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Over the last 24 hours, we’ve received significant feedback (from critical to supportive) about how we enforced our Hacked Materials Policy yesterday. After reflecting on this feedback, we have decided to make changes to the policy and how we enforce it.
— Vijaya Gadde (@vijaya) October 16, 2020
Meanwhile, Facebook’s Policy Communications Director was a former Democrat staffer...and it shows. https://t.co/3RFWA71Glo
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) October 15, 2020
Twitter blocking a link being shared sets a terrible precedent for governments in Asia, many of which aggressively clamp down on free speech and use court orders to institute censorship, to make the same request.
— Jon Russell (@jonrussell) October 16, 2020
But of course most people only think/care about the US.
“Could it be hacked? I don’t know. I don’t think so,” Giuliani said in an interview late Wednesday. “If it was hacked, it’s for real. If it was hacked. I didn’t hack it. I have every right to use it.” https://t.co/vpF0IjBI1y
— Dustin *Get Your Flu Shot* Volz (@dnvolz) October 15, 2020
Russian intelligence worked Trump’s personal lawyer to feed him disinformation and the White House has known about it since last year.
— Brian Normoyle ?️? (@BrianNormoyle) October 16, 2020
Trump shrugged it off when warned about it.
Our democracy will not survive four more years of this.#VOTE https://t.co/Y4ykPHttsK
This will make no one feel assured weeks ahead of a major election about how much this is happening in real time — as I wrote about Facebook, it’s random and its chaotic: Twitter changes policy that blocked a New York Post story about Biden’s son https://t.co/sf45kCsmz0
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) October 16, 2020
This seems like a reasonable change. It's appropriate for social media platforms to prevent themselves from being used as the initial distribution point for a hack-forge-leak, but not once the stories hit the press.
— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) October 16, 2020
Twitter and Facebook can't fix bad journalism. https://t.co/VJ0RpjMn9w
GOP lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoena @jack over social-media platform’s decision to limit sharing of articles relating to the Bidens https://t.co/yAfgkFrPM5
— Ron Coleman (@RonColeman) October 15, 2020
This is such a hard job but I have total faith @vijaya and the Twitter team are acting in a principled manner, listening to the feedback, and transparently evolving. https://t.co/y3I45NR5fz
— Jessica Verrilli (@jess) October 16, 2020
So terrible that Facebook and Twitter took down the story of “Smoking Gun” emails related to Sleepy Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in the @NYPost. It is only the beginning for them. There is nothing worse than a corrupt politician. REPEAL SECTION 230!!! https://t.co/g1RJFpIVUZ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2020
the NYP*st story raised a fresh round of rancor between conservatives, Twtr and FB, and has raised questions concerning content moderation policies — all a mere 19 days before the most consequential election in years
— rat king (@MikeIsaac) October 15, 2020
w/ @kateconger https://t.co/zmdQtCkamm
Wrt censoring information on social networks, I strongly agree with @benthompson idea of solving the problem with "more speech." Allow others to tag, highlight, challenge. Asking companies to censor makes them more powerful, not less. Quite ironic considering other concerns.
— Bill Gurley (@bgurley) October 16, 2020
This is an admirable reversal consistent with 1st Amendment principles that allowed for the publication of the Pentagon Papers and Wikileaks Iraq War logs. Appreciate your willingness to engage in a deliberative process. @jack @vijaya @ryangrim @ggreenwald https://t.co/KrqxDbXtzR
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) October 16, 2020
Twitter should never let people share hacked materials! Right?
— nxthompson (@nxthompson) October 16, 2020
Wait, what then about the police docs this past June? Or the Panama Papers?
The company's confusing backpedaling is not a help. But there is a tough line to define here. https://t.co/LuvCSMqOgf
But working the refs is effective!https://t.co/ePO2I4kG3h https://t.co/r7AgmCDi27
— Joshua Holland ? (@JoshuaHol) October 16, 2020
WikiLeaks had a 27-day IV drip of Clinton emails that knocked her off message. Twenty-four hours into Huntergate it's already fizzled as an issue for Biden and become the latest fight in the Posting Wars. https://t.co/FCHhT0fFfP
— Dave Weigel, Re-Animator (@daveweigel) October 15, 2020
So he is a russian spy or an idiot???? https://t.co/5Mf5aAGsc5
— Eric Garcia (@EricG1247) October 15, 2020
The warnings were based on multiple sources, including intercepted communications, that showed Giuliani was interacting with people tied to Russian intel during a 2019 trip to Ukraine. The intel raised concerns that Giuliani was being used to feed Russian misinformation to Trump. https://t.co/6dtiHXjGJb
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 15, 2020
Glenn is correct. A world in which social media corporations have this power is a world in which it will eventually be abused. People justifying this as an emergency response to Trump need to remember that emergency powers have a way of sticking around long after the emergency. https://t.co/0WJDTnjDw9
— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) October 15, 2020
The Hunter Biden story looks more and more like a hostile foreign power’s effort to influence the US election https://t.co/CccayX6bjj
— Frida Ghitis (@FridaGhitis) October 16, 2020
So, what’s changing?
— Vijaya Gadde (@vijaya) October 16, 2020
1. We will no longer remove hacked content unless it is directly shared by hackers or those acting in concert with them
2. We will label Tweets to provide context instead of blocking links from being shared on Twitter
Rudy Giuliani should also appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee. @Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg can cite @washingtonpost reporting:
— Nancy Levine #Vote ?️ (@nancylevine) October 15, 2020
"The New York Post said it obtained the material from former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, a personal lawyer to President Trump." pic.twitter.com/EBGvRj45gi
News flash everything on social media is an editorial decision by the company. Every single thing, the UI, the posts you see, the posts you don’t, the metrics, the speed with which everything updates, the colors, it’s all human decisions all the way down. It’s all subjective
— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) October 14, 2020
Big tech has been getting worse and worse and worse.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) October 15, 2020
But they crossed a line here with the New York Post... pic.twitter.com/oBvdLrsv0m
Another great edition of @platformer.
— Emmanuel Ameisen (@mlpowered) October 15, 2020
It includes a reference to the French ban on election coverage in the 24 hours preceding an election, something I wish we had in the US! https://t.co/TSmG2FpCFL
What’s good about the calls Facebook and Twitter made yesterday isn’t the decision but the fact that *they made the decision* and opened themselves up to criticism.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) October 15, 2020
Explicit editorial judgment > black box algorithms.
Sen. @tedcruz: "Twitter is actively blocking, right now this instant, stories from the New York Post...on Tuesday, the Judiciary Committee, the full committee, will be voting on subpoenas to subpoena @Jack Dorsey to come before our committee." pic.twitter.com/lfpEcH8xeQ
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 15, 2020
The shock of watching Trump/Giuliani gleefully embrace Russian disinformation/influence operations never wears off. @gregpmiller @nakashimae @shaneharris https://t.co/iCLgTCu0uW
— Andrew S. Weiss (@andrewsweiss) October 16, 2020
The Trump administration and his cronies are always shocking and never surprising. https://t.co/sqwDfcWrli
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) October 16, 2020
Vijaya has had one of the hardest jobs in tech for years. You may not always agree with her, but I can vouch that she (and her team) considers every issue carefully, and they care deeply.
— Jeff Seibert (@jeffseibert) October 16, 2020
Props for sharing their thoughts clearly and quickly. This is not easy. https://t.co/ufXz0XiAjC
Trump aides delivered stark warning to the president in December: "Your friend Rudy has been worked by Russian assets in Ukraine"https://t.co/28A9uhJFwU
— Greg Miller (@gregpmiller) October 15, 2020
How do you verify what content is hacked and what isn’t?
— Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) October 16, 2020
Steve Scully falsely claimed his Twitter was hacked just this week https://t.co/F0xgrf601E
Facebook/Twitter restricting the New York Post’s Hunter Biden story is a mess, so I tried to break down the important pieces of it. https://t.co/uEDaEkVwLM
— Adi Robertson (@thedextriarchy) October 15, 2020
This is smart and I wonder if the platforms are more than just suspecting a hack and leak. https://t.co/km3pXlaLVV
— Jeff Asher (@Crimealytics) October 15, 2020
Twitter found its spine for 12 hrs....then caved to GOP bullying; https://t.co/zXZOrA0TZd
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) October 16, 2020
Breaking WaPo: U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that Rudy Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence, according to four former officials familiar with the matter.https://t.co/A8rrvsQdyG
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 15, 2020
.@Twitter is now blocking the follow-up @NYPost piece on Hunter Biden and China. pic.twitter.com/NT8sFbeuMO
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) October 15, 2020
"Several senior admin officials 'all had a common understanding' that Giuliani was being targeted by the Russians, said the former official who recounted O'Brien's intervention. That group included A.G. William Barr, FBI Director Christopher Wray and White Counsel Pat Cipollone." https://t.co/6dtiHXjGJb
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 15, 2020
Senate Republicans plan to issue a subpoena to Twitter's chief executive Jack Dorsey over the social media company's blocking of a newspaper article because apparently our elected officials have nothing better to do. https://t.co/jLIbaMJy27
— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) October 16, 2020
But!
— rat king (@MikeIsaac) October 16, 2020
Twitter will still continue to block links to the NYPost story under a *separate* policy, because the story contains links to email addresses and personal information, which are not allowed on the site.
tune in tomorrow for our next installmenthttps://t.co/zmdQtC2zuO
The warnings led national security adviser O'Brien to caution Trump in a private convo that any info Giuliani brought back should be considered contaminated by Russia.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 15, 2020
The message was, "Do what you want to do, but your friend Rudy has been worked by Russian assets in Ukraine." https://t.co/6dtiHXjGJb
“... As long as their business depends on a favorable regulatory environment, when it comes to tricky questions of policy, ceteris paribus, they will tend to align with power.” https://t.co/1fFQNZgg1A
— The Spook who sat by the Ring Doorbell (@hypervisible) October 17, 2020
This woman has an obscene amount of power over the 2020 election & thinks boosting a Russian influence op is "serving the public conversation."
— Luke O'Brien (@lukeobrien) October 16, 2020
She appeared on Joe Rogan with neo-fascist collaborator Tim Pool, was caught on hot mic asking Pool for info on an "antifa" account. https://t.co/wN2XZ47WyU
Latest updates on our approach to hacked materials https://t.co/jXK2JQI8NU
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 16, 2020
Subject of NY Post story is now being investigated by the FBI a foreign intel operation and Twitter decides to facilitate our adversaries by allowing it to spread like wildfire. Remember, lies spread 6x faster than truth on social media...Russia counts on it ?? https://t.co/RjP7WpnuNb
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) October 16, 2020
When you've studied social media for 20 years, these types of events are predictable... And there are *many* other examples of what we can expect from social media in my new book The Hype Machinehttps://t.co/NkG5qlrep5
— Sinan Aral (@sinanaral) October 16, 2020
(spread the word) https://t.co/TYXsiNoZGq pic.twitter.com/ZVSheae9t6
Twitter's acknowledgement that its “Hacked Materials Policy” has serious implications—and potentially major chilling effects—for public interest journalism and whistleblowers is an admirable step forward for the company. These are welcome changes. https://t.co/RHH5QuG6A4
— Freedom of the Press (@FreedomofPress) October 16, 2020
Why do you shadow ban people like me who just participate on no to execution campaigns against Iranian regime?! STOP #TwitterCensorship https://t.co/oW1mVfhi0E pic.twitter.com/uqyskqP9RN
— Peymaneh Shafi (@peymaneh123) October 16, 2020
Following massive backlash to their hamhanded censorship and facing a Congressional subpoena, Twitter is making major changes to "hacked material" policies. https://t.co/4jx2xzaPWz
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) October 16, 2020
Thread. Twitter amends the policy under which it censored the New York Post Hunter Biden story. Except it is still censoring the New York Post Hunter Biden story. https://t.co/JzIdXt2QZu
— Byron York (@ByronYork) October 16, 2020