Twitter suspended account questioning congressman’s ethics, records show

As new Twitter owner Elon Musk continues to release “The Twitter Files” showing a censorship collusion between former management and the federal government, in at least one other incident Twitter suspended a user for questioning the ethics of a congressman. 

Luke Thompson, Republican political consultant for National Review, posted a tweet last year in which he alleged a questionable relationship between Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Stanford University. 

Thompson pointed to FEC filings showing that Lieu had donated over $50,000 to Stanford University in 2017 and 2018, after which his son Brennan enrolled in the Class of 2025. The donations were Lieu’s largest to date. 

While “Campaign committees can give gifts to charity,” according to the FEC, “The amount donated to a charitable organization cannot be used for purposes that personally benefit the candidate.” 

“This looks very bad,” Thompson wrote above screenshots of the filings and Brennan’s social media account showing he had enrolled. 

While no quid pro quo was found linking Lieu’s donation and his son’s enrollment, making the donation questionable but not illegal, neither did Thompson say the congressman had broken the law. 

Nevertheless, Thompson was suspended by Twitter employees despite no violation of the company’s policies. 

Tranches of internal Twitter communications released by Musk show a disturbing relationship between former management and the federal government, which resulted in a “censorship enterprise” ruled by the Democratic Party.  

Even before Biden occupied the White House and was just a presidential candidate, Twitter employees would promptly remove tweets or users sent to them by Biden’s team for removal.  

Journalist Matt Taibbi, who published parts of The Twitter Files, says that in the earlier days of Twitter, the company was “slowly forced to add . . . tools for controlling speech [that] were designed to combat the likes of spam and financial fraudsters.”  

“Slowly, over time, Twitter staff and executives began to find more and more uses for these tools. Outsiders began petitioning the company to manipulate speech as well: first a little, then more often, then constantly,” Taibbi said. “By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: ‘More to review from the Biden team.’ The reply would come back: ‘Handled.’”