Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., told Newsmax's "National Report" the censorship of conservatives lies at the "nexus between executives at Twitter and people at the FBI."
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, of which Fry is a member, is investigating Twitter's decision to censor the New York Post report on Hunter Biden's laptop in 2020. Twitter executives were grilled for hours yesterday on what led them to make that editorial decision.
Fry said, "The biggest takeaway is a final oral acknowledgment of the problems associated with, really, the capricious and fickle way that Twitter executives were able to stifle speech.
"I mean, right out of the gate, they acknowledged that they shouldn't suppress that story.
"You look at polling: 17% of Biden supporters in swing states would have changed their vote if they knew about this story prior to the election. So I think that certainly had a dramatic impact.
"With what you really see from Twitter that I got out of it was that you have Twitter working with the FBI. You have Twitter making decisions that are contrary to their own internal rules and regs [regulations], and they were kind of making it up as they went along."
He added: "I know they were very guarded, but this is the first of several hearings that I'm sure we will ultimately have on this. But to see them kind of come out and talk about that mistake, I think, was very impactful."
Fry said conservatives had suspected the FBI of working with Twitter, and the "release of 'Twitter Files' by Elon Musk was a really big catalyst in showing that nexus between government agencies and social media platforms in suppressing speech.
"I mean, we've thought we talked about some of the suppression that was going on around the vaccine and the COVID-19 lockdowns and the guidance that was issued by the CDC, and we talked about certainly the Hunter Biden laptop story. We talked about the decision a little bit to ban [former] President [Donald] Trump."
"There was a nexus there that existed between executives at Twitter and people at the FBI," said Fry. "So I think it's very alarming, particularly when you see individuals who really kind of, depending on the situation, make up the rules as they go. And I don't think that Americans support or embrace this suppression of free speech on digital platforms."
Hunter Biden claimed responsibility for the laptop only days before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee's hearings. Now the committee is looking to understand why the Post was censored and what will become of the social media platform as the so-called "digital town square."
"What was really interesting too that came out yesterday was that they were disappearing chats that happened between folks at Twitter and folks at law enforcement agencies in our country. And so some of this stuff we might not ever be able to recover, obviously," said Fry. "Time will tell. Certainly, we would take them at their word; they are under oath. But there's more that remains to be seen on this subject."
He was then asked whether the suppression was coming from both sides of the political aisle in reference to a derogatory tweet containing expletives directed at Trump by TV personality and model Chrissy Teigen.
Fry responded, "What in my mind is the problem is really the fickle way in which Twitter" reacts with a "level of discretion."
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