Jordan Boyd
The Federalist, Dec. 7, 2022
“Chan’s denial that the FBI ever discussed Hunter Biden with Big Tech companies directly contradicts testimony from Yoel Roth, the former head of trust and safety at Twitter. … He later confirmed that the FBI maintained a working censorship relationship with Roth “until the day” after the 2022 midterm election. Chan also disclosed his belief that it was pressure from Congress that encouraged Big Tech censors to suppress certain information.”
The FBI successfully meddled in the 2020 election via an influence operation that pushed Big Tech platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to suppress certain information online, putting to bed defenses that tech giants can suppress whatever speech they want because they’re private companies, not government actors. Confirmation of this meddling came during a deposition with FBI Supervisory Special Agent Elvis Chan which stemmed from a Big Tech censorship lawsuit from Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.
In his testimony, Chan admitted that intelligence agencies such as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI hosted weekly meetings with Big Tech ahead of the 2020 election in an attempt to encourage censorship. Chan was present and gave direction at most of these meetings.
“What I said was although we have not seen any computer intrusions into national-level political committees or election officials or presidential candidates at this time, we ask you to remain vigilant about the potential for hack-and-dump operations, or something to that effect,” Chan testified.
This established pipeline of “strategic information” gave Big Tech companies a scapegoat to justify their suppression of content they deemed “disinformation” — including the Hunter Biden laptop story. ...SOURCE