Social-Media
Twitter would avoid deleting 'hacked content' until it is posted by hackers.
Twitter is adjusting its stance against publishing stolen content after criticizing how it treated the New York Post article about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Twitter's confidence and security chief, Vijaya Gadde, tweeted a thread Thursday night saying the site will no longer delete compromised material unless it is explicitly posted by hackers or others working in concert with them. Instead, Twitter would mark background tweets instead of banning them.
The step comes after Twitter blocked links to Post stories that appeared to reveal that Hunter Biden had introduced his father to an executive at the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma. Several fact-checking organisations have called into question the credibility of the Post article. We don't want to promote hackers by encouraging Twitter to be used as a dissemination of potentially illicit content, Twitter Safety tweeted, defending the decision.
But Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted Friday morning that straight blocking of URLs was incorrect, and we changed our policies and compliance to correct it. Our goal is to try to add a meaning, and now we have the capacity to do that.
Gadde said Twitter's compromised content strategy was put in effect in 2018 to prevent and minimize hack-related damage and unwanted disclosure of private information. We've been struggling to strike the best balance between people's privacy and the right to free speech, however we should do better.
Straight blocking of URLs was wrong, and we updated our policy and enforcement to fix. Our goal is to attempt to add context, and now we have capabilities to do that. https://t.co/ZLUw3YD887
— jack (@jack) October 16, 2020
He added that the organization is updating its policies to fix fears that there may be certain unforeseen repercussions for journalists, whistleblowers and others in ways that are counterproductive to Twitter's aim of serving a collective discourse.
Twitter continues to block access to Post posts for breaching the laws about the disclosure of private information. And according to NBC News, the FBI is probing whether the e-mails cited in the Post report are related to a foreign intelligence operation.
The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to subpoena Dorsey, with Republican senators calling his decision "electoral intrusion."
