Scrutiny over a New York Post article is reviving accusations of anti-conservative bias at social media companies.
Facebook said on Wednesday morning that it’s reducing distribution of a New York Post story containing unconfirmed claims with questionable sourcing about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Shortly after, Twitter said it’s blocking users from posting the story entirely. Both companies’ moves to limit the reach of a major news publisher are unusual and drastic at a time when many Republican lawmakers, President Trump, and political figures are threatening new regulations and accusing tech companies of censoring conservative political speech. While these companies have taken down or limited the reach of viral political misinformation networks in the past, doing so to a publication as prominent as the New York Post has immediately attracted attention and criticism. Although it is known for its conservative slant and track record of publishing questionable stories, the tabloid is a widely read, mainstream outlet. Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone announced his company’s decision in a tweet on Tuesday: Twitter, meanwhile, blocked users from sharing the New York Post article. If someone tries to tweet the article, Twitter returns an error message, warning users that the link has been identified as “potentially harmful.” “In line with our Hacked Materials Policy, as well as our approach to blocking URLs, we are taking action to block any links to or images of the material in question on Twitter,” wrote Twitter spokesperson Nicholas Pacillo in response to Recode’s questions about why Twitter blocked the article. There’s a real argument that Facebook — a primary news source for four in 10 Americans — and Twitter should be trying to slow the spread of an unproven news story whose claims haven’t been corroborated by other major news outlets and whose origins are from questionable sources. Especially since the New York Post has a track record of sometimes promoting viral conspiracy theories. In April, the New York Post was responsible for helping spread a baseless conspiracy theory promoted by former Trump adviser Roger Stone, purporting that Bill Gates created the coronavirus to “microchip” people. That story went viral on Facebook, according to research by Joan Donovan, the research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. “It’s really a problem for Facebook because they would not enjoy the same kind of audience without the accordances of the platform,” said Donovan. “Stories that ‘outperform’ the normal rate of distribution often do so because of their novelty. They are one of the few outlets reporting on this, so they get rewarded for not abiding by the same standards as more reputable news outlets.
