[ad_1]
Twitter has backed down and unblocked the main New York Post account after a two-week stalemate on newspaper articles on Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings.
The social media company said on Friday that it would reverse its previous demand that the Post remove tweets linking to Biden’s articles, after CEO Jack Dorsey faced criticism in a Senate hearing this week.
Twitter had already revoked its initial ban on tweeting links to Post articles, but said it would not retroactively change its decision to block the newspaper’s account, insisting that the original tweets be removed.
The company had justified its ban on politically charged reports about the Biden family by citing a ban on distributing pirated materials. The Post’s articles were based on documents from a laptop that Hunter allegedly left at a repair shop, who never recovered it.
Twitter said on Friday that it would reverse its previous demand that the Post remove tweets linking to Biden’s articles, after CEO Jack Dorsey faced criticism at a Senate hearing this week.
Our policies are living documents. We are ready to update and adjust them when we find new scenarios or receive important comments from the public, ” the company said in a statement.
“One example is the recent change in our Pirated Materials Policy and its impact on accounts like the New York Post,” added Twitter.
In response, we are updating our practice of not retroactively revoking the old application. Decisions made under the policies that are subsequently changed and published now can be appealed if the account in question is a driver for that change. We believe this is fair and appropriate, ‘the statement continued.
“ This means that because a specific @nypost app led us to update the Pirated Materials Policy, we will no longer restrict your account under the terms of the previous policy and you can now Tweet again, ” the company said.
Before the decision, the Post was banned from tweeting since Oct. 14.
The newspaper’s first tweet on Friday night simply read, “We’re baaaaaaack” and included a picture of Saturday’s cover, known in the tabloids as “the forest,” titled “Free bird!” and showing the logo of the Twitter bird escaping from a cage.
The Post reported that it gained an additional 190,000 followers during Twitter’s two-week blackout.
Before the decision, the Post was banned from tweeting since October 14.
The Post is the fourth largest newspaper in the United States by circulation, and was founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton.
The Twitter recall comes just days after Republican senators, including Ted Cruz, attacked Dorsey in a hearing.
‘Mr. Dorsey, who the hell chose you and put you in charge of what the media can report and what the American people can hear? And why does he persist in behaving like a Democratic Super PAC by silencing opinions contrary to his political beliefs? Cruz yelled as he remotely joined an audience Wednesday.
Cruz, the junior senator from Texas and a staunch ally of Donald Trump, claimed that Dorsey and the other chief technology officers are trying to monitor what Americans read and post online and influence the outcome of the election.
The New York Post story revealed some of what was found on Hunter Biden’s intercepted hard drive, including documents suggesting Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s extensive foreign deals while he was serving as vice president.
Ted Cruz (above) went after Jack Dorsey on Wednesday, accusing him of running his company as a ‘Democratic Super PAC’ for censoring Hunter Biden’s emails.
Facebook also blocked the story from being shared, citing its policy to curb the spread of possible ‘disinformation’. He said it was going to be verified, although it hasn’t been made public after more than two weeks. The newspaper remains blocked on his Twitter account.
The New York Post story about Hunter Biden was banned from being distributed on Twitter
Twitter took a more aggressive stance towards users who tweeted the article, freezing the accounts of those who shared the link until they deleted the tweet containing the article from the publication.
Cruz noted in a tweet that until Wednesday afternoon he could not attempt to tweet the link without receiving an error message from Twitter stating that the tweet could not be sent because it contained a link deemed ‘potentially harmful’.
The link can now be posted on Twitter.
The Post reported earlier this month that the emails showed Hunter Biden arranged meetings between his father, who was vice president at the time, with executives from a Ukrainian energy company.
It also contained a host of other information that could be seen as detrimental to Biden’s choice. Later stories
Dorsey said the Post’s Twitter account ban will be lifted if they delete their original tweet that they said contained private information, an apparent reference to the email address contained in the original article.
On Thursday, Twitter reported quarterly financial results showing a slowdown in user growth, causing the company’s shares to tumble.
Twitter shares tumbled after a growth slowdown, closing Friday’s trading session down 21%.
The number of ‘monetizable’ daily users reported by Twitter increased by just one million since the last quarter to 187 million, below analysts’ targets of 196 million.
Shares of Twitter tumbled in response, closing Friday’s trading session down 21 percent.
Profits fell to $ 29 million, from $ 37 million a year ago, while revenue increased 14 percent to $ 936 million.
