US election: are social media giants ‘censoring’ stories about Joe Biden’s son and Ukraine?

Trump-supporting senators are accusing Twitter and Facebook of ‘election day interference’

Democratic candidate Joe Biden wearing a face mask during a town hall event
Joe Biden at a town hall event in Philadelphia this week 
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

US Republicans are set to subpoena Twitter boss Jack Dorsey after the social media platform and rival Facebook blocked access to a news article making unproven allegations against Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and his son.

Senator Ted Cruz yesterday accused the tech giants of using their “corporate power to silence the press and cover up allegations of corruption”, charging them with “active censorship” and “election day interference”. The Senate Judiciary Committee now plans to vote next week whether to haul in Dorsey to answer questions about why Twitter users were prevented from posting links to the story.

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  Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.