Posted on 09/14/21
| News Source: Newsmax
The Federal Election Commission dismissed a complaint from Republicans that Twitter illegally blocked a 2020 New York Post story on Hunter Biden, ruling the social media company had a commercial — not political — reason for the action, the New York Times reported.
The ruling was made last month behind closed doors and is set to become public soon, the Times reported.
Blocking of the Hunter Biden article triggered widespread criticism last October, and prompted accusations that Twitter was improperly helping Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. The Republican National Committee argued Twitter’s actions amounted to an “illegal in-kind contribution” to the campaign, the Times noted.
But the FEC stated Twitter had “credibly explained” that blocking the article’s distribution was a commercial decision and that the move followed existing policies related to hacked materials, the Times reported.
The New York Post reported it had uncovered emails indicating Hunter Biden introduced his father Joe Biden, then the Democrat nominee for president, to Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.
Twitter had initially reversed its block a day later, with Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey calling it a “mistake.”