Twitter is keeping the New York Post’s account locked down until the news publication deletes six tweets about its reporting on the contents of a laptop reportedly belonging to Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Following the Post’s initial critical reporting about the Biden laptop, Twitter on Thursday blocked users from sharing links to the article and locked the Post’s account. Twitter later reversed the policy, but on Friday the Post reported its Twitter account was still locked and would remain locked until it deletes six tweets about the Biden laptop reporting that Twitter determined went against its prior policy.
Twitter claimed the tweets violated its Hacked Materials Policy, and although Twitter eventually revised the policy, it said it would not reverse actions against accounts that violated the prior policy.
The Post reported a representative for Twitter said, “While we’ve updated the policy, we don’t change enforcement retroactively. You will still need to delete the Tweets to regain access to your account.”
In a statement provided to Fox Business, Twitter said the Post “has been informed what is necessary to unlock their account.”
Forbes reported on Monday that the Post’s account was still locked.
Forbes speculated the Post may be refusing to delete the tweets going against Twitter policy because doing so might suggest internal doubts about the credibility of its initial reporting.
The last tweet from the Post’s main Twitter account appeared on Wednesday, Oct. 14. The Post’s other verified sub-accounts, such as @pagesix, @nypmetro, @nypostsports and @nypostopinion, are still active and have posted their own tweets on other articles by the outlet since Wednesday. With Twitter’s current policies, the Post is unable to reach the 1.8 million Twitter users that follow its main account.
The Twitter action against the Post’s account continues even after lawmakers in the Senate Judiciary Committee have called for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify and have signaled plans to subpoena Dorsey for his testimony on the social media company’s actions with regard to the critical reporting about Hunter Biden.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) described Twitter’s actions as an attempt to limit the free press and interfere in an election to benefit the Bidens
“We believe in a free press in this country and we also believe in free elections,” Hawley said. “The attempt to rig an election, which is what we’re seeing here by monopolies, is unprecedented in American history. They have a lot to answer for.”
Hawley and other senators have also called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify, after Facebook limited the reach of links to the Post’s reporting, making the article less likely to appear in a Facebook user’s news feed.
