Musk's Reveal of Hunter Biden Twitter Suppression Held Up for Fact-Check

Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced that his team was "double-checking some facts" before releasing information about the network's suppression of a 2020 New York Post article about Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden.

Musk first tweeted Friday afternoon that "what really happened" regarding the platform's censorship of the story would be posted on Twitter at 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

At 5:21 p.m., the CEO backtracked on his original deadline, saying that "live tweeting" about the information would start within the hour.

In October 2020, just weeks before the presidential election between Biden and then-President Donald Trump, the Post published an article that allegedly tied the president to his son Hunter's position as a board member of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm.

Twitter blocked users from sharing the article, saying it violated its company's private information rules and Hack Materials Policy. The story, whose legitimacy has also been contemplated, contained emails and phone numbers.

The network received a wave of backlash for its suppression of the story, and in response Twitter changed its policy on what it called "hacked content," choosing to add additional content to tweets rather than removing or blocking hacked information from the site.

Musk's announcement Friday was well received by some supporters of Trump, who has long questioned Joe Biden's actions during his time as vice president, accusing him of benefiting Hunter Biden's business interests. Investigations into Hunter Biden's emails and other forms of communication found on a laptop have yet to prove that the president was engaged in any wrongdoing.

Jenna Ellis, former Trump attorney, tweeted shortly after Musk, "WE ARE WAITING."

Sports journalist David Hookstead was also among several users who responded to Musk's post, writing that it was "about damn time the truth came out!"

"Release all the info Elon," he added. "Release it all."

In light of Musk's delay, however, some users speculated what was causing the holdup. Conservative activist Tom Fitton tweeted that he assumed "the lawyers are trying to scare @ElonMusk from exposing @Twitter's corruption."

Newsmax correspondent Benny Johnson posted over an hour after Musk's 5 p.m. deadline, writing: "Did Twitter's Hunter Biden report get Epstein'ed?"

Actress Alana Stewart wrote that she was "waiting with bated breath" for the new information, and said it was going to be "hard" for mainstream media to "cover" it up.

Other users contemplated Musk's well-being, as the phrase "Where's Elon" started trending. Reality TV star Jeff Zausch tweeted at the CEO roughly an hour after his original deadline, writing: "Consider this your welfare check..."

The long-awaited reveal regarding Twitter's censorship was finally released almost two hours after Musk's original deadline by journalist Matt Taibbi, a report the journalist called the "Twitter Files."

Newsweek has reached out to Twitter's communications team for comment.

Update 12/2/22, 11:50 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.