An editorial published by the Wall Street Journal condemned Twitter’s decision to blacklist bombshell stories from the New York Post that detail an alleged relationship between Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Burisma. Twitter users were blocked from sharing the stories last week after executives decided that the story violated its policy on sharing “hacked information.”
Breitbart News reported last week Twitter censored two stories from the New York Post that detailed the relationship between Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma. Twitter said that the story violated its policy on “hacked information,” even though there was little evidence that the report was based on stolen information.
The Wall Street Journal editorial argues that Twitter has failed to uphold its own policy on reports about President Trump that were built on questionable grounds.
The problem is that if Twitter has a policy against “content obtained without authorization,” as the company added, it has a policy against journalism—especially journalism in the Trump era. In 2017 and 2018 the Justice Department fielded 208 criminal referrals for leaks of classified information, more than three times as many as in the prior two years. Stories based on Administration leaks, including about national security matters, have circulated widely on Twitter.
The editorial board claims that Americans will lose their freedom if they are not permitted to express themselves on the largest social media platforms.
Beyond policy, a free society can’t survive if its people aren’t committed to it and are willing to justify anything to get power. Silicon Valley’s partisan interference flies in the face of American instincts about democracy, fair play, and the spirit of the First Amendment. A successful Senate hearing next week will expose the depth of the ideological ugliness that is taking place, and what is at stake if Big Tech executives abuse their status to limit American political debate.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been asked to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday to explain Twitter’s decision to suppress the New York Post story. Dorsey took responsibility for the platforms’ “not great” response to the Post bombshell, admitting that blocking links was “wrong” as the company backtracked on its “hacked information” policy.
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