Only one Democrat voiced alarm over the First Amendment violation after the stunning revelation that Twitter had buried the Hunter Biden laptop story.
According to reports, Democratic California representative Ro Khanna wrote Twitter’s former general counsel and director of legal, policy, and trust, Vijaya Gadde, to complain that the company’s actions were at odds with its stated rules.
Elon Musk dubbed a series of tweets by Rolling Stone contributor Matt Taibbi “The Twitter Files,” in which the editor discussed the email Gadde received but chose to disregard.
Democrat Ro Khanna “reaches out to Gadde and suggests she get on the phone to chat about the ‘backlash re speech,'” as tweeted by Taibbi. According to the records, “Khanna was the only Democratic official I could uncover who showed worry.”
Khanna tweeted, “creating major response on hill re speech,” on October 14, 2020. I’d love to talk if you have the time.
Gadde then informed Khanna that Twitter has tweeted several clarifications to its policy on the disclosure of private information in “hacked content.”
Despite being a “Biden partisan,” Khanna seemed more concerned with the suppression of the First Amendment than the Biden story itself, as seen by screenshots of his emails.
I say this as a complete Biden supporter who is sure the president didn’t do anything illegal, Khanna wrote. However, “the story has become more about censorship than relatively benign emails,” making it a more significant concern than it otherwise would have been.
Without getting into the specifics of the Biden laptop story, Khanna made the point that journalists have a responsibility to the public to report on a wide range of topics.
I think the New York Times should be able to publish confidential material if there is a hack of sensitive information or other information that might expose a significant war crime. According to Khanna, “to restrict the sharing of that material, especially concerning a Presidential candidate, appears not in the keeping of the principles of NYT v. Sullivan.”
In this example, the Democrat alluded to a Supreme Court ruling from 1964 that severely restricts defamation lawsuits against public officials.
Musk wrote, “Ro Khanna is awesome,” after the thread began.