Donald Trump Jr asks Elon Musk to 'expose' Twitter's role in amplifying 'Russia hoax' stories
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: After Twitter faced backlash over censoring New York Post's reporting of Hunter Biden's laptop during the 2020 presidential election, and author Matt Taibbi wrote a series of cryptic tweet, “Thread: THE TWITTER FILES”, on why Twitter blocked the Hunter Biden Laptop story to control the political narrative, Donald Trump Jr has now called on Elon Musk to 'expose' the platform’s role in amplifying "Russia Hoax" stories.
Former President Donald Trump was accused of colluding with Russians to influence the 2016 presidential elections and his presidency was marred by the allegation. Trump has labeled the allegations as a "Russia Hoax" perpetrated by the Democrats.
Don Jr wrote in a tweet on December 2, "While we’re at it @elonmusk, can we get something similar to this Hunter Biden laptop post-mortem for what Twitter was doing during the Russia Russia Russia hoax to amplify the nonsense allegations and to suppress anything that would clearly prove them false? Thanks." Netizens were quick to react with one saying, "Twitter Files Round 2." Another user took a dig at Twitter and said, "Now we know what the 3000+ people fired from Twitter were doing."
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'I've been tarred with this horrible witch hunt'
Trump repeatedly claimed there was a Democratic conspiracy suggesting his campaign had ties to Russia. He also spoke about the alleged Russian interference in US elections while addressing a Repubican campaign rally in Newport, Virginia in 2020. He said, "I've been tarred with this horrible witch hunt for four years. And I didn't do it. Think of it. What would my numbers be, if I didn't go through almost four years of a Russian witch hunt that turned out to be just the opposite. They were the ones involved with Russia."
'No collusion with Russia'
Special counsel Robert Mueller concluded his 22-month investigation into the allegations on March 22, 2019, and stated that his investigation “did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” He added, “I am sure that all Americans share my concerns about the efforts of the Russian government to interfere in our presidential election. As the Special Counsel’s report makes clear, the Russian government sought to interfere in our election. But thanks to the Special Counsel’s thorough investigation, we now know that the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump campaign – or the knowing assistance of any other Americans for that matter. That is something that all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed.”
Now we know what the 3000+ people fired from Twitter were doing.
— Gerrit Cramer (@cramer_gerrit) December 3, 2022
In the beginning of this year, Russian government accounts tweeted and retweeted disinformation about its invasion of Ukraine, as per ABC. A chain of automated accounts, or bots, promoted these posts. Following this, Twitter banned more than 100 accounts that pushed the pro-Russian hashtag #IStandWithPutin for participating in “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” reports NBC.
Twitter also said it will no longer amplify or recommend Russian government accounts on its platform. It said, "Given the important role that algorithms play in recommending and amplifying content online, we believe that content moderation must extend beyond the leave-up-take-down binary. Our approach is two-fold: If content is in violation of the Twitter Rules, we’ll take enforcement action against it at the Tweet or account level – this includes content removal. When the risks for immediate harm associated with a Tweet are less severe, but where left uncontextualized may mislead people, we focus on reducing its reach and not proactively amplifying the Tweets into peoples’ timelines. De-amplifying content significantly reduces its visibility and labels add important context."
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