Twitter retreated in its censorship battle with The New York Post, unlocking the conservative publication's main account after a two-week stalemate over the Hunter Biden bombshell.
We’re baaaaaaack https://t.co/D39qdLGMdV pic.twitter.com/SkVtp4o9ew
— New York Post (@nypost) October 30, 2020
The site backed down Friday after The Post refused to meet the counterpart's demands imploring the news outlet to delete six tweets that allegedly violated Twitter's distribution of hacked materials rule. The Post was booted on Oct. 14 and refused to bend a knee while held hostage amid the baseless allegation.
In a series of tweets, the social media giant's safety administration announced that the officials are revising the company's Hacked Materials Policy and “updating our practice of not retroactively overturning prior enforcement.”
“Our policies are living documents,” Twitter Safety wrote. “We’re willing to update and adjust them when we encounter new scenarios or receive important feedback from the public.”
Our policies are living documents. We're willing to update and adjust them when we encounter new scenarios or receive important feedback from the public. One such example is the recent change to our Hacked Materials Policy and its impact on accounts like the New York Post.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 30, 2020
Twitter noted, in response, that the platform is updating its "practice of not retroactively overturning prior enforcement."
"Decisions made under policies that are subsequently changed & published can now be appealed if the account at issue is a driver of that change. We believe this is fair and appropriate," Twitter admins added.
The thread went on to clarify that this means because a specific enforcement led Twitter to amend its statue, "we will no longer restrict their account under the terms of the previous policy and they can now Tweet again."
This means that because a specific @nypost enforcement led us to update the Hacked Materials Policy, we will no longer restrict their account under the terms of the previous policy and they can now Tweet again.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 30, 2020
The move sparked widespread outrage when prominent right-wingers White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, actor James Woods, and One America News Network's Jack Posobiec were locked out of their accounts over tweets related to the Biden family corruption.
Attempts to share the story, both privately and publicly, were slapped with a chasticizing error message: “Your Tweet couldn’t be sent because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful. Visit our Help Center to learn more.”
Twitter then reversed course after the partisan crackdown "to address the concerns that there could be many unintended consequences to journalists, whistleblowers and others in ways that are contrary to Twitter’s purpose of serving the public conversation."
The Intercept's newly-resigned co-founder Glenn Greenwald—who was subjected to censorship by his own syndication—commented: "The @NYPost will be allowed to post again, after being locked out for 3 weeks while many journalists stayed silent or cheered it like good little authoritarians. Every time there's a censorship controversy, those taking the lead in advocating the repression are journalists."
The @NYPost will be allowed to post again, after being locked out for 3 weeks while many journalists stayed silent or cheered it like good little authoritarians.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 30, 2020
Every time there's a censorship controversy, those taking the lead in advocating the repression are journalists. https://t.co/9xyOYkfhWi
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