Conservative actor James Woods has vowed to sue the Democrat National Committee over its documented efforts to censor him on Twitter.
The evidence of this censorship emerged Friday when Twitter CEO Elon Musk released the so-called “Twitter Files,” a collection of documents that show “[w]hat really happened with the Hunter Biden story suppression by Twitter.”
What really happened with the Hunter Biden story suppression by Twitter will be published on Twitter at 5pm ET!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022
Released through journalist Matt Taibbi, the evidence showed that in late October of 2020, the DNC contacted Twitter to request that they censor a tweet Woods had posted about President Joe Biden’s youngest son, Hunter.
Look:
9. Celebrities and unknowns alike could be removed or reviewed at the behest of a political party: pic.twitter.com/4uzkHnQ65E
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022
The specific tweet in question contained a blurred-out photo of Hunter smoking crack and receiving a foot job.
Below is a screenshot of the tweet:
After the DNC complained about the tweet, it conveniently disappeared from Twitter, but not by Woods’ volition.
Speaking on Fox News’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” late Friday, he explained that Twitter removed the tweet on its own to appease the DNC.
As a result, he’s now intent on suing.
“I can guarantee you one thing more than anything else you’ll ever hear in your life: I will be getting a lawyer. I will be suing the Democratic National Committee no matter what,” he told eponymous host Tucker Carlson.
“Whether I win or lose, I am going to stand up for the rights that every American – not a so-called celebrity. I’m not a celebrity. I’m hardly recognizable anymore because my career has been destroyed by these very people,” he added.
Woods continued, “And I will sue. And I’m hoping other people will sue. And if it turns out there are a lot of us on this list where the DNC targeted us, then I will quote the immortal words of Joseph Welch when he attacked [Wisconsin Sen.] Joseph McCarthy for the enemies list he had – ‘At long last, sir, have you no shame?””
Listen:
Woods was by no means the only one censored by Twitter at the request of a politician. The documents released Friday show that for years, in fact, the social media network had been censoring anyone and everyone to appease the political class.
“Some of the first tools for controlling speech were designed to combat the likes of spam and financial fraudsters. Slowly, over time, Twitter staff and executives began to find more and more uses for these tools,” Taibbi reported.
“Outsiders began petitioning the company to manipulate speech as well: first a little, then more often, then constantly. By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: ‘More to review from the Biden team.’ The reply would come back: ‘Handled,'” he added.
Taibbi further stressed that requests came in from both Republican and Democrat politicians. However, he noted that because Twitter was run primarily by leftists, the complaints from the left were far more frequent.
“Both parties had access to these tools. For instance, in 2020, requests from both the Trump White House and the Biden campaign were received and honored,” he wrote.
“However… This system wasn’t balanced. It was based on contacts. Because Twitter was and is overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation, there were more channels, more ways to complain, open to the left (well, Democrats) than the right,” he added.
8. By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: “More to review from the Biden team.” The reply would come back: “Handled.” pic.twitter.com/mnv0YZI4af
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022
Specifically regarding the decision to censor reporting on Hunter Biden, Taibbi noted that “the decision was made at the highest levels of the company, but without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, with former head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde playing a key role.”
“‘They just freelanced it,’ is how one former employee characterized the decision. ‘Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that wasn’t going to hold. But no one had the guts to reverse it,’” Taibbi wrote.
23. The decision was made at the highest levels of the company, but without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, with former head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde playing a key role.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
24. “They just freelanced it,” is how one former employee characterized the decision. “Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that wasn’t going to hold. But no one had the guts to reverse it.”
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022
Moreover, the evidence shows only one Democrat — one — raised concerns about the reporting on Hunter Biden being censored: Rep. Ro Khanna.
“[T]his seems a violation of the 1st Amendment principles. I say this as a total Biden partisan and convinced that he didn’t do anything wrong. But the story now has become more about censorship than relatively innocuous emails and it’s becoming a bigger deal than it would have been,” Khanna wrote to Twitter at one point.
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