Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
- Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said the platform’s decision to ban links to the controversial New York Post story was “wrong.”
- Dorsey was responding to the uproar around Twitter’s initial decision to block users from sharing the story, which was based in part on files and emails that the Post said were taken from Hunter Biden’s laptop.
- The company announced on Thursday that it has amended its policy to only remove content shared directly from hackers.
- Twitter’s initial move to ban the story angered Republicans, who alleged that it showed anti-conservative bias. The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Tuesday about whether to subpoena Dorsey to testify about the issue.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said the way the platform handled the New York Post story about Hunter and Joe Biden was “wrong.”
In a tweet Friday morning, Dorsey responded to the uproar around Twitter’s initial decision to block users from sharing the story, which was based in part on files and emails that the Post said were taken from Hunter Biden’s laptop. Multiple media outlets, including Business Insider, have called the story into question over what they say are several red flags in the reporting.
Dorsey said that blocking of the links was the wrong decision and that the company’s goal is to add context in situations like that.
—jack (@jack) October 16, 2020
Late on Thursday, Vijay Gadde, Twitter’s head of policy, tweeted that the company had decided to amend its policy. Going forward, Twitter will not take down hacked content “unless it is directly shared by hackers or those acting in concert with them.”
In a tweet Wednesday night, Dorsey called the company's initial decision to block the links "unacceptable."
"Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we're blocking: unacceptable," Dorsey said.
The move to ban links to the story on Twitter incited backlash, particularly among Republicans who felt Twitter was showing bias against conservatives. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee announced Thursday that they plan to subpoena Dorsey to testify about the decision, Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley told Fox News.
"Never before have we seen active censorship of a major press publication with serious allegations of corruption of one of the two candidates for president," Cruz said.
The committee will vote on whether to subpoena Dorsey on Tuesday.