Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) deleted a tweet about the “Twitter Files” after being fact-checked.
Twitter user Ian Miles Cheong shared a screenshot of the since-deleted tweet posted by Lieu.
“Dear [David Zweig]: The tweet you cite is in fact misleading. People of all ages at high risk from COVID generally benefit from vaccines,” Lieu wrote.
He added, “Prior natural immunity may last only a few months. COVID appears to be a leading cause of death for children.”
Twitter CEO Elon Musk replied to another tweet that claimed the information Lieu linked to “has actually been re-written as a result of my critique because it is seriously flawed and inaccurate.”
The tweet continues, “You linked to the old version.”
Musk responded, “Ted is linking to misleading data [Community Notes].”
Well done @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/6rYa3xCtiF
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 26, 2022
The lawmaker received criticism from Twitter users for the tweet.
One user wrote, “Fear mongering at its worst [Ted Lieu] is a liar and a scumbag.”
Fear mongering at its worst @tedlieu is a liar and a scumbag https://t.co/4MzHXUgMUi
— DARIN BOCHARSKI (@MAGALIFE187) December 27, 2022
Another tweeted, “Poor [Ted Lieu].”
Poor @tedlieu 🤣🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/OdwDGTZslc
— 🇺🇸Kelly🇺🇸 (@kelmerica78) December 27, 2022
Read more reactions below:
https://twitter.com/whowatwherewolf/status/1607688339272134656
Oh my.
— Mark Jeffrey (@markjeffrey) December 27, 2022
At least @tedlieu deleted his tweet rather than continue to spread disinformation. https://t.co/gT95VEilTW
@tedlieu embarrassing himself (again) https://t.co/NYObEix7K7
— twitple₿⚡️🏴 (@twitpleb) December 27, 2022
Unfortunately it’s not possible for @tedlieu to lose more respect https://t.co/dH5EhleYI3
— Junior (@Junior63031591) December 27, 2022
I’ll continue to say it. @tedlieu will lie and use his congressional position to further those lies. He is constantly called out on them and never has issued an apology. Why do the rules never apply to Ted? At least there’s #FactCheck against him. https://t.co/KYSPbzLpdg
— The Famous Mr. Ed (@MrEdInFlorida) December 26, 2022
On Monday, it was reported that Independent writer David Zweig went viral for his reporting on behalf of Bari Weiss’s publication, The Free Press, about how the government handled content about the COVID-19 pandemic on social media platforms.
Zweig reported the government “pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to elevate certain content and suppress other content about Covid-19.”
He added, “Internal files at Twitter that I viewed while on assignment for [The fp] showed that both the Trump and Biden administrations directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform’s pandemic content according to their wishes.”
The “Twitter Files” pointed out when President Joe Biden entered the White House, “One of the first meeting quests from the Biden White House was about COVID misinformation” and Biden’s staff “focused on vaccines and hight profile anti-vaxxer accounts, including Alex Berenson,” as Fox News noted.
A memo written by Twitter’s head of U.S. public policy Lauren Culbertson claims the Biden administration was “not satisfied with Twitter’s enforcement approach as they wanted Twitter to do more and to de-platform several accounts.”
Zweig reported that Culbertson wrote, “Because of this dissatisfaction, we were asked to join other calls. They were very angry in nature.”
He explained, “Twitter executives did not fully capitulate to the Biden team’s wishes. An extensive review of internal communications at the company revealed employees often debating moderation cases in great detail, and with more care than was shown by the government toward free speech. But Twitter did suppress views—many from doctors and scientific experts—that conflicted with the official positions of the White House. As a result, legitimate findings and questions that would have expanded the public debate went missing.”
Additionally, it was reported that the Trump administration held “weekly” calls with other companies including Google, Facebook and Microsoft to discuss “general trends” that were taking place on other platforms.
