Twitter has changed its “Hacked Materials Policy” in the wake of the online media giant’s controversial decision to hinder a selective report by The Post on Hunter Biden’s emails, the company said Thursday.
Twitter will no longer eliminate purportedly “hacked” content except if it is shared by hackers themselves or by accessories and will name flawed tweets as opposed to hindering them from being shared, Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s Legal, Policy and Trust and Safety leaders posted online.
“Throughout the most recent 24 hours, we’ve gotten noteworthy input (from basic to strong) about how we authorized our Hacked Materials Policy yesterday,” Gadde tweeted. “Subsequent to pondering this feedback, we have chosen to cause changes to the policy and how we to implement it.”
“All other Twitter Rules will still apply to the posting of or linking to hacked materials, such as our rules against posting private information, synthetic and manipulated media, and non-consensual activity,” she said in another post.
The company’s mea culpa comes after it cited the 2018 guidelines when Twitter and Facebook took the unprecedented step of blocking The Post report on Wednesday, sparking widespread outrage.
“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,” President Trump tweeted from Air Force One Wednesday prior to an Iowa campaign rally.
GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas called the censorship decision, “unbelievable.”
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey later backtracked on the company’s decision, calling it “unacceptable.”
“Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great,” Dorsey tweeted. “And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable.”
