Green Party activists on Thursday accused social-media giants of suppressing efforts to promote an interview with Biden accuser Tara Reade, calling it “stunning to see censorship in real time.”
The Green Socialist Organizing Project said its posts before and during the Tuesday night livestream discussion on YouTube entitled “Rape Culture, Capitalism and Patriarchy” were “throttled” and “censored” on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, which is owned by Google.
The 90-minute discussion was hosted by Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker, the Green Party 2020 candidates for president and vice president, and featured Ms. Reade and Wisconsin-based victims’ advocate Annika Leonard, but in a Thursday email, the Greens referred to Ms. Reade only as “T.R.”
“Why are we being coy about who the second guest was?” said the email. “Because every single social media post was ‘throttled,’ so that the posts were kept hidden from our followers on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.”
The group continued: “Worse, during the live stream itself, we attempted to post a link to T.R.’s website into the chat stream with viewers, and the link was denied. It was stunning to see the censorship in real time.”
Last year, Ms. Reade accused Mr. Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993 while she worked on his Senate staff, which he has denied, saying in May that it “never, never happened.”
The full 90-minute Zoom-style discussion is posted on YouTube. The Washington Times has reached out to Facebook, Twitter and Google.
During the interview, Ms. Reade said she was hopeful her allegations would be taken more seriously with the focus on sexual-harassment claims against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, saying that “if they investigate Cuomo, they’re going to have to investigate Biden.”
Mr. Cuomo has denied allegations by a half-dozen women, most former staffers and aides, of inappropriate conduct.
“I’m still kind of the villain, the bad guy, for coming forward, the bad person for coming forward,” Ms. Reade said. “What was it, Biden’s saving the soul of America? Well, he didn’t save mine.”
Did you see our livestream last night with @ReadeAlexandra and @pricelessincite on Rape Culture, Capitalism, and Patriarch? Don’t miss this amazing and important conversation. https://t.co/Rzn6tmcxxF
— Howie Hawkins (@HowieHawkins) March 17, 2021
Tech platforms were accused during the 2020 presidential race of putting their thumb on the scale for Mr. Biden, notably in October, when Twitter suppressed New York Post stories about Hunter Biden’s business dealings and froze the newspaper’s account for 16 days, citing its policy against hacked materials.
“Big Tech is protecting their investment of millions of dollars in campaign contributions to Joe Biden,” said the Thursday statement. “But Howie and Angela have been calling for social ownership of the internet and of services like Facebook and Twitter, which really have become more like public utilities.”
Employees at the five major tech companies gave $12.3 million to the Biden 2020 presidential campaign and “millions more to Democrats in high-profile Senate contests,” according to OpenSecrets, a project of the Center for Responsive Politics.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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