Beware ‘Big Tech’.

A sinister development this week in the US election should remind us all how powerful both Twitter and Facebook are.

Alarmingly, both covered up evidence which could badly dent Joe Biden’s campaign for the White House.

Under the guise of ‘fact checking’, the tech giants removed reports, originally from the New York Post, of Mr Biden’s son’s shady business dealings.

Most significantly, emails show him using his father’s connections to pitch for lucrative contracts with Ukranian, Chinese and other firms.

Hunter’s father could shortly be the leader of the free world, so information of this sort is very relevant to voters.

It is noteworthy that these are the same social media platforms who allowed allegations of Trump’s collusion with Russia to be posted at the last election. Could they now be accused of trying to fix this one?

Amidst a flurry of denials and obfuscations, Twitter locked the official Trump campaign account and that of the White House press secretary.

After an outcry over freedom of speech in the US, the Twitter CEO apologised, replaced some limited posts and unlocked Trump’s account.

At the time of writing, Facebook, however, has still not changed policy. It’s not lost on me that Nick Clegg is their vice president!

This unprecedented, overt censorship by the world’s largest social media companies shows how unaccountable they are.

Information is power and every time we click a button their knowledge of us grows. One of Trump’s favourite catchphrases is “fake news”. And, while that often serves to deflect political assaults on him, this intentional muzzling of the facts gives his claim some credence.

But, whatever some may think of Trump, any election must be a fair fight.

Richard Drax

South Dorset MP