More Twitter Files show another senator tried to suppress Americans’ free speech

Will reporters ever find Congress violating Americans’ First Amendment rights worth covering?

When it was recently revealed that former President Donald Trump while in office wanted Twitter to remove a tweet that was critical of him, the mainstream media went nuts.

But “If a president freaking out about one tweeter is news, surely a U.S. Senator finking on three hundred-plus of his constituents also must be?” asked Matt Taibbi on Saturday.

Taibbi shared the latest edition of the ongoing Twitter Files over the weekend, revealing communications between government officials and Twitter executives that range from questionable to direct violations of the First Amendment.

This time, he reported on the many requests by the office of Senator Angus King to censor users on Twitter. Taibbi shared a screenshot of an email from an Angus official saying they had identified 354 “suspicious accounts.”

What kind of “suspicious” info did these accounts share? Taibbi’s first example was “Rand Paul visit excitement,” “bot” or even “mentions immigration.”

King’s office declined to comment.

Taibbi also gave the example of State Department official Mark Lenzi who asked Twitter to remove 14 accounts, some of which had been skeptical about “Russiagate.”

Taibbi called it a “clear First Amendment issue.” The reporter also said he and his office were familiar with some of the names on that list. In other words, many of those targeted were real people, using basic political speech to say things the State Department apparently didn’t like.

The former Rolling Stone reporter revisited how egregious the alleged First Amendment violations were committed by the office of Congressman Adam Schiff, released in an earlier Twitter Files.

But will these members of Congress – who seemingly completely ignored the Constitution and asked a private entity to censor things they didn’t like – will they get the same high-profile attention from the press that Trump attempting to censor an entertainment personality did?

Or as Taibbi put it:

He has a point. 

Based on their track record regarding the Twitter Files, it will be surprising if the establishment press even touches these latest allegations, despite them being based on credible and newsworthy evidence and involving some of the most powerful people in government.

It will be more surprising if the U.S. media actually covers the purported damage being done to the one amendment that not only protects our speech but their entire profession. 

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Jack Hunter
Jack Hunterhttp://LibertyTree.com
Jack Hunter is a freelance writer, the co-author of Sen. Rand Paul’s 2011 book ‘The Tea Party Goes to Washington’ and the former politics editor for Rare.us.