The great Twitter and Facebook masquerade is over.
Posing as disinterested and neutral media platforms, they have unmasked themselves as partisan protectors of Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden and propaganda advocates of the progressive cause. It is time that Twitter and Facebook be forced to halt their destructive practices or be broken up.
The two technology giants wield too much marketplace power in the ever-expanding social media universe. With power comes abuse.
This was on full display Wednesday when both Twitter and Facebook blocked access to a New York Post story offering stunning email evidence that Biden may have exploited his position as vice president to financially benefit his son, Hunter Biden.
If the Post’s evidence is authentic, as it appears to be, it would put a lie to the candidate’s previous denials that he engaged in influence peddling and knew nothing about his son’s business dealings.
Among the incriminating emails is a smoking-gun message from a top executive at the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma thanking Hunter for arranging a meeting with his father in Washington. The son was being paid a minimum of $50,000 a month by Burisma to sit on its board, even though he had absolutely no experience in either natural gas or Ukrainian affairs. The Post later pegged his full salary at $83,000 per month.
As Hunter was pocketing the cash, his company Burisma was under siege for suspected corrupt practices and searching desperately for a way to quash any government action against it. Emails from Burisma asked Hunter to tap his influence. Message received loud and clear.
When the Post’s story on all of this broke early Wednesday, the Biden campaign called a complete “lid” on in-person activities for the day. It wasn’t even 10 am as the nominee hid from reporters, retreated to his bunker, and instituted a phalanx strategy.
A carefully worded statement was issued insisting that Biden’s “official schedules” showed no such meeting with a Burisma executive. It was a classic non-denial denial. No one was buying it. By the end of the day, the campaign was conceding that an “informal” meeting might have occurred. In every other aspect, the core of the Post’s story and the veracity of the emails were not disputed by Biden.
It is obvious why Hunter Biden was being paid such an outlandish sum of money every month despite his utter lack of qualifications. Burisma was in deep trouble. It was searching for a powerful political figure who could exert pressure on Ukraine to leave the company alone. Joe Biden fit the bill perfectly. He was the vital point-person in the Obama Administration’s foreign policy directives to Ukraine.
Sure enough, the elder Biden intervened and later bragged about it on camera. He threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine unless the chief prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, was fired from his job. Shokin is on record stating that he was poised to launch a criminal investigation of Burisma where Hunter Biden was employed. With his termination, all of that suddenly and magically vanished.
What inexorable conclusion can we draw from this? The evidence is compelling that Vice President Joe Biden used the powers of his high office and taxpayer money to take action that benefited a foreign company that was paying his son. Is that a crime? It could be. It certainly merits an investigation because it is a felony for a public official to confer a benefit to a foreign government (for example, a billion dollars in financial assistance) in exchange for something of value to himself or a relative.
While it is true that not all acts of wrongdoing constitute crimes, the facts as presented by the Post deserve scrutiny by both the media and voters who are poised to cast –and, in some states, have already cast– their ballots in a presidential election. Isn’t the electorate entitled to more information, not less? The answer is a resounding yes.
In his pointed attacks on Trump, Biden has made character and corruption an issue. So, too, have many Democrats and the press. Shouldn’t Biden be held to the same standard of fitness and rectitude that he demands of his opponent? Of course he should. Biden has unwittingly invited the scrutiny he now deserves.
And yet, Twitter, Facebook, and many in the media have sought to suppress the evidence reported by the Post. This is where the story gets even more complicated, so bear with me.
The damning emails come from a laptop computer that almost certainly belongs to Hunter Biden. It was dropped off at a repair shop in Delaware and never retrieved by its owner. It is filled with communications sent and received by Hunter Biden, as well as photographs of him and what the Post describes as a raunchy video of Hunter smoking crack and having sex with an unidentified woman.
In the process of fixing the computer, the shop owner discovered the material, grew alarmed about its contents, and notified the FBI. Armed with a subpoena issued by a Delaware grand jury, the bureau seized the laptop and its hard drive in December of last year. What followed was conspicuous (if not disturbing) silence. No meaningful action was taken.
Concerned that evidence of wrongdoing involving a presidential candidate was being buried as the election draws near, the shop owner gave a copy of the hard drive to President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. From there, the Post gained access and reported its contents.
Almost immediately, Facebook initiated a blackout maneuver “reducing” the ability of users to distribute the Post article and its supporting email evidence. Facebook described the story as “potentially harmful” and it hadn’t verified its legitimacy. In making the announcement, the tech company’s policy communications manager –a long-time Democrat operative– was enunciating an absurd rule.
Nearly every major story is “potentially harmful” to someone. If that is the standard, Facebook would have no media traffic. Moreover, since when does Facebook verify the legitimacy of articles that are damaging to President Trump? The answer is never. Think of all the “collusion” stories that were peddled by major news organizations that were unverified and wrong. Facebook didn’t restrict or ban those.
More recently, Facebook did not restrict or ban access to a New York Times “potentially harmful” story on Trump’s taxes that was based on unnamed sources and documents the newspaper refused to produce.
Yet, the New York Post is not permitted to post its story on Biden based on documents it actually did produce. This is nothing more than selective and dangerous censorship motivated by political bias. It is also an effort to influence an election by the withholding of relevant information.
Twitter also banned the Post story, claiming that it violated its “Hacked Materials Policy.” Except the material wasn’t hacked at all. Hacking is unauthorized access. The repair shop was granted authorized access to fix the water-damaged laptop. Thereafter, the device was abandoned without compensation, giving the repair shop constructive ownership.
Twitter’s excuse for repressing the Post story is inane. It disingenuously declared that its policy “prohibits content obtained without authorization.” Really? Twitter must have forgotten the countless stories it has allowed that were anonymously sourced from leaked classified documents that were illegally obtained and disseminated. Twitter should do a Google search to refresh its recollection.
The unconscionable actions of these two tech giants has produced such outrage that it only managed to elevate –not suppress– the Post’s story about Biden. While there is some satisfaction in that boomerang effect, there is no doubt that both Twitter and Facebook will continue their partisan manipulation of information until they are stopped.
Congress is now duty-bound to impose new restrictions on such marketplace abuse. At the same time, the Justice Department must consider levying severe penalties or, preferably, breaking up both companies under anti-trust laws. Too much power and little accountability is a recipe for destructive behavior that is anathema to our cherished freedoms.
Like a witness who incriminates himself, the politically driven decisions by Facebook and Twitter are the best evidence against them.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I own Facebook shares that I bought years ago during its initial public offering. I have confidence in the service it provides, but I have no confidence in its Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg. The same goes for Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey. Neither of them should be at the helm of the powerful platforms they created.
Changes at the top of these important companies are long overdue.
Our government has the power to make it happen.
Does it have the courage to act?
The CEO’s of both companies should be prosecuted on the basis of election tampering. They need to learn a lesson regarding their behavior!
Maybe when Obama is out campaigning for his VP some reporter will ask him about this abuse off power by HIS VP. Also why is he endorsing him in light of these allegations. Trump aside this entire matter has nothing to do with whether Trump is a good POTUS or not. This is about personal corruption and years of his son trading on the Biden name and getting paid amounts of money he could never have earned by dint of his education or ability. The Biden crime family has exploited and utilized old Joe’s position for decades to extort money from those who needed the Senators influence.
Maybe this is standard operating procedure in D.C. and Trump is upsetting a very big apple cart. No wonder some Republicans and most all Democrats are united in their opposition to Pres. Trump. It is costing them MONEY!
I seem to remember Dinesh D’Sousa being locked up for helping a friend too much out of ignorance of the law. Here we have the Twitter and Facebook crime families who knew exactly what they were doing and did it to the tune of perhaps hundreds of millions in value to Biden. The perps need to be locked up for years like Dinesh and the companies should be fined into the stone age. Then it may be time to have the discussion of how much the CEO’s knew and when they knew it.
And POWER!
What about nationalizing both search and social media companies to make them “utilities”. While controlled by the government they would be forced to abide by the Bill of Rights.
After the communist are cleaned out of them, they can be spun out as tightly-monitored utilities.
Broken up!
It seems to me there is an extraordinarily close connection between Twitter and Facebook’s relation to the U.S. government or Deep State. One reason I think that is because Michael McKibben, of Leader Technologies, is the real creator of the social media technology that Facebook is using, but his patent was stolen. Why isn’t something done about that? Was it the government that stole the patent?
The media has always been the sharpest tool in the deep state’s toolbox to enact permanent and destructive change to our Republic. It is how despots and corrupt leaders get the masses to “follow along”. Social media is a hugely powerful influence in our society and will not voluntarily do anything until they are forced to do so. The only logical response to their treasonous behavior (as their executives thumb their noses at us) is to break them up. They are monopolies The FTC should immediately start this with many social media platforms.
If this was profit making steel companies, or profit making oil companies – the left and the FTC would be tripping over themselves to break up these “evil” firms. Hahaha, now that the monopolies are their “friends in media”, they all look the other way.
All ideas are worth considering. I just don’t want the government controlling anything more that should be handled with private commerce because there will still be political influence depending who is in office.
I think the best option is to create many competitors to Facebook and Twitter. Let the free market and competition decide who has the best product to use. The free market solution may be a little slower to find the correction we week to the monopolistic control, but it will be a stronger one when it finally arrives.
WHAT about GOOGLE? My liberal granddaughter believes that Trump is the one holding up the covid stimulus bill, when in fact it is Pelosi!! She tried to load the bill with trillions of dollars to bail out these liberal run cities that were already in the tank before covid, the cites liberal leaders allowed and even encouraged all the looting, burning, killing and destruction and now want to be bailed out and for us to suffer even more and pay for it. When Trump refused, the left said Trump didn’t want to help the average citizen, just big business, even though he said that if Pelosi and Dems wouldn’t be reasonable he would sign a stand alone 1.8 billion dollar stimulus bill to get help to Americans! Not for all these liberal run mismanaged cities. I had even read somewhere before, but could not find again, that part of the 2.2 Trillion dollars she wanted to put in the bill included giving stimulus money, free health care, housing, etc., etc., to the millions of illegal aliens.
My point is; when I tried to “GOOGLE” “what was in Pelosi’s proposal of the stimulus bill” all I got was articles from MSNBC, CNN, NY Times, CBS, etc. ALL very liberal sites that lie, lie, lie. I could not find the original article I first read on it. My granddaughter is usually a very intelligent woman, but the left has lied so much and literally brain washed an entire generation of young people.
God help us!!!
I cringe when I read something about nationalizing a business. They have revealed themselves to be what they are, entertainment venues for the left. As such they should not receive any special benefits or protections from the government. They should also be continually monitored for anti-competitive trade practices to ensure that new entrants to the market, such as Parler, compete on a level playing field. But I vote no to nationalization.
say what you want about our potus. he may not have, as yet, completely drained the “swamp”; he may not even have made a huge dent in draining it. but what he is doing an outstanding job of is, forcing the swamp to expose itself to all who are willing to look.
i believe that we have stepped into a new sphere, or paradigm, if you will. the major “media” , including social media, have elevated their game to the point where they can no longer be thought of as valid organizations that have simply made mistakes in judgement or have their unsavory biases, but as a result of their own consistent actions against the constitution, the republic and out duly elected potus, they can, in all honesty be thought of as nothing less than enemies domestic. they should be, must be, treated as such.
i think the “extraordinary close connection” is, in reality, between big tech and the globalist factions of our government; as well as those of many other governments of the world.
I’ve always been against the government overreach as well, but until now we had never seen private monopolies dead set against free speech. As the 1st Amendment protects free speech ONLY against government intrusion, the only way to force monopolies to honor free speech today is making them government entities. My only worry is the addiction to the revenue streams; government cannot be trusted to do the right thing.
The problem with applying a free-market solution to social media is the power comes from the connectedness; almost compelling monopolistic behavior. This is where the utility concept coms in. If small companies have no realistic chance of competing with a search engine or social media site, then the free market itself becomes a barrier. In this case, the slowness of a market competition approach in light of the infringement on a guaranteed right isn’t an acceptable remedy on its own.
Perhaps the solution would be to unleash one disease upon this anti-free-speech disease? Meaning liability. Take away all section 230 protections and tell the lawyer, “Go at it!” Then put tort reform on the agenda for 2030.
They are generators of HUGE revenues. It is much more likely the government would be so happy with the revenue streams that they would simply turn into another government failure. This would effectively kill FB and Twitter, so I can live with the outcome.
There is not other option but that they MUST be broken up. Their lack of care or understanding about freedom of speech is beyond repair. For what they have done they should be prosecuted for anything and everything that can be brought against them. For failing to enforce our laws, our freedom of speech, for their lying anything.
are you really ready to add these new “utilities” to your monthly bills? are you ready to trust government to offer them in a affordable manner and to stick to it? tightly monitored would just mean some pack of bureaucrats taking the place of the boards of directors of these companies. that is the precise direction we all feared the internet would take under the new net neutrality laws. turns out we were right in our concern. i am hoping that you just did not think that through.
No, GJ. No more endless investigations at taxpayers’ cost. Congress makes criminal referrals to DOJ all the time. The DOJ gets to choose the ones they take up to prosecute & the ones they don’t.
The DOJ is not fair & balanced, if only from the standpoint they do not indict, prosecute, & jail their own. I don’t believe anyone from the rank & file objects to anything done to candidate Trump, the Trump campaign, his family members, staffers, transition team, his friends or Trump supporters.
IMHAO, it also took the rank & file to get us this far in the coup. The DOJ specifically covered up its coup participation, let James Wolfe off w/just a process charge of lying to the FBI, etc., willfully ignored members of the Senate Intel Committee’s participation in the coup, lied repeatedly to the FISA Court, lied in the Flynn case to the judge & Flynn’s lawyers, wrongfully & illegally appointed a special counsel to investigate a counter-intelligence matter, not criminal wrongdoing…..The list rages onward.
Moreover, they used the FBI to do all this, as well as many more agencies. Now the DOJ will not further investigate the unmaskings done during the 2016 election campaign, I assume to protect President Ovomit & the Democrat party.
The DOJ will not carry out the President’s orders to declassify documents unredacted. Durham’s investigation is no longer a valid reason to not do so because it is ABSOLUTELY CLEAR that NOBODY WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE, including coup participants in other agencies, Congress, foreign governments, spies & Lawfare lawyers.
If Barr really wanted to shine daylight on his DOJ/FBI & renew taxpayer trust in his department, he would negotiate a deal for Assange to tell us where/who provided the “hacked” emails to Wikileaks.
If we’re not going to prosecute our own leakers who leak classified documents in the process of carrying out a coup against a presidential candidate, president-elect & a duly elected president & then his impeachment, then why are we prosecuting someone like Assange who’s the only person who can tell us the truth?
BTW AG Barr, where is our protection of the Constitution & Bill of Rights, AND why couldn’t I & millions & millions of Americans get medical care, treatment & surgery during our lockdowns?
So, no GJ, no more investigations by government officials or Congressional members who are 99.9% in the bag for overthrowing our local, state & federal governments & officials they don’t already control.
We are no longer prosecuting criminals, just Trump supporters.
WOW…This is so well explained Thank you. I give you guys this. A SKY TV interview in Australia.
**** How can any Country trust Biden as a President ?? OR a Democrat government ? The world knows…but US media are behaving like traitors censoring CRITICAL information the American people deserve to know at election time.
***All that plus Hillary’s fraud in making up the Russia/Trump/collusion LIE.
***Plus Democrats have the most ludicrously faulty &dangerous policies !!!
***Rocks in your head to vote Democrat. https://youtu.be/_zhWHsfEa
We the people will win TRUMP/PENCE 2020!!!!
With such overwhelming bias for the Democrats, is it a wonder as to why so many young tech savvy individuals have a lopsided view of politics and lean left due to the very nature of the constant communication that comes from social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, etc. Couple that with the liberal saturated university teachings that add to the near brainwashing of our youth in this country. These are such obvious things that need to be addressed and the sooner the better. A really good starting point would be to institute TERM LIMITS IMMEDIATELY. This will almost INSTANTLY END special interest group money, no more lobbyists, a good start towards a more fair system…. and so much more needed….