Twitter recently permanently suspended James O’Keefe from its platform after he published footage of a CNN executive appearing to admit that the network produces “propaganda.”
According to Twitter, he was “violating the Twitter Rules on platform manipulation and spam” — allegedly, by “operating fake accounts.”
O’Keefe immediately announced that he would sue the platform for defamation: “This is false, this is defamatory, and they will pay.”
Among other statements revealed in the undercover footage, CNN Technical Director Charlie Chester claimed that the legacy media outlet had worked to remove President Trump from office, exaggerated COVID-19 case counts to market from fear, and minimized concerns about President Biden’s cognitive abilities.
Twitter’s suspension of James O’Keefe is not unsurprising given the platform’s history of censoring prominent conservative voices. In addition to Twitter, other platforms have been eager to engage in rampant censorship — a reality reflective of social media company executives’ overwhelming tendency to support Democrats over Republicans.
Here are four more recent examples of big tech censoring bombshell stories that made powerful leftists look bad.
BLM Co-Founder’s Home-Buying Spree
Black Lives Matter activist and co-founder Patrisse Cullors — who calls herself a “trained Marxist” and believes that capitalism is “more tragic” than COVID-19 — recently purchased a $1.4 million property near Malibu, California.
As the New York Post details, Cullors has acquired over $3 million in luxury real estate since Black Lives Matter rose to national prominence. In addition to the Malibu home — located in an area where less than 2% of the population is African-American — Cullors recently purchased a $415,000 home in Atlanta, a $590,000 home in South Los Angeles, and a $510,000 home in Inglewood.
Soon after its publication, Facebook users discovered that they were unable to share the Post’s story.
When users attempted to post the link, they received a message warning that the content “goes against our Community Standards.” Facebook told “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that the content “was removed for violating our privacy and personal information policy.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) noted on Twitter that The New York Post had suffered similar censorship in the recent past: “where have I seen this before”?
Hunter Biden’s Laptop
Indeed, groundbreaking New York Post stories have repeatedly been the target of big tech’s ire.
In October of 2020 — less than a month before the presidential election — the Post confirmed that Hunter Biden had introduced Ukrainian energy executive Vadym Pozharskyi to his father.
“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure,” read an email obtained by the outlet. The message appeared to stand in stark contrast to then-candidate Joe Biden’s claim that he had “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.”
Although the story had potentially massive implications for the Biden campaign, Twitter stopped users from sharing the story link on their platform — a move condemned by The New York Post’s editorial board as indicative of why Americans distrust legacy media and big tech.
“With the election over, news media that followed Facebook and Twitter’s lead in suppressing the report are finally running it,” the editors wrote in December. “But they’ve taught the public not to trust them. And the social-media firms provided damning evidence that they qualify as publishers, not ‘platforms’ that can escape accountability for their content.”
“Sure, Facebook, Twitter and other media are private companies and can do whatever they like. But news gatekeepers have an ethical duty to present all the important news, even when it makes their favored candidates look bad,” they added. “Getting caught keeping Americans in the dark is an extremely bad business move.”
Republican lawmakers agreed. After the election, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) grilled Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey — who has donated extensively to many left-leaning causes, including Boston University Professor Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research — about the incident.
“You do realize that by taking down that story you probably gave it more prominence and more visibility than it ever would have gotten had you left it alone?” asked Sen. Cornyn during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Dorsey responded that his firm had made a “mistake” both “in terms of the intention of the policy and also the enforcement action of not allowing people to share it publicly or privately.”
DeSantis COVID Roundtable
Labeling it as “medical misinformation,” YouTube took down a video of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) speaking about COVID-19.
In early April, Gov. DeSantis hosted a discussion with Hoover Institution fellow Scott Atlas, Harvard Medical School professor Martin Kulldorff, Oxford epidemiologist Dr. Sunetra Gupta, and Stanford University Professor Jay Bhattacharya. The medical professionals spoke against the need for children to wear masks to school; for instance, Bhattacharya said that the policy was “absolutely not the right thing to do,” observing that “if we went back a year, a lot of experts would say that wearing masks for the general public is not evidence-based.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci — who leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — told Americans as recently as March 2020 that “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask” in response to COVID-19.
YouTube — which is owned by Google — removed Gov. DeSantis’ video to “support the health and safety of our users,” according to a statement provided to TheWrap. A YouTube representative said that the video “included content that contradicts the consensus of local and global health authorities regarding the efficacy of masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”
Gov. DeSantis has frequently slammed big tech companies for suppressing conservatives on their platforms.
“What began as a group of upstart technology companies from the west coast has since transformed into an industry of monopoly communications platforms that monitor, influence, and control the flow of information in our country and among our citizens,” said DeSantis at a press conference about a bill that would enact fines for instances of censorship. “These platforms have played an increasingly decisive role in elections and have negatively impacted Americans who dissent from orthodoxies favored by the big tech cartel.”
Project Veritas Facebook Sting
James O’Keefe and Project Veritas are continuous targets of censorship.
In the wake of Project Veritas releasing footage critical of a Facebook executive two months ago, Twitter “permanently suspended” the official Project Veritas account for “repeated violations of Twitter’s private information policy.” The company also temporarily locked O’Keefe’s account.
“Twitter locked Project Veritas’s and my Twitter accounts, claiming we violated Twitter Guidelines by posting a video of our journalists asking questions of Facebook’s Vice President Guy Rosen which Rosen refused to answer,” O’Keefe told Politico. “Twitter claimed the video published private information, which is false. Twitter invited Project Veritas to, and we did, appeal that decision with Twitter.”
“In an apparent act of retaliation for daring to question their authority, Twitter responded to our appeal by suspending our account, continuing to tell us that Project Veritas could delete the tweet and have our account reinstated,” he added.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.