FBI Pushed Twitter to Suppress Hunter Biden Laptop Story, Paid Company Millions

by | Dec 19, 2022

FBI Pushed Twitter to Suppress Hunter Biden Laptop Story, Paid Company Millions

by | Dec 19, 2022

twitter 2021 10 d

Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

The intelligence community worked to ensure Twitter would quash The New York Post’s report on Hunter Biden’s laptop. New internal documents released by Twitter show the company received over $3 million from the FBI in the run-up to the 2020 election. 

Michael Shellenberger released several documents in a thread titled “TWITTER FILES: PART 7.” The internal files show how the intelligence community sought to influence the company. 

One goal of the FBI’s campaign was to censor content on the platform. High-ranking Twitter employees attended conferences with representatives from the intelligence community. At the meetings, the executives were primed to believe Russia would use the platform to influence the 2020 elections. 

However, the documents released by Shellenberger show Twitter repeatedly told the FBI they have no evidence of any Russian interference. A June 26, 2020, email from Twitter exec Yoel Roth said, “we don’t at this time have a clear indication that [the accounts] are foreign in origin.”

After The NY Post dropped the Hunter Biden laptop story, Twitter officials concluded the story did not violate the platform’s policies. One employee, James Baker, who previously worked with the FBI, pushed the company to determine that the Hunter Biden emails were hacked. Baker lacked proof of that assertion; it was later confirmed the emails were authentic and not stolen. 

Twitter would go on to prohibit users from even sharing a link to the article via direct messages. The story exposed corruption within the Biden family in the weeks before the 2020 election. 

According to an email released by Shellenberger, during the run-up to the election, the FBI was paying Twitter millions. “I am happy to report we have collected $3,415,323 since October 2019!” an associate of Baker wrote in February 2021. 

In addition to seeking to censor undesirable news, the FBI also sought to conduct warrantless searches of Twitter users. In Aug 2022, Twitter execs prepared for a meeting with the FBI, whose goal was “to convince us to produce more FBI EDRs.” Shellenberger tweeted, “EDRs are an “emergency disclosure request,” a warrantless search.”

Kyle Anzalone

Kyle Anzalone

Kyle Anzalone is news editor of the Libertarian Institute, opinion editor of Antiwar.com and co-host of Conflicts of Interest with Will Porter and Connor Freeman.

View all posts

Our Books

Shop books published by the Libertarian Institute.

libetarian institute longsleeve shirt

Support via Amazon Smile

Our Books

15 books

Recent Articles

Recent

South Korean President Yoon To Resign

South Korean President Yoon To Resign

The party of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol says he will step aside after his failed attempt to invoke martial law last week.  People Power Party leader Han Dong Hoon explained that Yoon would resign sometime soon and would cease all official business...

read more
Trump Calls for Immediate Ceasefire in Ukraine

Trump Calls for Immediate Ceasefire in Ukraine

President-elect Donald Trump demanded an “immediate ceasefire and negotiations” to begin in Ukraine. Trump made the remarks on Truth Social shortly after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Likewise, Zelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal...

read more

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This