Bilde: Joanpezca / Wikimedia Commons.

Facebook og Twitter har onsdag aktivt tatt grep for å begrense spredningen av New York Posts sak om Hunter Bidens e-poster fra en toppsjef i et ukrainsk energiselskap som takket ham for møtet med faren Joe Biden – før denne fikk sparket en ukrainsk statsadvokat som var brysom for selskapet, der sønnen jobbet.

New York-avisen skriver selv at Facebook-talsmann Andy Stone kunngjorde sitt selskaps inngripen for å hindre spredningen på Twitter:

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.

— Andy Stone (@andymstone) October 14, 2020

Trumps valgkampanje anklager Facebook for å påvirke presidentvalaget i Joe Bidens favør.

“Facebook is actively interfering in the election,” the campaign tweeted. “Facebook is rigging the election for Joe Biden.”

This is a Facebook employee.

Facebook is actively interfering in the election.

Facebook is rigging the election for Joe Biden. https://t.co/mXGi2ay8J7 pic.twitter.com/PjtZaVPQ16

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 14, 2020

Twitter har på sin side hindret brukere i å dele lenken til New York Posts avsløring:

“In line with our Hacked Materials Policy, as well as our approach to blocking URLs, we are taking action to block any links to or images of the material in question on Twitter,” a Twitter spokesperson told The Post in a statement.

Joe Bidens valgkampanje avviser at det hadde funnet sted noe møte med den ukrainske energitoppen: Noe slikt møte var ikke å finne på Bidens offisielle møteliste.

New York Posts avsløring er «potensielt skadelig», hevder Twitter:

Twitter also blocked users from sharing the link to The Post article indicating that Hunter Biden introduced Joe Biden to the Ukrainian businessman, calling the link “potentially harmful.”

En republikansk senator reagerer kraftig på de store teknologiselskapenes inngripen:

US Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) fired off a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday demanding answers about why the platform “censored” The Post’s reporting.

“The seemingly selective nature of this public intervention suggests partiality on the part of Facebook,” Hawley wrote.

Hawley later sent a similar letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, blasting the company for what he said was “an unusual intervention that is not universally applied to all content.”

Det finnes ingen kjente tilfeller der Facebook eller Twitter har begrenset spredningen av innhold som er «potensielt skadelig» for Donald Trump.