The story made the front page of the New York Post, is rated ‘unsafe’ by Twitter and is blocked from going viral on Facebook.
This shows how powerful these social media networks have become in the distribution of information and how they control the flow.
Right wing commenters and pro-Trump supporters are up in arms against the social media giants.
The Post alleges Joe Biden met with an adviser to the board of Burisma while he was vice president.
Burisma is a Ukranian company said to be linked to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. The Republicans and the Donald Trump campaign has made the links between Hunter and Burisma their main battle horse in the 2020 elections.
Biden has denied allegations he interfered with the company when he was VP during President Barack Obama’s reign to favour his son.
The Post says a Senate committee is investigating a bombshell cache of documents about Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings.
The emails were acquired by a Delaware computer repairman and exposed Wednesday by The Post.
But it is the blockade imposed by Facebook and the not by Twitter that has enraged the right wing.
The move by Facebook is unprecedented. Nevertheless, it is former Democrat staffer who is now a Facebook spokesman who announced the decision on Twitter.
The social network took the rare step of acting in advance of a decision by its “third-party fact-checkers,” and reduced the distribution of the article on its platform.
PROTECTING BIDEN?
This is effectively a blockade of the NYP by Facebook. A rare incident indeed, but in the run-up to the November vote, we may see more incidents like this on Facebook or Twitter.
Some are saying the move is to arguably protecting the former vice president from a major political scandal at a critical time in the 2020 election.
A Post editor says this is a digital civil war. Read the tweet below:
This is a Big Tech information coup. This is digital civil war.
I, an editor at The New York Post, one of the nation’s largest papers by circulation, can’t post one of our own stories that details corruption by a major-party presidential candidate, Biden. pic.twitter.com/BKNQmAG19H
— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) October 14, 2020
The tweet was not sent.
