Greenwald: Facebook and Twitter ‘United’ to Defend Their ‘Preferred Candidate’

The Intercept co-founding editor Glenn Greenwald criticized Facebook and Twitter’s recent censorship of the New York Post’s bombshell article revealing Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden’s alleged meeting with executives of a Ukrainian energy firm. According to Greenwald, “In sum, the two Silicon Valley giants, with little explanation, united to prevent the sharing and dissemination of this article.”

In a recent article titled “Facebook and Twitter Cross a Line Far More Dangerous Than What They Censor,” Glenn Greenwald states that, “just weeks before the election, the tech giants unite to block access to incriminating reporting about their preferred candidate.” Breitbart News outlined Big Tech’s efforts to censor the story here.

In the article, Greenwald claims that the Post’s claims that the story was a “bombshell” were “overhyped” but that the concerted effort by social media giant’s such as Facebook and Twitter to censor the story are extremely troubling.

Greenwald outlined the social media giant’s reaction to the Post’s article, writing:

But the Post, for all its longevity, power and influence, ran smack into two entities far more powerful than it: Facebook and Twitter. Almost immediately upon publication, pro-Biden journalists created a climate of extreme hostility and suppression toward the Post story, making clear that any journalist even mentioning it would be roundly attacked. For the crime of simply noting the story on Twitter (while pointing out its flaws), New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman was instantly vilified to the point where her name, along with the phrase “MAGA Haberman,” were trending on Twitter.

(That Haberman is a crypto-Trump supporter is preposterous for so many reasons, including the fact that she is responsible for countless front-page Times stories that reflect negatively on the president; moreover, the 2016 Clinton campaign considered Haberman one of their most favorable reporters).

The two Silicon Valley giants saw that hostile climate and reacted. Just two hours after the story was online, Facebook intervened. The company dispatched a life-long Democratic Party operative who now works for Facebook — Andy Stone, previously a communications operative for Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, among other DC Democratic jobs — to announce that Facebook was “reducing [the article’s] distribution on our platform”: in other words, tinkering with its own algorithms to suppress the ability of users to discuss or share the news article. The long-time Democratic Party official did not try to hide his contempt for the article, beginning his censorship announcement by snidely noting: “I will intentionally not link to the New York Post.”

Greenwald summarized the situation, writing: “In sum, the two Silicon Valley giants, with little explanation, united to prevent the sharing and dissemination of this article. As Los Angeles Times reporter Matt Pearce put it, ‘Facebook limiting distribution is a bit like if a company that owned newspaper delivery trucks decided not to drive because it didn’t like a story. Does a truck company edit the newspaper? It does now, apparently.'”

Read Greenwald’s full article at the Intercept here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com