Twitter CEO to be subpoenaed for US election interference after Biden story censored

US Senators said Thursday they would subpoena the CEO of Twitter for election interference after social media users were blocked from posting an article with leaked emails allegedly proving links between former VP Joe Biden and a Ukrainian energy firm.

“This is election interference, and we’re 19 days out from an election,” Senator Ted Cruz said, adding that the Senate Judiciary Committee would vote next week to subpoena Jack Dorsey.

For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

The subpoena would force Dorsey to testify and “explain why Twitter is abusing their corporate power to silence the press,” Cruz said.

On Wednesday, the New York Post published an article containing leaked emails showing Biden knew about his son’s business dealings with a Ukrainian energy firm. The Democratic presidential nominee has repeatedly denied knowing anything about the job that the Trump campaign alleges paid Hunter Biden $83,000 per month while his father was VP.

Read more: US elections: Biden in hot water after leaked emails show link to Ukraine energy firm

According to the New York Post, the elder Biden allegedly met with Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma.

A senior White House official had her Twitter account locked after she posted a link to the story. Other social media users were unable to post the story. Facebook took similar measures to censor the article.

The companies said the article needed to be fact-checked and claimed that information obtained without authorization was a violation of its user policy.

Republicans hit back, questioning why a recent New York Times article containing alleged tax returns from Trump was not faced with the same scrutiny.

US VP Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden at an NCAA basketball game Washington, DC, Jan. 30, 2010. (Reuters)

A computer with the emails obtained by the New York Post was seized by the FBI in Delaware in 2019 and had pictures and videos of Hunter Biden smoking crack cocaine and other sexually explicit videos.

It is unclear who turned over the emails or material to the New York Post, but a copy of the computer’s hard drive was reportedly handed over to the lawyer of Rudy Guiliani, an advisor to US President Donald Trump.

Read more: US elections: Twitter, Facebook lock accounts, censor links to article on Biden

- With AFP