The Republican National Committee (RNC) on Friday filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and claimed that online censorship of a New York Post article about Hunter Bidenâs business dealings in Ukraine and China is an âillegal corporate in-kind political contributionâ to Democratic nominee Joe Bidenâs campaign.
The committee said that it âbelieves that Twitter has violated [the Federal Employeesâ Compensation Act] and the Commissionâs Regulations by making corporate in-kind contributions to Biden for President,â according to the complaint. Fox News first reported on the filing on Friday.
The complaint was filed against Twitter after the company moved to block sharing of the NY Postâs article. It also locked White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnanyâs and a Trump campaignâs account out over claims related to the report.
The RNC asserted that Twitter âengaged in arguably the most brazen and unprecedented act of media suppression in this countryâs history, and it is doing so for the clear purpose of supporting the Biden campaign.â
âDemocrat media consultants can only dream of such abilities,â it added. âThrough its ad hoc, partisan suppression of media critical of Biden, Respondent is making illegal, corporate in-kind contributions as it provides unheard-of media services for Joe Bidenâs campaign.â
The emails that were purportedly found on Hunter Bidenâs alleged laptop hard drive appeared to contradict Joe Bidenâs prior statements that he had no knowledge of Hunterâs business dealings. The Biden campaign also denied the NY Postâs report saying that the former vice president met with a Ukrainian gas company official.
âThe New York Post never asked the Biden campaign about the critical elements of this story,â Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates told news outlets on Wednesday. âThey certainly never raised that Rudy Giulianiâwhose discredited conspiracy theories and alliance with figures connected to Russian intelligence have been widely reportedâclaimed to have such materials.â
The RNC made note of campaign finance law that prohibits corporations from making contributions to federal candidates during an election. It said that Twitterâs âsuppressionâ of the NY Postâs reporting âprovides a thing of valueâ to Biden, suggesting that it is an in-kind contribution.
Twitter has not responded to a request for comment.
âTwitterâs decision to censor news articles that harm Joe Bidenâs candidacy is so transparently biased it would make even the governments of China or North Korea blush,â RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told Fox News of the complaint on Friday. âFortunately, in this country, we have tools at our disposal to fight back against this type of censorship. The RNC is calling on the Federal Elections Commission to investigate whether Twitterâs actions amount to an illegal corporate in-kind contribution to the Biden presidential campaign.â
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and a company spokesperson on Friday announced it would alter its content moderation policy following the backlash.
âStraight blocking of URLs was wrong, and we updated our policy and enforcement to fix. Our goal is to attempt to add context, and now we have capabilities to do that,â he wrote on the social media website.
Senate Judiciary Republicans on Thursday announced the panel would vote to subpoena Dorsey next week, saying the move amounted to censorship with just days to go before the November election. Meanwhile, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday that his agency will move forward with President Donald Trumpâs petition to clarify the meaning of a law that gives social media and tech companies legal protection for content posted by third parties.