By Neil Patel
https://dailycaller.com/author/npatel/
The New York Post’s breaking news of emails purporting to show Hunter Biden scheming to make money off the family name has created a social media firestorm. Twitter began blocking users from sharing it almost instantly. Facebook didn’t block the story outright, but they did announce almost immediately that they were “reducing its distribution on our platform.” Even for the most sober observer, it sure seems like the social media platforms are interfering with the free flow of information relevant to our election. This is all the more so when you consider that stories critical of President Donald Trump, such as the anonymous leaks of his taxes, were not similarly blocked or throttled.
There are a few caveats needed to look at this objectively.
First, the Post story was interesting but not earth-shattering. We have known for quite a while that Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine were — to say the least — shady. Only the most bitter Biden partisan would pretend that Hunter Biden got all that money for any other reason than that his father was vice president. The new emails indicate that Joe Biden actually met with Hunter’s high-dollar Ukrainian client, Burisma. If true, that’s a big advance to the story and means Joe Biden has been less than truthful to date. None of this proves Biden did anything corrupt on behalf of his son, but it doesn’t look great.
Second, the sourcing of the Post story is odd and worthy of potential challenge. The data in question was reportedly on a laptop that was left behind at a computer repair shop and never picked up. Apparently, the shop owner had a right to examine the contents after it was abandoned for 90 days. He says he called the FBI and also made a copy, which he somehow got to Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani and former Trump insider Steve Bannon. Campaigns play games late in elections. It’s fair to question all this, given the characters involved and the facts alleged.
What’s not fair is for purportedly neutral tech platforms to arbitrarily decide people should not see this information. That’s what Twitter and Facebook did. Twitter justified the decision in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation: “In line with our Hacked Materials Policy, as well as our approach to blocking URLs, we are taking action to block any links to or images of the material in question on Twitter.” Facebook issued a statement immediately upon publication calling for the Post piece to be fact-checked and indicating that its distribution would be reduced with no justification provided.
https://dailycaller.com/2020/10/15/patel-big-techs-election-interference-has-gone-too-far/