Following the Twitter takeover, Republican Representative James Comer called on Elon Musk to turn over information about Hunter Biden's computer case. Comer, who is a member of the House Oversight Committee, called on Twitter's new owner to comply with congressional requirements.
In a letter, Comer asked Musk to give him access to documentation to find out why the former social network executive decided to censor this case before the last presidential election:
Committee Republicans are investigating the Biden family’s pattern of influence peddling to enrich themselves and President Biden’s involvement in these schemes. As part of this investigation, Committee Republicans are reviewing the role Big Tech — including Twitter — played in supporting the Biden campaign in 2020 by suppressing certain stories implicating the Bidens.
🚨🚨🚨🚨@GOPoversight is reviewing the role Big Tech played in supporting the Biden campaign by suppressing certain stories.
I'm now calling on @elonmusk to provide all docs and communications from @Twitter related to the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020.👇 pic.twitter.com/njYMoFSE1K
- Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) October 28, 2022
Musk was in favor of not censoring the case
The New York Post brought the Hunter Biden computer case to light in October 2020. Elon Musk was in favor of not censoring this case and criticized why they would suspend the New York Post's account for publishing the case:
Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate.
Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate
- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2022
Parag Agrawal, former CEO of Twitter, ignored the Republican Party's request to grant them the information regarding why they censored Hunter Biden's computer case. Now, the GOP is asking Musk not to make the same mistake and turn over the paperwork by Nov. 11:
We hope you will correct this error made by the company’s former leadership and provide Americans with transparency. To that end, we request Twitter provide information regarding its previous leaders’ decision to limit information that may have affected the 2020 election.
Former Twitter executive's statement
Twitter blocked the New York Post's report on Hunter Biden. One of the founders and former CEO of the social network, Jack Dorsey, explained that it was a "mistake."
Straight blocking of URLs was wrong, and we updated our policy and enforcement to fix.
Straight blocking of URLs was wrong, and we updated our policy and enforcement to fix. Our goal is to attempt to add context, and now we have capabilities to do that. https://t.co/ZLUw3YD887
- jack (@jack) October 16, 2020
Despite this explanation, Twitter continued to censor the media outlet. Other Big Tech companies such as Facebook also blocked information about the Hunter Biden case.
