4 ms·

Censoring important news stories during an election and then a year later just being like, oops, ya that was real.

jacobolus 5y ago
This supposed “important news” is an invented (probably Russian) propaganda story that couldn’t be confirmed by any of the news outlets who investigated it and was hyped up by armies of Russian bots and Russian-funded media trolls, immediately before a presidential election. [According to proponents of this story, the chain of custody of this laptop goes: Hunter Biden → Repair Shop (owned by a legally blind GOP partisan hazy about the details) → ??? → Rudy Giuliani → Steve Bannon → NY Post → Matt Gaetz. Seriously?] A year and a half later, the course of the Russian invasion of Ukraine provides solid evidence that we should be thankful for social media companies’ rare responsible anti-propaganda effort here. Instead of dissolving NATO and dropping Russian sanctions as the previous president repeatedly suggested, the US instead provided significant diplomatic, military, intelligence, and economic support, and now Ukrainians have a good chance of holding their country. Once again, remember that impeachment #1 was about a ham-handed explicit attempt by the US president to extort president Zelenskyy of Ukraine, denying US military aid unless he would fabricate dirt on the president’s political opponent and (falsely) exonerate Russia. For that effort, the president’s entire party (with only a few notable exceptions) gave him a pat on the back.
- thepasswordis 5y ago
  That “invented Russian propaganda” was confirmed by the New York Times.
  - jacobolus 5y ago
    No, what was confirmed was that some of the emails placed onto the laptop were real emails. (Those emails are not in and of themselves any evidence of wrongdoing, FWIW.) Nobody can demonstrate where or how those emails were obtained, or who put them on the laptop. The repair shop owner has repeatedly claimed that much of the current content of the hard drive was not there when he originally examined it. The whole thing has been treated in such a slipshod and ridiculous manner by a whole clown car of incompetent partisan activists that it is now impossible to validate anything about whose laptop this was or what it had on it originally. Meanwhile Jared Kushner was literally just handed $2 billion by the Saudi government to run an “investment fund”, right out in the open. None of the people worried about this laptop/email story have said a peep.
- hersko 5y ago
  From the New York Times[1]: "People familiar with the investigation said prosecutors had examined emails between Mr. Biden, Mr. Archer and others about Burisma and other foreign business activity. Those emails were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop. The email and others in the cache were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation." [1]https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/us/politics/hunter-biden-tax-bill-investigation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/us/politics/hunter-biden-...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- invalidOrTaken 5y ago
  I think you've missed some developments, or perhaps I'm misinterpreting you? https://nypost.com/2022/03/17/hunter-bidens-infamous-laptop-confirmed-in-new-york-times-report/ https://nypost.com/2022/03/17/hunter-bidens-infamous-laptop-...
  - discardedrefuse 5y ago
    Why link to a conservative tabloid instead of the actual article from NYT? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/us/politics/hunter-biden-tax-bill-investigation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/us/politics/hunter-biden-...
    - invalidOrTaken 5y ago
      honestly, b/c it was the first thing to show up on DDG, and my intuition was that it was so beyond dispute that prestige wasn't a necessary credibility signal
Fervicus 5y ago
This has been the modus operandi of MSM and social media for the past few years for all sorts of topics. It's sad to see people still speak in favor of such censorship.

This supposed “important news” is an invented (probably Russian) propaganda story that couldn’t be confirmed by any of the news outlets who investigated it and was hyped up by armies of Russian bots and Russian-funded media trolls, immediately before a presidential election. [According to proponents of this story, the chain of custody of this laptop goes: Hunter Biden → Repair Shop (owned by a legally blind GOP partisan hazy about the details) → ??? → Rudy Giuliani → Steve Bannon → NY Post → Matt Gaetz. Seriously?] A year and a half later, the course of the Russian invasion of Ukraine provides solid evidence that we should be thankful for social media companies’ rare responsible anti-propaganda effort here. Instead of dissolving NATO and dropping Russian sanctions as the previous president repeatedly suggested, the US instead provided significant diplomatic, military, intelligence, and economic support, and now Ukrainians have a good chance of holding their country. Once again, remember that impeachment #1 was about a ham-handed explicit attempt by the US president to extort president Zelenskyy of Ukraine, denying US military aid unless he would fabricate dirt on the president’s political opponent and (falsely) exonerate Russia. For that effort, the president’s entire party (with only a few notable exceptions) gave him a pat on the back.

thepasswordis 5y ago
That “invented Russian propaganda” was confirmed by the New York Times.
- jacobolus 5y ago
  No, what was confirmed was that some of the emails placed onto the laptop were real emails. (Those emails are not in and of themselves any evidence of wrongdoing, FWIW.) Nobody can demonstrate where or how those emails were obtained, or who put them on the laptop. The repair shop owner has repeatedly claimed that much of the current content of the hard drive was not there when he originally examined it. The whole thing has been treated in such a slipshod and ridiculous manner by a whole clown car of incompetent partisan activists that it is now impossible to validate anything about whose laptop this was or what it had on it originally. Meanwhile Jared Kushner was literally just handed $2 billion by the Saudi government to run an “investment fund”, right out in the open. None of the people worried about this laptop/email story have said a peep.
hersko 5y ago
From the New York Times[1]: "People familiar with the investigation said prosecutors had examined emails between Mr. Biden, Mr. Archer and others about Burisma and other foreign business activity. Those emails were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop. The email and others in the cache were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation." [1]https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/us/politics/hunter-biden-tax-bill-investigation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/us/politics/hunter-biden-...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
invalidOrTaken 5y ago
I think you've missed some developments, or perhaps I'm misinterpreting you? https://nypost.com/2022/03/17/hunter-bidens-infamous-laptop-confirmed-in-new-york-times-report/ https://nypost.com/2022/03/17/hunter-bidens-infamous-laptop-...
- discardedrefuse 5y ago
  Why link to a conservative tabloid instead of the actual article from NYT? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/us/politics/hunter-biden-tax-bill-investigation.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/us/politics/hunter-biden-...
  - invalidOrTaken 5y ago
    honestly, b/c it was the first thing to show up on DDG, and my intuition was that it was so beyond dispute that prestige wasn't a necessary credibility signal

Fervicus 5y ago

This has been the modus operandi of MSM and social media for the past few years for all sorts of topics. It's sad to see people still speak in favor of such censorship.