Twitter and Facebook are facing criticism after preventing people from sharing a New York Post story alleging corruption by Joe Biden.
Facebook and Twitter have attracted criticism after limiting the spread of a controversial article about Joe Biden and his son Hunter written in the New York Post.
It’s the first time that a social media platform has taken such drastic steps against a major news publication and the move has sparked outrage amongst conservatives.
Follow its publication, Twitter users reported they were unable to share links to the story, met instead with a notice stating: “We can’t complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful.” Any links that had already been posted were branded with a message which read: “link may be unsafe”.
The article in question was based around a “smoking-gun email” between Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian official, which appears to mention a meeting between the latter and Joe Biden, who was serving as vice president at the time.
However, many have raised doubts about the authenticity of the article, including the legitimacy of the emails and how they were obtained. The Post claims that they were discovered by a computer-repair-shop owner on a laptop which had been dropped off by an unknown person and subsequently never picked up. However, according to Business Insider, the owner has been identified as an avid Trump supporter, John Paul Mac Isaac, who allegedly passed a copy of the computer’s hard drive onto Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
Twitter, whose policies prohibit the direct distribution of “content obtained through hacking that contains private information”, claimed that they were limiting the spread of the article due to uncertainties around the “origins of the materials”. They later clarified it was because some of the images in the article contained personal information.
Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable. https://t.co/v55vDVVlgt
— jack (@jack) October 14, 2020
Facebook put similar restrictions on users’ ability to share the article, alleging that it was part of their “standard process to reduce the spread of misinformation”.
However, the move drew much criticism from the right, including from Trump himself.
My letter to @jack regarding @Twitter’s censorship of the @nypost. pic.twitter.com/o3Ebkbqait
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 14, 2020
Twitter deleted @nypost’s tweet about the Hunter Biden bombshell. This is election interference. We’ve entered the age where we have a “ministry of truth” run by Democrats and only they decide what’s true. They demand that you no longer believe your lying eyes & ears.
Chilling. pic.twitter.com/rl6oPZMv5V
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) October 14, 2020
This is amazing. Now @Twitter joins @Facebook in censoring the @nypost reporting on Biden. You almost get the idea #bigtech wants to buy this election https://t.co/XpTPQRmqSd
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) October 14, 2020
Twitter and Facebook permanently crossed the line today. There’s NO turning back now.
They’ve stated, for the permanent record, that they’re anti-competitive monopolies resolutely committed to election interference and full-time liberal activism. 👇🏻👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/O2svIoCsnd— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) October 14, 2020
Are Twitter and Facebook suicidal? They locked Kayleigh McEnany’s account for posting the Biden article.
Big tech has turned into the Third Reich.
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) October 15, 2020
Censorship should be condemned!
cc: @Twitter & Facebook
NOT the American way‼️ 🇺🇸
— Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) October 14, 2020
So terrible that Facebook and Twitter took down the story of “Smoking Gun” emails related to Sleepy Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in the @NYPost. It is only the beginning for them. There is nothing worse than a corrupt politician. REPEAL SECTION 230!!! https://t.co/g1RJFpIVUZ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2020
The decision even drew criticism from the other side of politics, with some arguing that it added fuel to the fire in the war between conservatives and social media platforms on the issue of censorship.
hard to imagine a better gift to the trump campaign and the entire GOP than this decision by twitter https://t.co/IHF0DjsXIY
— Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) October 14, 2020
The Post’s story has been rejected by the Biden campaign with spokesperson Andrew Bates describing: “We have reviewed Joe Biden’s official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place.”
“Investigations by the press, during impeachment, and even by two Republican-led Senate committees whose work was decried as ‘not legitimate’ and political by a GOP colleague have all reached the same conclusion: that Joe Biden carried out official U.S. policy toward Ukraine and engaged in no wrongdoing. Trump administration officials have attested to these facts under oath,” he continued.
