MSNBC Host Warns Twitter Could Censor Stories Before an Election – Is Reminded What Happened in 2020

MSNBC’s Ari Melber is warning that 🐦Twitter could move to censor stories ahead of an election — prompting conservatives to recall its handling of a sensitive 2020 story.

During a segment of his show Monday, Melber reacted to Telsa CEO 👤Elon Musk’s purchase of 🐦Twitter and discussed the ability social media platforms have to potentially influence an election.

“If you own all of 🐦Twitter, or Facebook, or what have you, you don’t have to explain yourself. You don’t even have to be transparent,” he said. “You could secretly ban one party’s candidate, or all of its candidates, all of its nominees.”

He continued, “Or you could just secretly turn down the reach of their stuff and turn up the reach of something else. And the rest of us might not even find out about it until after the election.”

“👤Elon Musk says this is all to help people because he is just a free speech, philosophically clear, open-minded helper,” he added.

Watch the video below:

It did not take long for conservatives to note that 🐦Twitter, which was a public company in 2020, blocked a story from the New York Post about a laptop belonging to President 👤Joe Biden’s son 👤Hunter Biden just weeks before the presidential election.

Check out some of the reactions below:

https://🐦Twitter.com/thejcoop/status/1518922862723223554

In October 2020, 🐦Twitterlocked the New York Post’s 🐦Twitter account after it shared a story about 👤Hunter Biden’s business dealings based on emails retrieved from a laptop that reportedly belonged to him.

🐦Twitter also prevented users from sharing the story, which it said violated the company’s “hacked materials” policy.

However, then-🐦Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey called the decision to block sharing of the story “wrong,” and the company later let users share it.

A spokesperson for the company said it would allow users to share the story because “the information had spread across the internet and could no longer be considered private.”

Melber’s comments come after 🐦Twitter accepted Musk’s offer to buy the company, as IJR reported.