FBI says it ‘routinely notifies’ Big Tech of potential threats – ignores having Hunter’s laptop since 2019

The FBI is facing backlash for trying to defend itself from the allegation that it’d pressured Facebook into censoring reporting on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop.

As previously reported, last week Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that the FBI had come to him before the 2020 presidential election to warn him about the spread of alleged Russian disinformation.

“[T]he FBI basically came to us, some folks on our team. They were like, hey, just so you know, you should be on high alert. We thought there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election. We have it on notice that basically there’s about to be some kind of dump that’s similar to that, so just be vigilant,” he told podcaster Joe Rogan.

This bombshell revelation triggered massive backlash, with critics accusing the FBI of having pressured Facebook into censoring reporting on Biden’s infamous laptop, which as you know was initially dismissed as “Russian disinformation.”

But in a statement issued to NBC News on Friday, the FBI sought to defend its behavior by claiming precedence.

“The FBI routinely notifies U.S. private sector entities, including social media providers, of potential threat information, so that they can decide how to better defend against threats,” the agency said.

The FBI added that all it’s done is provide companies with “foreign threat indicators” and that it ostensibly lacks the power to “ask or direct companies to take action on information received.”

Critics were not impressed by this argument given that Facebook did ultimately choose to censor reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop by “reducing its distribution,” as Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone had said at the time.

So did other social media networks like Twitter, which outright banned the story. In fact, the entire left-wing media establishment joined the effort.

Plus, it’s known that the FBI had already been in possession of the laptop itself when the news of it first emerged, meaning the agency knew it was real.

As also previously reported, in April of 2019, someone showed up to a computer repair shop in Delaware and dropped off a laptop that contained photos and videos of then-Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. The owner of the shop then handed the laptop to the FBI.

However, he also gave a copy of its hard drive to President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani. After the FBI did nothing about the laptop, Giuliani went public with it in October of 2020 via the New York Post.

As soon as the story went public, the entire left-wing establishment sought to shut it down — and wouldn’t you know it, the FBI seemingly went along with the narrative, despite the agency having clearly known that the laptop was real.

That being said, Facebook has come to the FBI’s defense.

“The FBI shared general warnings about foreign interference – nothing specific about Hunter Biden,” Meta, its parent company, claimed in a tweet posted Friday.

Look:

But critics again pushed back, this time by pointing out how the FBI has never once issued such warnings in the face of anti-Trump disinformation like the Russian collusion delusion hoax, the Russian bounties story, etc.

“So FB just happened to choose this story about Hunter’s laptop as ‘Russian disinformation’ but not any of the multitude of stories about Trump & his family being Russian assets, or having ‘ties to the Kremlin??’ When censorship only goes 1 way, you are not protecting the public,” one critic astutely noted.

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Vivek Saxena

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Latest Articles