Facebook limits the distribution of a New York Post story that makes disputed claims about Hunter Biden, pending fact-check, while Twitter blocks sharing

BuzzFeed News 2020-10-16

Context & Ripple Effects

This is Facebook's distribution-limiting playbook extending from junk engagement to election-season journalism: the company had already been throttling individual posts that withhold or exaggerate information since its 2017 clickbait demotion rules, so slowing a New York Post story "pending fact-check" is an old mechanism pointed at a new target. Twitter went further and blocked sharing outright.

The follow-on coverage frames the stakes: Platformer argues both platforms deserve credit for rapidly restricting what it calls a hack-and-leak operation, while Stratechery counters that Twitter's total block crossed a line Facebook's softer throttle did not.

First-order effects

The New York Post's story reaches materially fewer readers on the two largest referral sources, with Facebook suppressing shares until a fact-check resolves and Twitter cutting off sharing entirely — an editorial decision made by intermediaries, not the publisher.
Users trying to circulate the story hit platform-level friction within hours of publication, setting the speed record for content moderation during an election window.

Second-order effects

The two responses age differently: as the Stratechery analysis puts it, Twitter's blocking undermined its role as a facilitator of information sharing while Facebook's slower-walk read as reasonable — pushing rivals toward graduated throttling rather than hard blocks.
Blocking creates legal exposure downstream: the Post's source sued Twitter for defamation over being labeled a hacker, a direct legal consequence of the October blocking decision.

Third-order effects

If the pattern holds, contested leak-based stories get processed through a two-tier system — throttled pending review versus removed outright — and the platforms that choose the harder tier absorb the defamation and credibility risk that used to sit with publishers alone.
Distribution power becomes the decisive lever in publisher-platform disputes: a newspaper's reporting can be effectively unpublished by two companies' policy teams before any fact-check concludes.

The trend: Platforms are moving from post-hoc labeling to preemptive distribution control on politically charged content, with the throttle-versus-block distinction becoming the key reputational and legal dividing line.

Discussion

@jack @jack on x
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. https://twitter.com/...
@andymstone Andy Stone on x
While I will intentionally not link to the New York Post, I want be clear that this story is eligible to be fact checked by Facebook's third-party fact checking partners. In the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform.
@realdonaldtrump Donald J. Trump on x
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. It is only the beginning for them. There is nothing worse than a corrupt politician. REPEAL SECTION 230!!! https://www.cnbc.com/...
@dnvolz @dnvolz on x
“Could it be hacked? I don't know. I don't think so,” Giuliani said in an interview late Wednesday. “If it was hacked, it's for real. If it was hacked. I didn't hack it. I have every right to use it.” https://www.wsj.com/...
@noupside Renee DiResta on x
This is related to today's Biden story: A few months ago the fact-respecting portion of the internet was outraged at social media companies allowing Plandemic to go wildly viral, despite stated policies against health misinfo. The video was taken down after millions of views...
@ridt Thomas Rid on x
CAUTION ADVISED with this morning's Burisma-Biden E-mail story. For several reasons. https://twitter.com/...
@jbendery Jennifer Bendery on x
Josh Hawley just accused Facebook and Twitter of trying to rig the presidential election — feeding right into Trump's grand plan to try to delegitimize the election as he looks on track to lose. https://twitter.com/...
@sohrabahmari Sohrab Ahmari on x
This is a Big Tech information coup. This is digital civil war. I, an editor at The New York Post, one of the nation's largest papers by circulation, can't post one of our own stories that details corruption by a major-party presidential candidate, Biden. https://twitter.com/...
@natashabertrand Natasha Bertrand on x
New: Biden campaign responds to NY Post story. “The New York Post never asked the Biden campaign about the critical elements of this story...moreover, we have reviewed Joe Biden's official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place.” …
@hawleymo Josh Hawley on x
.@Facebook I want to know on what grounds you are actively censoring a news report about potentially illegal corruption by the Democrat candidate for president. If you have evidence this is “disinformation,” disclose it immediately. Expect a formal inquiry from my office
@ggreenwald Glenn Greenwald on x
Look carefully at what Twitter is saying to justify censoring the Biden story. If applied consistently, it'd mean that some of history's most consequential journalism — the Pentagon Papers, WikiLeaks' war logs, Snowden docs, Panama Papers, our Brazil Archive — would be banned. ht…
@mattyglesias Matthew Yglesias on x
What's good about the calls Facebook and Twitter made yesterday isn't the decision but the fact that *they made the decision* and opened themselves up to criticism. Explicit editorial judgment > black box algorithms.
@presssec Kayleigh McEnany on x
Censoring political speech is what you'd expect in countries like China, North Korea, or Iran — NOT America. This should scare every single American who values free and open discourse. Do NOT let Big Tech silence YOU‼️ #TwitterCensorship
@alxthomp Alex Thompson on x
Wow. twitter going even further than FB and is no longer letting ppl tweet the NYPost story. This is what pops up if you try. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@baybarsorsek @baybarsorsek on x
How long Facebook has been reducing distribution of a story before it's fact-checked and what happens when a third-party fact-checking partner flags the content as accurate (not necessarily on this story but in principle) is a legitimate question https://twitter.com/...
@fmanjoo Farhad Manjoo on x
News flash everything on social media is an editorial decision by the company. Every single thing, the UI, the posts you see, the posts you don't, the metrics, the speed with which everything updates, the colors, it's all human decisions all the way down. It's all subjective
@daveweigel @daveweigel on x
WikiLeaks had a 27-day IV drip of Clinton emails that knocked her off message. Twenty-four hours into Huntergate it's already fizzled as an issue for Biden and become the latest fight in the Posting Wars. https://twitter.com/...
@christopherjm Christopher Miller on x
New: Facebook reduced the distribution of the NY Post story with unverified claims about the Bidens. But for a year+ it's given a platform to Ukrainian operatives—including one the US sanctioned & deemed an “active Russian agent”—to spread Biden disinfo. https://www.buzzfeednews.…
@scottlucas Scott Lucas on x
Facebook may have throttled the New York Post story. But these Ukranian operatives were celebrating all the same. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... via @ChristopherJM
@rmac18 @rmac18 on x
The gymnastics here is something. Trump alleges coordination between big tech and the “mainstream media” citing a situation in which platforms cut off distribution of a story from one of the largest newspapers in NY. https://twitter.com/...
@mattklinman Matt Klinman on x
This is the right way to look at this. All these “difficult” free speech arguments everyone goes in circles about just go away if we stop flattening out the internet so all expression has to fit through two platforms that take up all the ad money. https://twitter.com/...
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
Arguing about whether a social network is a ‘publisher’ or a ‘platform’ is about as useful as arguing whether radio is a ‘book’ or a ‘newspaper’. You have to engage with the issue, not spiral off into pedantic arguments about definitions. https://twitter.com/...
@tedcruz Ted Cruz on x
Big tech has been getting worse and worse and worse. But they crossed a line here with the New York Post... https://twitter.com/...
@jerrydunleavy Jerry Dunleavy on x
.@Twitter is now blocking the follow-up @NYPost piece on Hunter Biden and China. https://twitter.com/...
@kaycolesjames Kay C. James on x
.@Twitter and @Facebook's mishandling of a story from the @NYPost is appalling, and they deserve all the scorn they're getting. Regardless of your political views, the suppression of a major news story is highly problematic. We expect and deserve better!
@yair_rosenberg @yair_rosenberg on x
Glenn is correct. A world in which social media corporations have this power is a world in which it will eventually be abused. People justifying this as an emergency response to Trump need to remember that emergency powers have a way of sticking around long after the emergency. h…
@repdougcollins Rep. Doug Collins on x
.@Facebook's decision to “reduce distribution” of the @nypost's reporting on Joe Biden's ties to Burisma is a grave threat to our democracy. If Facebook continues to use its monopoly to control what news Americans have access to, they will face severe consequences. https://twitte…
@thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x
I'm ok with Facebook and Twitter throttling some links. Just gotta make sure they always make the right choices.
@danpfeiffer Dan Pfeiffer on x
The Republican message of the day is that Big Tech is censoring Conservatives https://twitter.com/...
@andymstone Andy Stone on x
This is part of our standard process to reduce the spread of misinformation. We temporarily reduce distribution pending fact-checker review. https://about.fb.com/...
@mathewi Mathew Ingram on x
A quick reminder that reducing distribution of something is not censorship by any reasonable definition — freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom of reach https://twitter.com/...
@scottgustin Scott Gustin on x
BREAKING: Twitter has blocked the NY Post article about Hunter Biden. If you attempt to share the story, you will see this message: “We can't complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful.” https://twitter.com/…
@twittersafety @twittersafety on x
Commentary on or discussion about hacked materials, such as articles that cover them but do not include or link to the materials themselves, aren't a violation of this policy. Our policy only covers links to or images of hacked material themselves.
@noahmanskar Noah Manskar on x
The Post's primary Twitter account (@nypost) has also been locked because the Hunter Biden stories violate its rules against “distribution of hacked material,” per email we received from Twitter https://twitter.com/...
@ichotiner Isaac Chotiner on x
BREAKING: A bunch of people who have given completely contradictory advice to social media giants for the last four years are shocked and outraged that social media giants are clueless.
@ggreenwald Glenn Greenwald on x
You're seeing the immense, unchallengeable, unaccountable power of Silicon Valley giants over the flow of information. Imagine if Google joins in. What's so amazing is that they never wanted this role. It was foisted on them by people, led by journalists, demanding they censor: h…
@tedcruz Ted Cruz on x
It's fair to say @ggreenwald and I aren't exactly ideological birds of a feather. But on this he is EXACTLY right. #EndBigTechCensoship https://twitter.com/...
@ianbremmer Ian Bremmer on x
Twitter banning the NY Post story on Joe/Hunter Biden is a mistake. Gives the piece more attention than it would otherwise get. And hard to make a credible argument that would see this specific article singled out for such treatment.
@jason @jason on x
Last week: these platforms need to be policed!! This week: how dare you censor me!!
@tedcruz Ted Cruz on x
My letter to @jack regarding @Twitter's censorship of the @nypost. https://twitter.com/...
@hawleymo Josh Hawley on x
This is amazing. Now @Twitter joins @Facebook in censoring the @nypost reporting on Biden. You almost get the idea #bigtech wants to buy this election https://twitter.com/...
@rudygiuliani Rudy W. Giuliani on x
“Censorship should be condemned! cc: @Twitter & Facebook NOT the American way!” - @PressSec

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