Elon Musk, the new owner and CEO of Twitter, ignited a firestorm with the release of the “Twitter Files” last Friday. The files reportedly show how political leaders worked with Big Tech to suppress information they deemed likely to negatively impact the 2020 election — notably, information pertaining to Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted last November of murder charges amid reports of media bias and government officials sharing misinformation and suppressing video evidence, is in the headlines again for suggesting that Twitter may have information regarding “hidden censoring” of his story.
Rittenhouse posted the open question on Monday morning:
“Learning about the twitter files and @elonmusk releasing the truth is making me more and more curious to find out if there was hidden censoring regarding my story and case on twitter. I am hoping, one day soon, I will be able to find out and the truth will be shown to all of us,” he wrote.
The media depicted Rittenhouse as a “white supremacist” throughout his trial — a jury found that the young man acted in self-defense. On Monday, Rittenhouse asked Musk if he would “consider releasing the censoring done on his trial.” His viral Twitter post recorded over 18,000 likes in a few hours.
Following through on a promise to bring more transparency and less censorship to the mammoth social media platform, Musk contracted with Matt Taibbi, an independent journalist and Substack specialist, to review Twitter files and post the findings.
Among the findings were “a set of internal communications noting the company’s decision to censor the New York Post’s story on Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020,” according to Fox News.
A flurry of posts has followed the release of the Twitter Files. Most comments follow along party lines, with the left condemning and the right celebrating the move.
Conservative radio host Larry Elder noted that “Democrats haven’t been this angry since Lincoln freed the slaves. #twitterfiles.”
The New York Times sought to discredit the report by writing: “Mr. Taibbi … shares some of Mr. Musk’s disdain for the mainstream news media.”
Conservative Ben Shapiro tweeted: “The #TwitterFiles are extremely important because they confirm what we always suspected: that Twitter’s middle management worked hand-in-glove with Democrats to shut down the Hunter Biden story in advance of the 2020 election.”
Responding to Rittenhouse’s post, political commentator Ian Miles Cheong tweeted:
“I was briefly suspended for saying I believed in your innocence.”
Following his acquittal, Rittenhouse started the “Media Accountability Project,” designed to “hold the media accountable.”
In an interview with Fox News in February 2021, Rittenhouse told Tucker Carlson he “wanted to fight back against the media” so no one else has to “go through what I went through.”
Nicholas Sandmann was similarly maligned in the media in 2019 after video showed the Covington High School student smiling as a Native American played a drum close to his face.
Sandmann joined Rittenhouse in asking Musk if he had “any hidden Twitter files” relating to his story, his legal suit against CNN, or threats made against him and his school.
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