Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) told Fox Business recently that “Americans have got to get mad” after new documents revealed the extent to which Twitter executives censored Hunter Biden posts last fall.
The documents, now dubbed the Twitter Files, were released last week by independent journalist Matt Taibbi and claimed to show how Twitter and its executives were able to “manipulate free speech” by censoring a story about Hunter Biden’s laptop and its contents during the 2020 election.
The story, which turned out to be accurate, was initially deemed a hoax by most mainstream media and social media outlets.
It was published in the New York Post, but Facebook and Twitter blocked links to the story, given the lack of verifiable information available at the time. With his thread, Taibbi is looking to shine a light on that decision from Twitter’s perspective.
But what was promised to be a bombshell look behind the curtain ended up showing a debate between executives on how to deal with an unconfirmed, possibly misinforming, and misleading story on their platform. It also provided insight into how executives censored leaked nude photos of Hunter Biden on the platform, which were being tweeted out without President Joe Biden’s son’s consent.
But that hasn’t stopped Republicans from treating the Twitter Files like the modern-day Pentagon Papers. Scott, in a Fox Business appearance, seemed to have not read the Twitter Files before he was asked on the show, spewing a stream-of-consciousness rant that was just a series of Republican talking points.
“Americans have got to get mad about what’s going on in this country,” Scott said. “You’ve got to be mad about the debt, the social media companies, the IRS, I mean all of these things. You’ve got to show up and say ‘this is my country we gotta take this country back.’”
Scott mentioned no specific information about the Twitter Files in the short clip, making him an easy Twitter burn candidate.
“Medicare fraudster Rick Scott is upset bcuz twitter removed Hunter’s dick pics and Americans don’t really care,” another user wrote. “He’s trying to create bullshit conspiracy theories to distract from his, & fellow Repugnicans, efforts to cut SS & Medicare while cutting taxes on corps & the wealthy.”
In a longer clip posted to Twitter by the former Florida governor himself, Scott said that emails between Twitter executives in October 2020 were proof that “social media works for the Biden administration,” despite the fact that then-candidate Biden hadn’t been elected yet.
Scott also said that leaked emails between executives that flagged certain tweets—which were nude photos of Hunter Biden—for deletion was “stopping freedom of speech.”
“It has already been investigated. There is nothing there but nekkid pictures. The end,” one user wrote.
