Twitter, Facebook 'deserve' heavy regulation after restricting Hunter Biden report, ex-acting AG says

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Whitaker: Twitter, Facebook 'showed the worst of their platforms'

Former acting attorney general breaks down Big Tech's response to the New York Post Hunter Biden report on 'Your World'

Twitter and Facebook will look back on this period as "the golden age of social media before Washington, D.C. heavily regulated them," former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker predicted on "Your World" Thursday.

Whitaker said Big Tech's efforts to stop the widespread dissemination of an explosive New York Post report about emails purportedly found on Hunter Biden's laptop represents "the power of Facebook and Twitter to put their thumb on the scale" and censor what can be shared among users.

The controversy shows the power of their monopoly, added Whitaker, who called the case "a really sad example of the power of social media and how ultimately they are going to deserve the regulation they get from Congress and from the executive branch."

Twitter and Facebook faced unrelenting backlash Thursday after they disabled the New York Post report's sharing ability on their platforms. Twitter also came under fire for locking the accounts of several high-profile users who shared the content of the report to their personal Twitter pages. At the time, Facebook said were taking steps to tamp down on its spread until they could verify the story's legitimacy with fact-checking partners. 

TWITTER'S DOUBLE STANDARD EMERGES AFTER NEW YORK POST HUNTER BIDEN STORY

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"Instead of answering speech with more speech or sort of entering a marketplace of ideas, they suppressed speech and showed the worst of the power of their platforms," Whitaker said.

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"I think ultimately, he added, "we may look back at this as the golden age of social media before Washington, D.C., heavily regulated them."