Witnesses admitted to Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson that Big Tech platforms have the power to influence elections during a Wednesday Senate hearing.
The senator, a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, questioned Big Tech executives at the committee hearing about their political stances and their impact in covering up the Hunter Biden laptop story and presidential elections. All of the witnesses told the senator they are unaware of the political affiliations of the employees at Big Tech companies.
Johnson raised the story of Twitter covering up the Hunter Biden laptop report by locking the New York Post’s account for posting their own article reporting on the information. The platform then suspended the account of former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany for sharing the New York Post’s story.
“Twitter was actually very effective when they blocked the New York Post articles on the Hunter Biden laptop,” he said. “We had Jack Dorsey in front of the Commerce Committee back in October 2020 and both [Texas] Senator [Ted] Cruz and I asked him, because we were talking about Russians using the platforms to impact our elections, and everybody agrees that could happen. We asked Mr. Dorsey do you believe Twitter could impact the election. Mr. Dorsey said ‘no.'” (RELATED: Ron Johnson Calls On Former Buzzfeed Reporter To Verify Hunter Biden Email)
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He then asked former Twitter global engineering executive Alex Roetter, Delta Fund co-founder Brian Boland and journalist Geoffrey Cain, if Twitter and other Big Tech platforms have the power to influence elections.
“I think all these social platforms, they’re so massive it’s hard to believe that they’re not impacting the elections,” Roetter responded.
“These platforms absolutely have influence” Boland said.
“Absolutely,” Cain replied.
“Okay, so there is a problem right there,” Johnson said. “And I appreciate you acknowledging that fact. We had 51 former intelligence officials, I have no idea on what basis they wrote this letter, they came out immediately, it may be because the FBI had a scheme in August 2020 to downplay the derogatory information on the Hunter Biden laptop. But they came out and said that the laptop had all the earmarks of a Russian information operation. Seems to me like that letter is stuffed with an information operation.”
The senator said Twitter’s actions impacted the 2020 election “to a far greater extent” than Russia ever had the ability of carrying out in 2016 or 2020.
Johnson then read a statement by Democratic Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the committee chairman, from a Sept. 23, 2020 press release claiming that Johnson and Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley opened an investigation “rooted in Russian disinformation” after releasing information on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
“Mr. Chairman, do you want to retract that false allegation now? Now that we know that the Hunter Biden laptop is accurate, that there’s not been one scintilla of information provided in Senator Grassley and I’s report that has ever been refuted. It was 100% accurate. And yet you, as ranking member of the committee, accused me repeatedly of soliciting Russian disinformation,” Johnson said. “Do you want to retract your false allegation here that you issued in your press release on September 23?”
“Uh, no, let’s just focus on what we’re trying to—” Peters began.
“Well, I am focusing on this because this is exactly the type of harm we can do to our political process when you have these Big Tech companies engaging in political debates censoring one side of the political spectrum and amplifying the false allegations of another side,” Johnson said.
In 2020, Johnson opened an investigation into the Ukrainian oil company, Burisma, where Hunter Biden served as a board member and received documents from the National Archives and Records Administration and State Department, CNN reported. He opened up a vote on issuing a subpoena to a public firm involving the investigation, to which Peters condemned.
The New York Times and Washington Post both authenticated the reports of the laptop. The Times pointed to “a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop” while discussing his possible tax liability and potential criminal charges. The Post cited emails from the laptop in a story covering his business dealing with Chinese energy company CEFC China Energy.