Twitter locked White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany out of her account on Wednesday after she tweeted about the New York Post’s exclusive report on Hunter Biden’s foreign influence peddling.
“BREAKING: Twitter has locked the personal account of White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany for sharing news Democrats don’t like,” the tweet stated.
BREAKING: Twitter has locked the personal account of White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany for sharing news Democrats don’t like. pic.twitter.com/eR8HhkgqVY
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 14, 2020
McEnany, who has more than one million followers, shared the article at 12:33 p.m. using quotes from the telling emails in her tweet.
“**NEW** Email from Ukrainian executive to Hunter Biden asks Hunter to ‘use his influence’ on behalf of a firm paying him $50k/mo in email with subject ‘urgent issue’ obtained by @nypost,” her tweet said.
By 6 p.m., the Trump campaign announced that McEnany’s personal account was suspended for sharing this information. It is unclear when her account will be reinstated.
The New York Post was also suspended from Twitter on Wednesday for sharing the story that they reported and verified.
“The Post’s primary Twitter account (@nypost) has also been locked because the Hunter Biden stories violate its rules against the ‘distribution of hacked material,’ per email we received from Twitter,” wrote Post business reporter Noah Manskar.
The Post's primary Twitter account (@nypost) has also been locked because the Hunter Biden stories violate its rules against "distribution of hacked material," per email we received from Twitter https://t.co/wbeYd6c3CA
— Noah Manskar (@noahmanskar) October 14, 2020
According to Manskar, the only justification Twitter attempted to provide for the suspension was questioning how the incriminating hard drive and computer were obtained, despite the Post’s clear explanation about this in the article.
“Twitter says this was done because of the lack of authoritative reporting on where the materials in our Biden story originated. Per the story, the emails came off a copy of a hard drive obtained by Rudy Giuliani; original hard drive was left at a Delaware computer repair shop,” he explained.
Twitter says this was done because of the lack of authoritative reporting on where the materials in our Biden story originated. Per the story, the emails came off a copy of a hard drive obtained by Rudy Giuliani; original hard drive was left at a Delaware computer repair shop https://t.co/2SoCUJ7gkr
— Noah Manskar (@noahmanskar) October 14, 2020
Users also reported that they could no longer share the link to the Post’s story indicating Hunter Biden monetized foreign companies’ access to his father, Joe Biden, while the latter was vice president.
Twitter released a statement claiming that the “images contained in the articles include personal and private information” which violates their private information policy as well as their hacked materials policy. Many did not buy their statement or CEO Jack Dorsey’s attempt at an explanation.
Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable. https://t.co/v55vDVVlgt
— jack (@jack) October 14, 2020
https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1316525304756789251?s=20
https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1316525306656718848?s=20
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1316515609224646657?s=21
Twitter doesn’t recant on the substance of its actions, just how it messaged it. Say goodbye to Section 230 https://t.co/K2SGCizJxS
— Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) October 15, 2020
There will be … NO QUARTER for censorship by Big Tech Oligarchs. https://t.co/eUPvlnhsy7
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) October 15, 2020
not buying this explanation from the guy who donated $10 million to a professor who called ACB a colonizer for adopting children from haiti. https://t.co/aE09BJepnw
— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) October 15, 2020
What if your actions were garbage, not just your communications? https://t.co/7rQPSLpOC6
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 15, 2020
Tonight Twitter trying to provide 'context' to its censorship of New York Post story about Hunter and Joe Biden. https://t.co/ufVP14ppYG
— Byron York (@ByronYork) October 15, 2020
Worth noting this is not an apology for blocking the URL or DM-sharing — something that should alarm every journalist on this platform. https://t.co/8O4eH4XzvP
— Gabby Orr (@GabbyOrr_) October 15, 2020
.@Twitter @jack this is not nearly good enough. In fact, it’s a joke. It’s downright insulting. I will ask you – and @Facebook – to give an explanation UNDER OATH to the Senate subcommittee I chair. These are potential violations of election law, and that’s a crime https://t.co/Rylva8UJv9
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) October 15, 2020
