Kaleigh McEnany attacks Twitter for not banning articles that accused Trump of collusion with Russia and reveals she won't have her account back until she deletes the story about Joe and Hunter Biden
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany hit out at Twitter on Wednesday night after it locked her personal account over a tweet referencing a story about Joe Biden's dealings with his son Hunter's business associates in the Ukraine.
Speaking with Sean Hannity on Fox News, McEnany accused the social media giant of bias and censorship for only banning content that 'hurts the side of the aisle that Silicon Valley prefers'.
She accused the social media giant of allowing articles that accused Trump of collusion with Russia to be posted on its site, despite the president being cleared during his impeachment trial earlier this year.
McEnany also revealed that the lock on the account is permanent unless she deletes the tweets, describing herself as being 'held at gunpoint' by the platform.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany hit out at Twitter on Wednesday night during an interview with Fox after they locked her personal account over a tweet referencing a story about Joe Biden 's dealings with his son Hunter's business associates in the Ukraine
'This was a news story about emails and even the Biden campaign does not dispute the authenticity of the emails. They had a chance today and they didn't,' she said, knocking Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's claim that the Biden story had been restricted because personal information was published.
'Meanwhile, you have the story about President Trump in The Atlantic where you had more than 20 sources on the record disputing the content of the email.
'You have death to Israel that is permitted on Twitter but not an email which is reported by ... the New York Post, a credible outlet, you are not allowed to share that information.
'Make no mistake, if they can ban the press secretary of the United States for President Trump, they can ban any American citizen and that is pathetic,' McEnany added.
She continued to say that unless she deleted the story from the New York Post, who first published the news of Hunter's emails earlier on Wednesday, from her Titter account that she would lose all access.
'It's not a temporary blockage. When I log into my Twitter account, it says they have me permanently banned. They essentially have me at gun point and said unless you delete a news story reported by the New York Post, I cannot gain access to my account.
'This is censorship, this is not the American way, this is not how a freedom-loving democracy operates,' she said.
'We have to hold Twitter accountable, and Facebook too, it was banning the transmission of the story simply because ideologically, it hurts the side of the aisle that Silicon Valley prefers. It's sad, it's censorship. This is not America.'
McEnany tweeted articles about the story from her personal account
She also hit out at the lock from her government account
McEnany then told Hannity that she believed the same would not have happened if the story was about Trump.
'It would be all over Twitter. Everyone would be reporting it,' she claimed.
'It would be the top news story, it would be the top trend on Twitter, because there's one standard for Trump and one standard for the anything on the other side of the aisle.
'It's breathtaking that for years, really, for at least more than a year, Joe Biden told us "I have nothing to do with Hunter's business dealings" and today we get an email that Hunter introduced the Ukrainian oligarch to his father Joe Biden and it is censored and any one who mentions it is banned from the public platform.'
It was revealed that McEnany has been blocked from Twitter shortly before the company released a new statement about its restrictions on the Biden story and Dorsey attempted to apologize.
McEnany's tweet that was flagged by the tech giant read, '**NEW** Email from Ukrainian executive to Hunter Biden asks Hunter to 'use his influence' on behalf of the firm paying him $50K/mo in email with subject 'urgent issue' obtained by @nypost Father @JoeBiden was in charge of Ukraine relations at time.!!'
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appeared to step back from the social media giant's restrictions on an article about VP Joe Biden on Wednesday night by tweeting it was 'unacceptable'
Hunter and Joe Biden. The Post story suggests that Joe, while VP, had a meeting with a Ukrainian businessman after being introduced to him by Hunter, eight months before pressuring Ukrainian officials to fire a prosecutor who was investigating the businessman
McEnany fired back at Twitter later from her official government account before the Fox interview.
'Censorship should be condemned! cc: @Twitter & Facebook NOT the American way!!' she wrote.
Twitter and Facebook faced backlash on Wednesday over their decision to block links to a story which claims Joe Biden met with a Ukrainian businessman while he was Vice President.
Trump blasted the social media giants as 'terrible' for 'reducing circulation' of a New York Post article which published the claims about his rival Biden earlier in the day.
The Post story says that the former Vice President met with Ukrainian businessman Vadym Pozharskyi, as associate of his son Hunter, months before Biden would pressure Ukrainian officials to fire a prosecutor who was investigating Pozharskyi's firm.
The publication's own Twitter accounts were locked for sharing the article.
Facebook and Twitter were accused of 'election interference' for throttling the article, after they claimed it needed to be independently verified by fact-checkers before it could be shared on their platforms.
Twitter later attempted to clarify its actions while Dorsey admitted that some of them were 'unacceptable'.
In his apology, Dorset linked to a statement from the company that said it was restricting the link because 'personal and private information' was shared in the story, pulling back from its earlier suggestions of inaccuracy.
