On Monday, it was reported that Google, which owns YouTube, had decided to term “mostly false” the claims that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden stated in the past that he would ban fracking, adding that term if a user of their YouTube platform searched for Biden making such a statement.
It was also reported that no similar fact-check was posted about videos from the mainstream media that featured debunked claims about the infamous Steele dossier that was used to attack President Trump.
On Google's YouTube platform, they are automatically posting a "Mostly False" factcheck if a user seems to be searching for Biden saying he'll ban fracking. There is no such editorializing about videos from Washington Post, CBS News, etc. with debunked claims about Steele Dossier pic.twitter.com/rTsT51mM6l
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) October 26, 2020
Biden has made many statements speaking of his opposition to fracking. President Trump paid tribute with a video after Biden snapped at him to produce a video showing Biden had done so.
During the final debate between Biden and President Trump, Biden spoke of transitioning from the oil industry:
Trump: We’re going to have the greatest economy in the world, but if you want to kill the economy, get rid of your oil industry, like you want. And what about fracking? Now we have to ask him about fracking.
Biden: I never said I oppose fracking.
Trump: You said it on tape.
Biden: Show the tape, put it on your website.
Trump: I’ll put it on.
Biden: Put it on the website. The fact of the matter is he’s flat lying.
Trump answered with this video:
As per your request, Joe… https://t.co/78mzcfLEsF pic.twitter.com/AalVkSfHFi
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 23, 2020
Big tech’s efforts to protect Biden have included Twitter banning the New York Post’s account after the Post reported on Hunter Biden’s business dealings. The Daily Wire reported on October 18:
The New York Post’s Twitter account has been suspended since Wednesday and now, Fox Business reports, Twitter has told the outlet that access will not be restored until the Post deletes certain Tweets referencing their Hunter Biden coverage. “Twitter confirmed to FOX Business that the Post ‘has been informed what is necessary to unlock their account,'” and that includes “six tweets about its reporting on 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden,” per Fox. The Post itself reports that Twitter told them that the announced policy changes do not apply to their situation: “While we’ve updated the policy, we don’t change enforcement retroactively. You will still need to delete the Tweets to regain access to your account.”
On October 22, The Daily Wire noted:
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted unanimously on Thursday to subpoena the testimonies of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg … Republican members want the two CEOs to testify about their handling of a recent series of articles by the New York Post, America’s fourth-largest newspaper, concerning former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s business dealings. Both social media sites suppressed the stories. … The Judiciary Committee voted to compel the CEOs to testify about their ‘suppression and/or censorship’ of the Post articles, one that alleged Hunter Biden introduced his father to a top executive at Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company where he worked.
Biden himself has snapped at a reporter asking him about his son and a laptop that allegedly belonged to him. On Saturday a reporter said to Biden, “Questions [and] controversy continue today about Hunter Biden, your son’s—” before being cut off by Biden, who claimed, “There is no controversy about my son. It’s all a lie. It’s a flat lie because the president has nothing else to run on. If you noticed, while the American people are talking about what’s happening to their families; he has no plan [and] at the debate, he has no plan.”