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Twitter Said It Blocked Hunter Biden Stories Because U.S. Intelligence Shared ‘Rumors’ Of Biden Hack

   DailyWire.com
In this screenshot from the DNCC’s livestream of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, addresses the virtual convention on August 20, 2020.
Handout/DNCC via Getty Images

On Tuesday, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) determined that Twitter did not violate election laws by suppressing a damaging story about then-candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter. While speaking to the FEC, the head of Twitter’s Site Integrity Team, Yoel Roth, said U.S. intelligence officials had shared “rumors” of the possibility that Joe Biden was in danger of being hacked.

The Washington Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross reported that Roth used these “rumors” to justify the social media giant’s suppression of the Hunter Biden story, which was initially broken by the New York Post. The Post had obtained a laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter that had been left at a computer repair shop in Delaware.

On Wednesday, the FEC released documents relating to its decision to dismiss the complaint against Twitter, which was filed by a conservative group. All six members of the commission, which includes Democrats and Republicans, voted to dismiss the complaint.

“The commission pointed to Roth’s testimony that U.S. officials warned him individuals close to political campaigns would likely be targeted in ‘hack-and-leak’ operations close to the election. Roth said he met frequently throughout 2020 with government officials to discuss election security. He said he learned in one of the meetings that ‘there were rumors that a hack-and-leak operation would involve Hunter Biden,’” Ross wrote.

As Ross noted, the FEC didn’t come to a conclusion about whether Hunter Biden’s laptop was hacked, but no evidence exists to suggest that was the case.

As The Daily Wire previously reported, Roth, the Twitter executive who spoke to the FEC, is hardly a nonpartisan actor. He has routinely insulted Republican politicians and conservative voters. Last year, he referred to former President Donald Trump and his administration as “ACTUAL NAZIS.” While the votes were being counted in 2016, Roth tweeted that “we fly over those states that voted for a racist tangerine for a reason.” He’s praised anti-Trump rallies and called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) a “bag of farts.”

When reporting about the FEC decision, The New York Times claimed the Post stories were “unsubstantiated,” even though the FBI was provided the laptop ahead of the Post reporting and there is no evidence to suggest the laptop isn’t authentic.

In fact, Hunter himself admitted that it is “certainly” possible the laptop really is his, though he added that it could have been stolen or hacked. The owner of the computer repair shop where it was left provided a receipt with Hunter’s signature showing he dropped off the laptop.

Without any evidence the laptop or its information was fake, Twitter blocked links to the Post’s article and also suspended the Post’s account, citing policy about publishing hacked information. Other social media outlets also blocked access to the article in the weeks before the 2020 election. No such action was ever taken by these outlets when the damaging information was against former President Donald Trump. For example, The New York Times reported information about Trump’s taxes that it could not have obtained legally, since tax information is private. Twitter took no issue with the Times publishing that information.

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