White House Press Secretary took Twitter to task for locking her account on Wednesday. She stated that the company’s administators “essentially have me at gunpoint” until she deletes her tweet sharing the New York Post’s Hunter Biden story.
McEnany was one of several individuals that Twitter blocked from sharing the front-page story regarding the contents of Hunter Biden’s hard drive — including an email connecting former Vice President Joe Biden, Hunters’ father, to his job at Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company. The social media company blocked the sharing of the story ostensibly because “hacked materials” were used for the report.
“It’s not a temporary blockage,” McEnany told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “When I log on to my Twitter account, it says I’m permanently banned. They essentially have me at gunpoint and said unless you delete a news story by the New York Post, I cannot regain access to my account.”
When McEnany tried to tweet the Post’s story on Biden, she received a message from Twitter that said, “Your account has been blocked. We have determined that this account violated the Twitter Rules. Specifically, for: Violating our rules against distribution of hacked material.”
“This is censorship. This is not the American way,” McEnany insisted. ” This is not how a freedom-loving democracy operates. We have to have to hold Twitter accountable, and Facebook too, who is banning the transmission of this story simply because ideologically it hurts the side of the aisle that Silicon Valley prefers. It’s sad, it’s censorship, [and] this is not America.”
She continued, “Make no mistake, if they can ban the press secretary of the United States for President Trump, they can ban you, as a citizen, and that is pathetic.”
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey acknowledged that the company’s handling of the Post’s story was faulty. He conceded that “blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable.”
You know what else is unacceptable? Blocking a news story because it contains information that could politically damage your favored presidential candidate’s chances for election. Even worse is lying about it thereafter by putting forth a flimsy excuse.
Did Twitter ban the sharing of the New York Times’ report on President Trump’s taxes? Of course they didn’t. Even though the information used in that article would have to have been obtained illegally, social media companies took no issue with it.
While companies like Twitter might think they are getting one over on the American people, this move might backfire in a big way. Already, Republicans in Congress are considering taking action against the company for its brazen bias in favor of progressives, which could result in government interference in the industry.
Let me know what you think in the comments below!
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