Facebook, Twitter limit controversial story about Joe Biden’s son

Controversial story proved fertile testing ground for social media disinfo policies.

Facebook, Twitter limit controversial story about Joe Biden’s son

Enlarge (credit: Thomas Trutschel / Getty Images)

Facebook and Twitter today are facing criticism from all sides after taking rare action to suppress an apparent attempt at blatant disinformation being spread three weeks before the election.

Both social media platforms are deprecating or outright blocking the sharing of a link to a story the New York Post published this morning about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Although Twitter and Facebook have both acted in the past to deplatform fringe actors, today's action marks one of the extremely rare times either has taken action against a story from a relatively mainstream outlet.

The story

The story at the root of all the drama appears to be an attempt to duplicate the effect the Comey memo had on the 2016 presidential election by suggesting there's a scandal in the Biden camp. The New York Post claimed to have received copies of emails that were obtained from a laptop that Biden's son Hunter dropped off at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019. These emails, which the Post called a "smoking gun," allegedly indicate that Hunter Biden connected his father with Ukrainian energy firm Burisma in 2014.

Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Nawalny unter hohem Polizeischutz in Luxusresidenz im Schwarzwald

Die EU wird Sanktionen wegen der Vergiftung Nawalnys aufgrund von angeblich alternativloser Plausibilität aussprechen, Lawrow kündigt Gegensanktionen an. Nawalny soll doch am Flughafen vergiftet worden sein

Die EU wird Sanktionen wegen der Vergiftung Nawalnys aufgrund von angeblich alternativloser Plausibilität aussprechen, Lawrow kündigt Gegensanktionen an. Nawalny soll doch am Flughafen vergiftet worden sein