Conflict of Interest Becomes Election Interference

According to the Gateway Pundit, the head of communications at Twitter who suspended President Trump’s campaign account is none other than Nick Pacilio, the former press secretary for Kamala Harris, who just so happens to be the recently announced pick for VP for Joe Biden. What’s more, in recent weeks, Twitter has stepped up its game in the pursuit of censorship of Conservatives, actively suspending and restricting thousands of Twitter accounts. The suspended accounts primarily account for those whose only offense is to support President Trump and his re-election.

If anything screams election interference, this is certainly a prime example. It must be noted that not only does Pacilio have an apparent vested interest in Kamala Harris’ campaign, he works for an organization in which the major shareholder is a foreign entity. According to Quartz, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud owns 34.9 million shares of Twitter’s common stock, making him the second largest shareholder, owning more than Jack Dorsey himself. The actions taken by those running Twitter demonstrate a conflict of interest between their influence in social media, their relationship to the pick for vice-president by the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee, their relationship to foreign ownership of the company for which they work and the users of their purportedly neutral platform.

Donald Trump Jr. was recently suspended from Twitter when he posted a tweet supporting the use of Hydroxychloriquine, a treatment shown by doctors to be effective for Coronavirus. Additionally, Twitter has been a major communication tool, not only Trump supporters, but used by the president himself to communicate with the public in directly. The blatant use of censorship of conservative accounts on Twitter, and most notably, of Trump’s campaign account, could without doubt, be considered to be a type of election interference. Nick Pacilio’s direct link to Kamala Harris, now the apparent vice-presidential pick, and Twitter’s use of unabashed censorship must be firmly addressed.

According to the US Department of Justice website, a just released media note states that the US Department of State Rewards for Justice program, administered by the Diplomatic Security Service, is offering a reward of up to $10 million. The reward is offered for information “leading to the identification or location of any person who works with or for a foreign government for the purpose of interefering with the US election through certain illegal cyber activities”. One can hope that more direct action is also taken to address the censorship that is affecting the elections on a national level.