Nuked Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid the New York Post is back on Twitter. Twitter updated its policy on policy changes. This story is going to be confusing, but not as confusing as Twitter’s attempts at moderation.
The New York Post published a story about hunter Biden, the son of presidential candidate Joe Biden. Twitter alleges that some of the materials in it seem to be the result of hacking.
Twitter suspended the New York Post’s account for six tweets that linked to the story. This cited its hacked materials policy, as well as a policy about private information. Twitter’s trust and safety lead, Vijaya Gadde, tweeted that the company would no longer remove hacked content unless it is shared by hackers or those acting in concert with them.
On October 16th, Jack Dorsey tweeted that blocking the URL was wrong. A Twitter spokesperson told the New York Times that the post article no longer violated the private information policy.
Twitter has a policy on policy changes. The New York Post has been suspended because of a different policy. Twitter has no longer violated the policy on private information.
Twitter has updated its policy on policy changes, and the New York Post is taking a victory lap. The post is now taking a win lap.
Facebook allowed the post to post without giving it unwarranted lift. That decision was also controversial, but it was less severe.
Journalists published stories with emails from the Democratic National Committee that had been obtained through hacking. As a result, platforms began planning for what they would do in case of a similar 2020 hack-and-leak operation. Twitter apparently felt that the New York Post’s article rose to that level.
The Republican party called foul on the whole thing and made everyone sit through a tiresome Senate hearing on October 28th. The Senate was held on October 28.
