Why tech giants have limited the NY Post story on Biden

The spread was limited when Facebook and Twitter moved quickly this week Unconfirmed political story Published by the Conservative-Leaning New York Post, which led to ries of censorship from the right. But even the biggest tech companies have explained the slippery grip on information flow, especially in the midst of a serious presidential election campaign.

Although Facebook and Twitter have been very slow to deal with their misinformation and other violations of their terms, their response in this case shows how quickly they can move when they want to. Misinformation often outweighs the truth on social networks, Academic studies have found. If the social media Titans are not careful, their attempts to unravel a story will only make it worse. And even when they are careful, they run the risk of creating their own headlines with every move.

For the first time in recent memory, two social media platforms have enforced rules against misinformation on a story from a mainstream media publication. The story in question, which has not been confirmed by other publications, is said to have been found by friends of President Donald Trump to be unconfirmed emails from the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Despite raising more questions than answers, including whether the emails in the middle of the story were hacked or fabricated, Trump’s campaign captured the report. No company has responded when asked if it has previously taken similar action on a mainstream news article, although it is common practice for Facebook to cut materials while waiting for a factual check.

Facebook has used the possibility of misinformation to limit the scope of the article, which means its algorithm shows fewer people that you may not see many posts from friends you do not communicate with often. Twitter, meanwhile, has prevented users from tweeting a link to the story and sending it in private messages.

Although they acted quickly, both companies were reluctant to inform the public of their decision. Because of this, and in an attempt to limit the story to some extent, tech platforms soon became a story, especially in the traditional category, where bias from Big Tech is already a major topic of discussion. The fact that a large, large-city newspaper usually receives the treatment assigned to high-end stores added fuel to the fire.

“This behavior is spectacular but not surprising from the platform that censored the President of the United States,” Senator Josh Haley (R-Mo.) Wrote in a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Republican legislator Dorsey announced Thursday that he plans to subpoena Dorsey to testify about his platform actions.

In some unusual action on Wednesday morning, a Facebook spokesperson Taken on Twitter While waiting for third-party fact-checkers to verify, the company announced that it was “reducing” story distribution on the platform. Facebook regularly does this with things that are not completely prohibited from its service, but there is a risk of spreading lies or causing harm in other ways.

Later on Wednesday, Twitter began banning its users from sharing links to the article in tweets and direct messages because it violated the company’s policy of banning hacked content. But it did not alert its users why it did not share its link after hours.

In the Twitter thread, The security group of the company said that the images in the article contained personal and private information in violation of its terms, and that the material included in the article was deemed to have violated the policy of its hacked materials.

Dorsey Tweeted shortly It is “unacceptable” for a company not to provide more context around its action.

The post came out on Wednesday with an article focusing on the “censorship” of tech platforms. The tabloid’s Thursday print cover shows a large blue “censored” stamp with a photo of Biden and his son and the caption “Facebook and Twitter black post exposed on Hunter Biden files.”