Did HBO ‘Kill’ or ‘Hide’ a Documentary About Election Hacking?

No.

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Right-wing commentator Mike Cernovich claimed recently that HBO has “killed” a documentary about the the cyber vulnerabilities of American elections: 

This claim was further elevated by former Trump campaign spokeswoman and senior adviser Katrina Pierson:

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  1. Rational

    First, I cannot believe I am writing something that defends in any way something said by Marjorie Taylor Greene — a person I believe to be a dangerous crackpot. However, I am not really convinced by this explanation. The substance of what is being said, perhaps not as precisely as you would like, is that HBO is burying a documentary it did on cyber vulnerabilities in elections. On balance, I think making something “unlisted,” as described, meets that standard. I have no idea why HBO is doing that (maybe the documentary is boring or wrong), but the assertion that HBO is burying it seems relatively well substantiated.

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  2. Alex DeLarge

    Biden said requiring an ID to vote is the worst threat to our democracy "since the Civil War." Can we get that confirmed with a fact check?

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      Kmregan7

      Biden said that the wave of Republican-led legislation voting laws (restrictions specifically) were a threat to democracy. Not requiring an ID. According to National Review anyway. https://www.nationalreview.com/news/biden-labels-gop-voting-laws-greatest-threat-to-american-democracy-since-civil-war/

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    Luke Thompson (not that one)

    Isn't the answer to "hide" yes?

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    Victor Clairmont

    Hmmmm.

    This is sort of like the “disinformation” term, that is an actual term on legal parlance (propaganda spread by outside parties/nations against your citizens or government) and then the newfangled “misinformation” that is being pushed by any in congress, which can mean anything or a catch all term to go after certain domestic or local businesses and people (Facebook etc.).

    On another note, Zomg Alec are we gonna have to keep doing Arizona (Maricopa county) and Georgia (Fulton County) fact checks?!

    That, and at least Cernovich responded.

    That’s a good thing right?

    Right?!

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    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    I'm not sure how I'd rate this one. Saying it is hidden appears to be accurate. "Kill" could mean hidden or removed, or destroyed. So depending on how you interpret the word kill, it could be true or false. Taken both together, the claim seems true. I also don't see a time stamp (just a date stamp) on the two tweets, so I wouldn't know which one came first. I ignored Greene's posts, as I really don't care about hers.

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      Michael Darwin

      I'm definitely equivocating on this. HBO and similar websites often de-list programs. Is that "hiding" them? Kinda. More taking the spotlight off them, but I would not really dispute "hiding" either, though the word has more sinister implications. The insinuation is that it was "hidden" to cover the truth of election hacking. While I certainly doubt this is the case with all the other de-listed programs, could I believe someone "hid" this documentary for political reasons? Sure, it is *possible*, but they'd almost never admit it if they did. Without knowing the details of the contract and the viewings of this and other de-listed programs, I would be very hesitant to ascribe any motive.

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    2. ExploreOK

      I think a lot of these people hide behind ambiguous language to claim truth.

      The most charitable implication of the claim made by Cernovich is HBO is trying to hide the documentary. There's no evidence of such an intention, or that the documentary is 'hidden' except on YouTube.

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      Luke Thompson (not that one)

      If you click on the tweets, then hover over the date, it will show you the timestamp. It looks like someone mentioned to Cernovich that it was gone, he searched for it and it didn't come up, so he posted the first tweet (which says "seems to have"). Then he finds out that it's just hidden.

      Notably, Cernovich seems to have actually linked to the documentary on YouTube before Alec sent him the email about it and about a day before this went up, so this seems like a really odd fact check. At best, it's factchecking something that Cernovich had already corrected.

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        Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

        Thank you for explaining that. I didn't know about the hovering....

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  6. LucyTrice

    So, has the documentary itself been fact checked?

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      MatthewRobin

      I cannot find any critical review of Kill Chain. I hope The Dispatch reviews it.

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