The point is that the government didn't force these companies to take down the content. That, coupled with the endless legal witch hunts against Hunter Biden should be sufficient enough for Republicans but I guess it isn't. This story never dies for some reason.
You'll never see me defending our intelligence apparatus and I agree that it's bad they involved themselves. But, government agents can submit strongly worded letters all they want. It doesn't mean anything.
The FBI even explicitly went to facebook and said you need to be aware of Russian misinformation and this story "fit the pattern". Did you really need the govt intelligence apparatus to hold a gun to media heads ? Things don't work that way as you well know - they all need plausible denial.
Something that will likely hopefully change your position:
Chat logs, published just this Tuesday by the House Judiciary Committee on X, show that the gag order extended to an FBI analyst who attempted to alert social media companies that the laptop was authentic—before these companies moved to censor the story’s spread.
Nutshell: So, the FBI under Biden stated that the laptop story had all the signs of a Russian misinformation op. When an agent wanted to correct the record and mention that the laptop was genuine, he was made to shut up. If this isn't explicit partisan interference during an election period, the there is no standard of evidence that will convince you.
You'll never see me defending our intelligence apparatus and I agree that it's bad they involved themselves. But, government agents can submit strongly worded letters all they want. It doesn't mean anything.