Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR) are in the spotlight on Thursday after the former limited the distribution of a New York Post story on Hunter Biden's alleged business relationships in Ukraine and the latter blocked sharing of the article. After Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey acknowledged that "blocking URL sharing via Tweet or DM with zero context as to why" was "unacceptable," the social media platform explained that the story violated its rules about disclosing personal and private information.
REDUCED SHARING OF NY POST STORY: On Wednesday, the New York Post published a series of stories it claimed were sourced from a hard drive given to them by a computer repair technician in Delaware that contained details of Hunter Biden's alleged business relationships in Ukraine. One article included a copy of an email said to be sent to Hunter Biden apparently describing a meeting between his father and an executive at the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings, on whose board Hunter Biden served. The Biden campaign said that no such meeting took place and said the Post didn’t ask the campaign about critical elements of the story ahead of publication.
Facebook has limited the reach of the story about Joe Biden's son Hunter, while Twitter blocked it. Facebook's Andy Stone explained that the social media platform would limit the distribution of the story until it is fact-checked.
While at first Twitter did not provide an explanation as to why it had decided to remove the NY Post article, the microblogging platform has since explained that its decision was in line with its policy on hacked material and said the article also violated its rules about disclosing personal and private information. "We want to provide much needed clarity around the actions we’ve taken with respect to two NY Post articles that were first Tweeted this morning," the company said later on Wednesday.
"The images contained in the articles include personal and private information — like email addresses and phone numbers — which violate our rules. As noted this morning, we also currently view materials included in the articles as violations of our Hacked Materials Policy. Commentary on or discussion about hacked materials, such as articles that cover them but do not include or link to the materials themselves, aren’t a violation of this policy. Our policy only covers links to or images of hacked material themselves."
"The policy, established in 2018, prohibits the use of our service to distribute content obtained without authorization. We don’t want to incentivize hacking by allowing Twitter to be used as distribution for possibly illegally obtained materials. We know we have more work to do to provide clarity in our product when we enforce our rules in this manner. We should provide additional clarity and context when preventing the Tweeting or DMing of URLs that violate our policies."
Commenting on the lack of explanation at the time of the article removal, Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey said that, "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."
Meanwhile, President Trump tweeted, "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!!!"
TRUMP 'UNHAPPINESS' MAY REINFORCE ANTITRUST SUIT ODDS: Commenting on Facebook and Twitter restricting circulation of the NY Post story, Cowen Washington Research Group analyst Paul Gallant noted that Section 230 of the Communications Act "solidly protects" Facebook and Twitter's content decisions. However, President Trump's unhappiness and claims of "election meddling" may reinforce the likelihood of the FTC filing an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook in "the relatively near future," Gallant contended. For Twitter, he doesn't expect an antitrust lawsuit as he cannot see an arguable monopoly basis. While it is possible Trump will try to bring a lawsuit seeking an injunction against Facebook and Twitter for their actions, Gallant is "skeptical it would succeed."
TRUMP CAMPAIGN TWITTER ACCOUNT LOCKED: The official Twitter account for President Trump's reelection campaign appeared on Thursday to be suspended, Politico's Quint Forgey reported. Mike Hahn, a social media staffer on the Trump campaign, shared a screenshot of a notice seemingly sent from Twitter informing the campaign that its "account has been locked." The notice stated that the campaign account had violated Twitter's "rules against posting private information," the author noted, adding that the account was apparently punished for a tweet that accused Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden of being a "liar" and "ripping off our country for years," and included a link to what Hahn said was a video related to a NY Post report that leveled dubious allegations against Biden and his son Hunter. Reports have subsequently indicated that the campaign's account has been restored.
SUBPOENA FOR DORSEY: Missouri Senator Josh Hawley tweeted earlier: "Pleased to announce the full Judiciary Committee will vote on subpoena to @Twitter and @jack on Tuesday. That subpoena should include @Facebook." Subsequently, The Wall Street Journal has reported that Senate Republicans said the Senate Judiciary Committee would issue a subpoena to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for Twitter having blocked a New York Post article relating to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
PRICE ACTION: In early afternoon trading, shares of Facebook have dropped 2.3% to $265.49, while Twitter's stock has slipped almost 3% to $44.74.
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