Twitter's involvement in the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story was a subject of a House Oversight Committee hearing, which provided evidence of the FBI's collaboration with Twitter. The story, which was published by the New York Post, contained accurate information, and the laptop's incriminating content was real. However, social media platforms, including Twitter, suppressed the story, potentially aiding Joe Biden in his election. The following are the key points discussed during the hearing:
- Former top Twitter executives who censored the Hunter Biden laptop story in advance of the 2020 presidential election admitted it was wrong to do so.
- The FBI worked in collaboration with Twitter to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story.
- The committee subpoenaed James Baker, a former general counsel for the FBI, who played an instrumental role in pushing the Russia collusion hoax, to testify as a key witness. However, he falsely portrayed himself as the voice of reason who urged caution in censoring the story. Internal emails and other documents disclosed during the hearing show the opposite is true.
- Twitter's head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, argued that the story did not violate any of Twitter's policies and should not be censored. However, he was overruled by executives above him, including Vijaya Gadde, the former general counsel of Twitter, who asserted that the Post article was based on hacked materials, even though there was no evidence of hacking and Hunter's damning emails appeared authentic.
- The FBI collaborated with Twitter to diminish the free speech rights of millions of people. The bureau was sending requests to terminate tweets, shadowban conservatives, and banish accounts they didn't like. The FBI had at least nine former agents working at Twitter, and they had their secret messaging system.
- Ranking Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin dismissed the allegations, claiming that since Twitter is a private company, it can do whatever it wants with no consequence. However, the government using a private company as a proxy to censor information violates the Constitution, and a government actor cannot pressure or direct private citizens or entities to do what the First Amendment prohibits the government from doing.
- The FBI's sustained censorship campaign primed Twitter to eliminate the laptop story. By virtue of its clandestine spying, the agency knew that the laptop scandal would eventually drop sometime before the election. The FBI had seized the laptop in December 2019 and were alarmed by its incendiary contents of criminal wrongdoing.
- Many in the mainstream media willingly abided by refusing to report on the laptop. Fifty-one former U.S. intelligence officials penned a letter falsely stating that it had "all the earmarks" of Russian disinformation.
