US President Donald Trump attacked Twitter and Facebook because they curbed the publication of a New York Post article claiming to expose corrupt dealings that linked the Democratic candidate in the US elections, Joe Biden, and a Ukrainian gas company in which Hunter, Joe Biden’s son, held a position.
"It's so horrific that Facebook and Twitter have deleted the article on the" crime weapon "emails about sleepy Joe Biden and his son Hunter, published in the New York Post, Trump wrote in a tweet.
"This is only the beginning for them," the US president added. "There is nothing worse than a corrupt politician."
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://t.co/g1RJFpIVUZ
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2020
The two social media giants attributed the reason they blocked links to the article because the source of the information contained in the "New York Post" article is in doubt.
And Andy Stone, a spokesman for Facebook, said that the company will verify this information, and pending the clarity of the matter, it will limit the spread of the article on its platforms in implementation of its adopted measures to limit the spread of misleading news.
The French Press Agency quoted Twitter as saying that the information contained in the American newspaper article was prevented because it was the product of a piracy operation.
Computer hacking
The New York Post article is based on e-mail obtained illegally from a hacked Hunter Biden computer.
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
The content of these e-mails returns the accusations that Trump and his supporters have been leveling at Joe Biden for years, that the former US vice president helped the Ukrainian gas company "Burisma" - whose son was a member of its supervisory board between 2014 and 2019 - to escape. From investigations into corruption cases in Ukraine, by asking the Kiev authorities to dismiss the public prosecutor who was investigating the file.
Joe Biden has always denied that while in power he had discussed with his son Hunter any of the latter's professional activities abroad.
These developments come less than a month after the holding of the presidential elections in the United States, in which Trump and Biden, who in the past period escalated their strong criticism of each other, are competing, and many opinion polls in America show clear progress for the Democratic candidate over his Republican opponent in voting intentions.