Twitter Alters Content Moderation Policy After Backlash
October 16, 2020
Twitter announced policy changes after backlash following the way it handled users sharing a New York Post expose on Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, with the company announcing it was implementing the changes “to address the concerns that there could be many unintended consequences to journalists, whistleblowers, and others in ways that are contrary to Twitter’s purpose of serving the public conversation.”
Vijaya Gadde, global lead for legal, policy, and trust and safety at Twitter, wrote in a statement that Twitter would no longer remove hacked content unless it is directly shared by hackers or those acting in league with hackers, and that the company will label tweets to provide context, rather than blocking links from being shared on the platform.
“All the other Twitter Rules will still apply to the posting of or linking to hacked materials, such as our rules against posting private information, synthetic and manipulated media, and non-consensual nudity,” she wrote.
She noted that the changes came after Twitter received “significant feedback (from critical to supportive)” about how the company enforced its Hacked Materials Policy with respect to the New York Post article.
Twitter took extraordinary steps against the New York Post, which is among the top five newspapers by circulation, over the Hunter Biden article. The company added warning labels to tweets and prohibiting users from posting the link to the Post article—both publicly and in direct messages—and locked out some users who did. Among those to be locked out were the New York Post itself and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
McEnany, using her official government account, accused both Twitter and Facebook of “censorship.” Facebook said it had reduced distribution of the Post article.
“Censorship should be condemned!” McEnany wrote, adding, “NOT the American way!!”
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