Twitter might require the New York Post to remove tweets that link to its bombshell report about Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
On Wednesday, Twitter confirmed to the Washington Examiner that it locked the outlet out of its account, but did not specify how long the lock would remain in place. Now, Twitter said it might pursue enforcement options for the New York Post to regain access to its account.
According to Twitter, the outlet might be required to remove the tweets in question, and once it does so, it will be able to continue tweeting. Twitter added the enforcement option would be in line with its range of enforcement options. The Washington Examiner reached out to the New York Post to see if the social media giant contacted it about the tweets it required to be deleted.
On Wednesday, the New York Post published a story that purported to show Hunter Biden facilitated communications between his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, and Ukrainian official Vadym Pozharskyi, who served as an adviser to the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma that the younger Biden was once on. The Biden campaign denied that an official meeting between the two occurred.
The alleged meeting described by the New York Post was based on emails between Hunter Biden and Pozharskyi.
“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure,” the email dated April 17, 2015, reads.
Twitter then took steps to block users of the social media site from sharing the article. Whenever an account attempted to share the story, an error message displayed calling the story “potentially harmful.”
“We can’t complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful,” the message of caution reads.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and the Trump campaign were also locked out of their accounts for sharing the story. McEnany’s account was for her personal use, not an official White House account. Facebook also announced it would take steps to prevent the article from being circulated on its site, placing a label that said the story is “eligible to be fact-checked.”
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said his company’s “communication” was “unacceptable” to justify the mass censorship of the story. Twitter later clarified on its own account why it took the action, saying the report contained private information and “hacked materials.”
