Twitter Files co-author says censorship of social media was worse than he originally thought

“Twitter Files” co-author Michael Shellenberger joined “America’s Newsroom” Friday following his congressional testimony alleging “mass censorship” efforts by U.S. and U.K. military contractors against Americans on social media after former President Trump’s election. Shellenberger told the House Weaponization of the Federal Government hearing that the censorship efforts were worse than he originally thought.

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MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER: Well, it’s worse in the sense that the censorship was just one part of what we saw happening, both by U.K. and U.S. so-called former military contractors, but also currently employed, including some of those working for the Navy in 2020 when they created something called the Cyber Threat Intelligence League, supposedly of volunteers. But many of these people were working actively for the Department of Homeland Security. We also saw people from the FBI working with social media companies to censor Americans. But what we discovered was basically a handbook that they had created to use psychological operations and disinformation tactics against the American people. These are tactics that have been developed abroad by the U.S. military and U.S. allies. So to see them turn against the American people really in reaction to the Trump election in 2016. There was a sense in which Trump was elected because of social media and these individuals, potentially with support directly from the government, were engaged in using these tactics in order to change the conversation online and engage in mass censorship, which is what we saw with the Twitter Files, the Facebook Files, and of course, is now part of the Missouri v. Biden case that’s headed to the Supreme Court. 

During Thursday’s hearing, Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., denied that the information contained in Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive is accurate, reviving a debunked claim that the laptop contained Russian disinformation.

Goldman questioned Shellenberger on the topic of Biden’s laptop during a hearing with the House Judiciary Committee. Goldman has repeatedly denied the veracity of what was found on the laptop despite FBI testimony to the contrary.

“You are aware, of course, that the ‘laptop,’ so to speak, that was published in the New York Post was actually a hard drive that the New York Post admitted here was not authenticated as real?” Goldman asked.

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“It was the same contents,” Shellenberger responded.

“How do you know it’s the same contents?” Goldman pressed.

“Because it’s the same contents. Everyone has verified that it’s the same contents,” Shellenberger said.

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.