Report Details Twitter Censorship Before 2020 Presidential Election

On Friday night, Matt Taibbi (Center Bias) began tweeting the first installment of ‘The Twitter Files,’ detailing internal discussions at the social media company in the lead up to the 2020 Presidential election, specifically focusing on the platform’s censorship and suppression of a story from the New York Post detailing emails obtained from the laptop of Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, that indicated a possible abuse of power.

Key Quotes: Taibbi labeled the report “an incredible story from inside one of the world’s largest and most influential social media platforms.” Detailing how the company handled their suspicion regarding the authenticity of the Hunter Biden story, Taibbi stated that “Twitter took extraordinary steps to suppress the story, removing links and posting warnings that it may be ‘unsafe.’ They even blocked its transmission via direct message, a tool hitherto reserved for extreme cases, e.g. child pornography.”

How the Media Covered It: The first installment of this report was the top story in many outlets on the right Saturday morning, with the New York Post calling the report “damning.” It was covered less prominently on the left, with the angle being that the new information did not reveal much besides dysfunction and confusion at Twitter HQ at the time. The Washington Examiner (Lean Right Bias) posted a similar article detailing disappointment from conservative pundits who questioned if there was more to the story that was not being released. Forbes stated the report “doesn’t deliver any particular shocking new details.”