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| Facebook and Twitter censor potentially damning story about Joe Biden and corruption |
| 2020-10-15 |
| This was a reeeaally stoopid effort. See: "Streisand Effect" [Wash Examiner] Social media executives are about to discover the Streisand effect. Facebook has restricted its users' ability to share a potentially damning news report about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Twitter has taken similar actions to limit the story's distribution. "Given the lack of authoritative reporting on the origins of the materials included in the article, we’re taking action to limit the spread of this information," a Twitter spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. The New York Post published an an article Wednesday morning purporting to show that Hunter Biden introduced his father, then the vice president, "to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company." Roughly six hours after the report went live, Facebook's policy communications director, Andy Stone, confirmed the story is being suppressed on the popular social media platform pending a fact-check. "While I will intentionally not link to the New York Post," said Stone, "I want be clear that this story is eligible to be fact checked by Facebook's third-party fact checking partners. In the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform." He added, linking to a Facebook FAQ from 2019, "This is part of our standard process to reduce the spread of misinformation. We temporarily reduce distribution pending fact-checker review." Not long after Stone’s announcement, Twitter took similar action, making it impossible to share the New York Post article on its platform. A Twitter spokesperson called attention to its "Hacked Material Policy," which states, "We don’t permit the use of our services to directly distribute content obtained through hacking that contains private information, may put people in physical harm or danger, or contains trade secrets." Moreover, the spokesperson told the Washington Examiner, "This enforcement action is in line with our guidance on blocking links, specifically, ’At times, Twitter will take action to limit or prevent the spread of URL links to content outside Twitter. This is done by displaying a warning notice when the link is clicked, or by blocking the link so that it can’t be Tweeted at all.'" Attempts to share the New York Post article on Twitter produce an error message that reads, "We can't complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful. Visit our Help Center to learn more." Even New York Post staffers are unable to share the story on Twitter. "This is a Big Tech information coup," said opinion editor Sohrab Ahmari. "This is digital civil war. I, an editor at the New York Post, one of the nation’s largest papers by circulation, can’t post one of our own stories that details corruption by a major-party presidential candidate, Biden." Links posted to Twitter before the report was targeted for censorship are also compromised. Instead of taking users directly to the New York Post’s website, the links direct them first to a page that declares, "Warning: this link may be unsafe." The warning page adds, "The link you are trying to access has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe, in accordance with Twitter’s URL Policy." The New York Post report cannot even be shared privately via Twitter's direct messages function. If the idea here was to limit the number of people who see the New York Post article, Facebook and Twitter likely just accomplished the opposite. Nothing makes people want to look more than being told they are not supposed to. Twitter Chief Jack Dorsey Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Related: Hunter Biden: 2020-10-14 Hunter Biden emails under investigation by Senate Homeland Security Committee after hard-drive report emerges Hunter Biden: 2020-10-14 Hunter Biden introduced Burisma adviser to VP dad before Ukraine pressure, email shows Hunter Biden: 2020-10-14 Joe Biden facing questions as his doctor son-in-law advises his campaign on COVID while running investment firm putting money into healthcare startups Related: Andy Stone: 2020-09-05 Facebook removes pages of right-wing group Patriot Prayer after unrest Andy Stone: 2020-04-21 Facebook takes down anti-quarantine protest posts Related: New York Post: 2020-10-14 Hunter Biden emails under investigation by Senate Homeland Security Committee after hard-drive report emerges New York Post: 2020-10-10 NY Board of Rabbis condemns ‘shameful' violence at Brooklyn protests New York Post: 2020-10-05 AOC: No. Why Would I Meet With Jewish Community Leaders? Related: Washington Examiner: 2020-10-09 Commission on Presidential Debates declines Trump campaign's request to hold in-person debate Washington Examiner: 2020-10-04 Red states are outperforming blue states economically Washington Examiner: 2020-10-02 Judge allows Justice Department lawsuit against John Bolton to move forward Related: Twitter: 2020-10-14 Ayanna Pressley challenger in Massachusetts says she was attacked at local Trump rally, suffered broken tibia Twitter: 2020-10-13 Huge explosion reported in Huizhou, China Twitter: 2020-10-13 Seven-time Portland riot arrestee deletes videos of herself participating in toppling of statues Related: New York Post: 2020-10-14 Hunter Biden emails under investigation by Senate Homeland Security Committee after hard-drive report emerges New York Post: 2020-10-10 NY Board of Rabbis condemns ‘shameful' violence at Brooklyn protests New York Post: 2020-10-05 AOC: No. Why Would I Meet With Jewish Community Leaders? Related: Jack Dorsey: 2020-09-23 Attorney for Kenosha teenager Kyle Rittenhouse releases new footage showing a BLM protester fire a gun BEFORE his client - claiming it proves self-defense Jack Dorsey: 2020-09-17 Trump Administration Forces Qatari News Network Al Jazeera To Register As 'Foreign Agent' Jack Dorsey: 2020-09-12 Man, 26, who was shot in the arm during Kenosha protests where two others were killed says he has lost 90% of his bicep, is in constant pain and gets death threats from supporters of gunman 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse Related: Mark Zuckerberg: 2020-08-30 Zuckerberg says Facebook's failure to remove militia page an 'operational mistake' Mark Zuckerberg: 2020-07-30 Big Tech Floods House Judiciary with Cash as Committee Intensifies Antitrust Review Mark Zuckerberg: 2020-07-28 Matt Gaetz files criminal referral against Zuckerberg for lying to Congress about anti-conservative bias |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #14 The answer is simple, send federal marshals to immediately seize ALL of FB's and Twitters papers, files, and electronic media. Remove all employees and then dig through to find their REAL policies. Oh and send Zuck and Carson (Twitter CEO?) to Gitmo and then parts of various stan's for interrogation. After all, didn't the Patriot Act allow that? |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2020-10-15 21:18 |
| #13 The answer is simple, send federal marshals to immediately seize ALL of FB's and Twitters papers, files, and electronic media. Remove all employees and then dig through to find their REAL policies. Oh and send Zuck and Carson (Twitter CEO?) to Gitmo and then parts of various stan's for interrogation. After all, didn't the Patriot Act allow that? |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2020-10-15 21:18 |
| #12 Abu Uluque, that is an interesting question. I think Facebook wrote some code to pull-down links to that NY post article. I posted it on my Facebook and it was gone within the hour. I posted a story to a story on the censorship and that one is up 8 hours later. That second story included a l =ink to the NY Post article so a second generation link seems to be fine. The attempted coverup will ensure more people hear about the crime. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2020-10-15 17:44 |
| #11 ^ Their behavior is noted by the INGSOC panopticon and they're marked for a appointment with O'Brien at the Ministry of Love |
| Posted by: Pliny Graising8882 2020-10-15 14:26 |
| #10 What happens if somebody tries to link to coverage of this story in the Daily Mail or the Washington Examiner...or Rantburg or Breitbart? What if somebody posts a link to a link to the New York Post? |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2020-10-15 14:06 |
| #9 Or they don't trust the polls any more than we do and aren't taking any chances. The next shoe to drop will be to ban all Twitter and Facebook posts claiming that Trump won the election. |
| Posted by: Matt 2020-10-15 13:39 |
| #8 Yet they allowed Trumps leaked taxes out into their media. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2020-10-15 13:14 |
| #7 This means one of two things: They're either convinced they're losing and are throwing everything but the kitchen sink. Or.. They're convinced they're winning and don't need to even pretend to evenhandedness anymore. |
| Posted by: charger 2020-10-15 11:33 |
| #6 Flak gets heavy over the target. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2020-10-15 08:19 |
| #5 what are the Twitter rules for sharing an email that showed that Don Jr. was involved with corruption on behalf of his father? that's what I thought |
| Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 2020-10-15 07:13 |
| #4 https://twitter.com/SVNewsAlerts/status/1316588082880221186?s=20 Joe made his son split the money with him. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2020-10-15 03:09 |
| #3 FB just blocked sharing a US Senate link- when they shared the Nypost story on Hunter biden. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2020-10-15 02:38 |
| #2 Do NOT think about green elephants. |
| Posted by: gorb 2020-10-15 01:26 |
| #1 Twitter CEO Dorsey said late this afternoon that he is disappointed in the Twitter department that censored the content for not explaining that the content contained personal email addresses and personal phone numbers without the owner's permission which is against Twitter's policies. Something The Post should have redacted in the published content but did not. |
| Posted by: Vespasian Ebbereng3110 2020-10-15 00:14 |