As the halls of government and the social media sphere rage about Twitter and Facebook’s blatant censorship of an article proving Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden knew and engaged in his son, Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian business deals, the question of campaign finance law violations arises.
Wednesday’s moves by Facebook and Twitter to overtly censor a New York Post story that provided proof that Hunter Biden acted as an intermediary between Ukrainian oil executives and his then-vice president father, the latter who later pressured Ukrainian officials to drop an investigation into the oil company, presents itself as a political advantage for the Biden campaign.
Hunter Biden sat on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian oil company in question, making millions off the relationship and his ability to leverage influence, through his father, with the Obama administration.
On Wednesday, after the censorship by the social media giants began, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), called on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to launch an investigation into Twitter and Facebook for making potential illegal in-kind contributions to the Biden campaign for their suppression of the information on the Bidens.
My letter to the FEC re @Twitter @Facebook potential violation of federal election law pic.twitter.com/EhOMlj8jzX
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) October 14, 2020
Not only did Twitter obstruct the dissemination of the information published by The Post, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany had her official White House account locked down. The same happened to the official Trump campaign Twitter account.
“It’s not a temporary blockage,” McEnany said to one reporter. “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 this story, a news story by the New York Post, I cannot regain access to my account.”
In his letter to the FEC, Hawley wrote that the social media giants’ “active suppression of public speech” constitutes a contribution to Joe Biden’s campaign under federal law.
US federal election law prohibits any corporation from making a contribution – real or in-kind – to a federal candidate for office.
“There can be no serious doubt that the Biden campaign derives extraordinary value from depriving voters access to information that, if true, would link the former Vice President to corrupt Ukrainian oligarchs,” Hawley wrote. “This censorship manifestly will influence the presidential election.”
