Trump accuses Big Tech of protecting 'crooked' Joe Biden
President calls for possible stripping of Section 230 protections for social media giants at North Carolina rally
President Trump tweeted an article from the satirical website Babylon Bee on Friday morning that claimed Twitter shut down the entire network to slow down spread of negative news about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
It’s unclear if the president was aware that the Babylon Bee is a satirical site, but the tweet came after a bizarre 48 hours in which both Twitter and Facebook came under fire for censoring New York Post stories that were damning for Biden. Twitter also faced technical difficulties Thursday as users complained that their accounts were down on both computers and mobile devices.
FACEBOOK AND TWITTER REDUCING DISTRIBUTION OF NEW YORK POST HUNTER BIDEN STORY
“Wow, this has never been done in history. This includes his really bad interview last night. Why is Twitter doing this. Bringing more attention to Sleepy Joe & Big T,” Trump wrote to caption the article headline, “Twitter Shuts Down Entire Network To Slow Spread Of Negative Biden News.”
While the Babylon Bee headline coincides with many people pondering if the Twitter malfunction that actually occurred had anything to do with the measures it took to suppress the report from Post revealing emails that purportedly show a connection to Hunter Biden, his business contacts in Ukraine and his father – the satirical article took things a step further.
“After seeing account after account tweet out one particularly bad story, CEO Jack Dorsey realized he had to take action. Dorsey smashed a glass box in his office reading ‘Break In Case Of Bad Publicity For Democrats.’ Inside the case was a sledgehammer for smashing Twitter's servers,” the Babylon Bee wrote. "Red alert -- shut the servers down! Shut them all down!"
TWITTER HIT WITH 'SERVICE DISRUPTION' AFTER SUPPRESSING HUNTER BIDEN REPORT
The satirical site then joked that Dorsey “ran downstairs and started smashing as many computers as he could, but he did need to ask for some help, as the hammer was pretty heavy. None of the programmers could lift the hammer, either.”
Comments on Trump’s tweet were mixed, with many people claiming he knew it was satire and others blasting the president for tweeting fictitious information.
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Trump later added, “Big T was not a reference to me, but rather to Big Tech, which should have been properly pointed out in Twitter’s Fake Trending Section!”
Meanwhile, Republican Sens. Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham and Josh Hawley on Thursday called on the heads of Twitter and Facebook to testify about alleged social media censorship and said a subpoena was in the works, as critics claimed the social media platforms have been suppressing reports critical of Democrats.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.
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