Twitter disclosure spurs demands from Americans across the political spectrum for online censorship investigations

More than two-thirds of voters believe Elon Musk’s recent revelations made public in his Twitter files require further investigation by Congress, according to a new poll, and conservatives on social media Concerns about voice censorship have been shown to extend well beyond Republican constituencies.

Musk’s steady leak of internal documents since taking over Twitter reveals that the platform worked with the Biden campaign and federal agencies to control speech. It counteracts Twitter’s liberal tendency to censor conservative views and suppress news stories that linked then-candidate Joseph R. exposed.

While these revelations have been largely ignored by the liberal-leaning traditional new outlets, voters across the political spectrum say the deeds exposed in the Twitter file likely crossed a line.

According to a recent study by the Harvard Center for American Political Studies and Harris Insights & Analytics, 71% of Republicans, 65% of Democrats, and 68% of independents said Congress and the FBI were criticized for potential civil and corrective action by Twitter. We believe that Article 1 violations need to be thoroughly investigated.

The Twitter files reveal close collaboration between social media companies and federal authorities to moderate content, including requests by the FBI to censor individual posts and ban certain users.

Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, one of the independent journalists granted access to Musk’s vault, said in a Slack exchange published by Matt Taibbi that the state He wrote that he had met with federal officials in the Office of the Director of Intelligence. FBI and Homeland Security on Hunter Biden’s Twitter censorship of his laptop story.

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SEE ALSO: Latest ‘Twitter Files’ Reveal Platform Helped Pentagon Intelligence Operations

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During these meetings, Twitter executives were alerted to rumors that Hunter Biden would be targeted in a “hacking and leaking operation,” the warnings prompting the social media platform to expose the then-candidate in New York. Partially suppressed October 2020 article in the Post. Links to Joe Biden’s son’s embarrassing and potentially illegal business. It refuted claims that President Biden was unaware of and was not involved in his son’s overseas business.

In December 2019, the FBI questioned whether the newspaper took possession of the laptop 10 months before it released the materials from the computer and tried to discredit the materials the agency had already authenticated.

A Harvard-Harris poll found that 74% of voters said they would face criminal charges if Twitter employees were found to be working with federal authorities to suppress content that violated people’s First Amendment rights. I understand that you think you should be prosecuted.

The figure includes 82% of Republicans, 69% of Democrats and 73% of independents, who said Twitter employees should be criminally prosecuted.

Most voters (64%) believe Twitter “engaged in political censorship” during the 2020 election. That majority includes his 59% of Democrats polled in Harvard Harris polls.

A majority of voters, 61%, said Twitter’s decision to ban tweets specifically about Hunter Biden’s laptop was political, including nearly half (48%) of Democrats surveyed in a Harvard Harris poll. He said it was based on prejudice.

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See also: ‘Twitter file’ shows FBI gave top secret information to executives to guide 2020 election censorship

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48% of voters said Twitter specifically tried to help Biden during the 2020 election, 25% said Twitter employees were on the sidelines of former President Donald Trump,28 % said Twitter employees were treated equally.

Forty percent of Democrats said Twitter employees want to help Biden.

Voters felt particularly strongly about the political censorship of James Baker, who joined Twitter after serving as Twitter’s top attorney in the 2020 presidential election and serving as an FBI attorney for many years.

During his time at the FBI, Baker was a key facilitator of the FBI’s much-criticized investigation into whether former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Ahead of the 2020 election, the FBI set up a top-secret briefing with Mr. Baker, who later pressured Twitter to block reports threatening then-candidate Biden, according to documents in Twitter files. .

Twitter was in chaos the day the New York Post published the story, but Baker arranged a call with Matthew J. Perry of the FBI General Counsel’s Office, according to an internal email.

An overwhelming majority of Americans (76%) said Baker “acted politically by banning information about Hunter Biden’s laptop.”

The sentiment extends to the political spectrum, with 85% of Republicans, 70% of Democrats and 73% of independents saying Baker is politically motivated.

And beyond Twitter’s involvement in the 2020 election, 69% of those surveyed said Twitter employees were working with government officials to “censor tweets that question COVID or other policies.” There is.” This figure includes 78% Republicans, 67% Democrats, and 61% independents.

Sixty-eight percent of respondents said such behavior, if true, would violate the First Amendment. This figure includes 77% Republicans, 62% Democrats, and 66% independents.

A Harvard Harris poll, which surveyed 1,851 registered voters between Dec. It reflects a broader perception of revelations among voters through political persuasion.

Twitter files account for less than 0.5% of coverage on CNN and MSNBC, despite covering other articles related to Twitter, according to an analysis by the Media Research Center.

According to the study, MSNBC aired nearly two hours of Twitter-related content from December 2nd to December 13th, and more than 80% of the reports did not mention Twitter files.

“Since that investigation, we have seen NPR and others make conclusive comments that there is no article here,” Dan Schneider, vice president of the Media Research Center, told The Washington Times. “This is how the left-wing media in America has always operated.”

He said left-leaning media shun Twitter files because they are part of the story. “Either they know too much and don’t want to put off past false reports, or they don’t want to be involved in the blatant misconduct that everyone sees now,” he said. said.

He said Americans are beginning to see the news media as “not acting as reporters, but as political operatives.”

A Harvard-Harris poll also found that only 40% of voters believe the mainstream media is fair and unbiased. The poll also found that 63% of his respondents believe the media supports political censorship on social media.

Vanessa Otero, founder and CEO of Adfontes Media, the quantitative media analytics firm behind the media bias chart, said Twitter files and Twitter itself have become one of many partisan issues in the United States. said.

Still, Otello, a trained attorney, said the disclosure of Twitter files had elements that crossed partisan lines.

Suppressing the Hunter Biden story ahead of the 2020 election was a major focus of the release of the Twitter files, and is clearly attractive to Republicans. He added that he was skeptical.

The ethics surrounding free speech and First Amendment principles are strongly shared across party lines, she said.

“So you have this blend,” she said. “Either side as to why the FBI and Twitter feel that what they’re doing together isn’t right.”

She said the crossover has been rocked by poll questions, such as whether Congress should investigate the disclosure further.

“It’s a function of the fact that this is not legislated,” she said. “We need more legislation on what social media companies and governments can and cannot do when it comes to content moderation.”

A majority of voters agree.

Seventy percent of Harvard-Harris poll respondents say they support new national laws that protect internet and social media users from social censorship. This figure includes 69% Republicans, 72% Democrats, and 71% independents.