Senate to vote on subpoena for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey after Hunter Biden story blocked by platform

Fact-checkers raise serious questions about tabloid story as major platforms seek to reduce its spread

Republican leaders on Capitol Hill have announced plans for a vote next week on whether to subpoena Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey over the platform’s recent decision to limit sharing of a New York Post story about Joe Biden.

“Twitter is actively blocking, right now this instant, stories from the New York Post,” Senator Ted Cruz told reporters on Thursday during a break at the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

He added: “On Tuesday, the Judiciary Committee, the full committee, will be voting on subpoenas to subpoena Jack Dorsey to come before our committee."

Republicans have decried attempts by major social media platforms to limit sharing of the article that alleged links between former Vice President Joe Biden and his son’s business dealings, published just weeks before the November vote.

Mr Biden’s campaign shot back against the claims made in the story — which has since been called into question by several reputable media outlets — as “Russian disinformation” in a statement.

The New York Post story, labelled “Biden Secret Emails,” had echoes of the data dump former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced in 2016 when her campaign manager and the Democratic National Committee’s emails were stolen and published online, though it did not present any indications of foreign involvement in obtaining the emails.

The Biden campaign strongly refuted the allegations in the story, saying the newspaper “never asked the Biden campaign about the critical elements of this story” and added: “They certainly never raised that Rudy Giuliani — whose discredited conspiracy theories and alliance with figures connected to Russian intelligence have been widely reported — claimed to have such materials.”

Major social media platforms quickly took action to limit the spread of the article as its findings were swiftly called into question, with distinguished journalists and credible fact-checkers raising serious questions about the veracity of the report.

As several prominent Republicans and conservative influencers continued attempts to promote the story, some were met with suspensions from platforms like Twitter. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany has said she was one of those people whose accounts were locked after attempting to share the story.

Republicans celebrated the announcement of the upcoming vote, including Senator Josh Hawley, who wrote in a tweet: “That subpoena should include @Facebook.”

George Mesires, an attorney for Hunter Biden, refuted the allegations made in the story as well in a statement to Politico.

He said Mr Giuliani — the president’s longtime friend and personal lawyer — “has been pushing widely discredited conspiracy theories about the Biden family, openly relying on actors tied to Russian intelligence”.