Fmr. Twitter exec admits Hunter Biden laptop censorship story was ‘mistake’

A former head of Twitter’s trust and safety team, who played a role in suppressing reports about Hunter Biden’s laptop on the platform ahead of the 2020 election, has admitted that the censorship action it was a mistake

In October 2020, just weeks before the presidential election between then-President Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the New York Post reported on a laptop that allegedly belonged to Joe Biden’s son Hunter. The laptop contained communications between Hunter and his foreign business partners. One of the business emails indicated Hunter introduced a Ukrainian gas company partner to his then-father in 2015, when Joe Biden was serving as vice president under Barack Obama.

After the New York Post published its report on Hunter Biden’s laptop, Twitter blocked the newspaper’s account and blocked users from sharing links to articles on the Biden laptop.

“It has been widely reported that I personally directed the deletion of the Hunter Biden story,” Roth told Swisher. “That is not true. It is absolutely, unequivocally, false.”

Roth said the New York Post’s explanation of how it came into possession of Hunter Biden’s laptop “triggered all my finely tuned APT28 ‘hacking and leaking’ campaign alarm bells “. APT28 refers to an alleged Russian government-sponsored hacking group sometimes known as “Cozy Bear.”

When Swisher asked if Roth thought Twitter’s final decision to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story was a mistake, Roth replied, “In my opinion, yes.”

Jack Dorsey, who was Twitter’s CEO during the Biden laptop incident, admitted after the 2020 election that censoring the New York Post’s reporting was a “total mistake,” though a mistake that described as a “process error”.

Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk said Wednesday that Twitter has “interfered in the election” and pledged to make the platform “much more effective, transparent and fair” in the future.

According to a Media Research Center poll conducted immediately after the 2020 election, 16 percent of Biden voters said they would not have voted for Biden if they had known about the Biden family’s foreign business dealings, suggesting awareness of the public about Hunter Biden. The laptop story could have changed the outcome of the election.

Since the 2020 election, several media outlets have authenticated materials on the Biden laptop.

After winning control of the House of Representatives earlier this month, Republican lawmakers announced plans to investigate the business dealings of President Biden and his family. The investigation will examine whether President Biden is compromised by foreign actors and whether the Biden family engaged in influence peddling.

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