The following is an open letter from Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) about the unprecedented censorship of the news by entities like Facebook and Twitter. If these entities are true platforms as they allege, they have no right to censor the news that shows up.
What happened yesterday is censorship so enormous it probably makes the Chinese government envious.
Yesterday, a BOMBSHELL report was published by the New York Post which alleges Hunter Biden essentially sold access to his father’s influence. His father, who was Vice President at the time and currently the Democrat candidate for President, is Joe Biden.
We know Hunter was a paid board member for a Ukrainian energy company known as Burisma. (Remember: a CEO’s boss is the board of directors.) While Hunter didn’t necessarily need to be an expert in Ukrainian energy to sit on Burisma’s board, he sure as heck needed to bring some value or expertise to be worth the $50,000 per MONTH retainer he received.
What value or expertise did Hunter bring to Burisma? That’s the $50,000 question nobody could really figure out.
Repeatedly we were assured Hunter was not selling access to his father, Joe Biden, who was the sitting Vice President at the time. Repeatedly we were assured Hunter was not seeking favorable treatment for Burisma by the American government or influence American foreign policy, by way of his father. After all, that would have been criminal on multiple levels. Joe Biden himself is on record denying this ever happened, and numerous media outlets dutifully carried forth that narrative. “Move along, nothing to see here,” as the saying goes.
But then along comes the New York Post article yesterday, which uncovered emails between Burisma executives and Hunter Biden. And guess what? If these emails are legitimate – and we’ve no reason to think otherwise – they indicate Hunter was, in fact, selling access to his father (i.e. the Vice President) for the benefit of Burisma. They also indicate much of what we were told about this situation were lies.
In other words, the New York Post report alleges MAJOR WRONGDOING on the part of the Democrat candidate for President and his son.
So what happened yesterday when this bombshell report was published? Almost immediately, social media (Twitter and Facebook) took EXTRAORDINARY measures to censor it. Links to the NY Post’s article were blocked. Those who tried to share the article had their accounts locked, including the Twitter accounts of the New York Post, President Trump’s Campaign, and the personal account of the White House Press Secretary. Even links to official government websites where this article was reposted were flagged as “unsafe” by Twitter.
The explanations these companies are now using to try and justify this censorship reeks of double standards that would have NEVER been applied if the target of the New York Post’s article were a Republican.
Big Tech CANNOT, and should never, be the arbiter of what news we are allowed to consume. We CANNOT tolerate a small number of Big Tech employees (likely liberals) having the authority to shut down the free flow of information, particularly given what they choose *not* to censor. This close to an election, willful suppression of a report of this magnitude borders on election interference.
Ultimately, Congress needs to rewrite the laws that enable Big Tech to do this with such ease. This is why I’ve joined many of my colleagues on the House Oversight Committee to call for an emergency hearing into this issue. On the other side of Capitol Hill, Sen. Lindsey Graham announced the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote to subpoena Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, to testify next Friday.
Not only were extraordinary measures taken to prevent Americans from knowing about these apparently criminal acts, but the account of the NY Post was locked on one of these platforms in order to prevent the dissemination of these bombshell reports. The NY Post is a major newspaper with a national following. If they can do this to them without repercussions, then no one is safe.
Big Tech believes that they have the right to control what Americans think. There is no belief in the First Amendment or any other amendment for that matter. Big Tech has gone all in trying to oust PDJT from the Presidency. It is long past time for our government to step in and say “Enough!”