content so when it does, like it did yesterday, it becomes a story."
Szabo summarized the Democrats' position: "if the companies moderated more, conservatives wouldn't even think to use social media for disinformation, misinformation, or otherwise." He noted, "The Democrats were in agreement: social media needs to moderate more because they're corrupting democracy and making all 'truth' relative." When pressed about how such moderation was compatible with the First Amendment, Democrats responded, "the First Amendment isn't absolute."
36.Twitter files continued:
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
"THE FIRST AMENDMENT ISN’T ABSOLUTE”
Szabo’s letter contains chilling passages relaying Democratic lawmakers’ attitudes. They want “more” moderation, and as for the Bill of Rights, it's "not absolute" pic.twitter.com/cWdNYIprp8
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected]
