WASHINGTON DC, KOMPAS.com – US President Donald Trump reprimand Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday (14/10/2020) for blocking links to articles New York Post which is meant to uncover corrupt transactions by election rivals Joe Biden and his son on Ukraine.
The newspaper said it had acquired a computer that was abandoned by Hunter Biden involving his father in Ukrainian business affairs.
The former vice president, a Democratic candidate for the November 3 election, has repeatedly denied such involvement.
“The undeniable e-mail reveals how Hunter Biden introduced the Ukrainian businessman to his father, “wrote the headline of the newspaper, as reported AFP on Thursday (15/10/2020).
Because Biden’s campaign denied he had ever met the businessman, Facebook and Twitter restricted links to the article, saying there were questions about its veracity.
Also read: Revealed, Joe Biden’s Son Introduces Ukrainian Energy Company Officer Burisma to his Father
“This is part of our standard process to reduce the spread of misinformation,” said Facebook spokesman Andy Stone.
Twitter said it was limiting the spread of articles because of questions about the “origin of the material” included in the articles.
The Republican Party is outraged by what they call partisan censorship.
Trump, who won a vote under Biden in a poll 20 days earlier presidential election, slammed the two social media giants.
“It is terrible that Facebook and Twitter deleted the ‘incontrovertible’ e-mail story related to Joe Biden and his son Hunter at @NYPost, “Trump wrote on Twitter.
Also read: Republican Senator: Biden Chance to Become US President
“This was just the beginning for them. There is nothing worse than corrupt politicians, “he said.
At the campaign in Iowa, Trump said the Twitter account of his press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, was blocked after he shared the story about Biden.
“Because he’s reporting the truth! They closed his account,” Trump said.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey expressed regret over how Twitter communicated what it was doing with the article.
“Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article is not good. And blocking sharing of URLs via tweet or DM without context why we block, is unacceptable,” tweet-nya.
Also read: 3 Weeks Before the US Presidential Election, Biden Widened His Advantage Over Trump to 2 Digits
Computer abandoned
New York Post said the computer had been abandoned by Hunter Biden at a Delaware computer repair shop in April 2019.
An unknown shop owner told the newspaper that after a seemingly forgotten computer, he was copying hard drive and give the machine to federal authorities.
Shop owner delivers hard drive copy that to Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, who gave it to the newspapers.
Meanwhile the Biden campaign does not deny the existence of computers or their validity e-mail in it, Giuliani has a record of spreading disinformation about Biden and Ukraine.
In September, the US Treasury said one “source” with whom Giuliani met several times, Ukrainian politician Andrii Derkach, “has been an active Russian agent for more than a decade.”
New York Post criticized Facebook and Twitter for helping Biden’s election campaign, and said that no one denied the truth of the story.
“Facebook and Twitter are not media platforms. They are propaganda machines, “he wrote in the editorial.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley, in a letter to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, said the blocking “appears to be selective, showing partiality on Facebook’s side.”
The newspaper report, he said, was “clearly relevant to the public interest” and exposed “potentially unethical activity by a presidential candidate.”
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Ukrainian business
“Twitter’s censorship of this story is quite hypocritical, given its willingness to allow users to share reports that are less critical of other candidates,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz said in a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
The story revived criticism from the past 2 years that Joe Biden, when he was in charge of the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy, took action to help his son and Hunter Biden’s Ukrainian energy company. Burisma.
Biden has repeatedly denied the allegations. “I never talked to my son about his business affairs abroad,” he said flatly in September 2019.
The story focuses on an email from April 2015, in which a Burisma council adviser named Vadym Pozharskyi thanked Hunter for inviting him to a Washington meeting with his father.
However, there was no indication when the meeting was scheduled or ever took place.
“We have reviewed Joe Biden’s official timetable since then and there have been no meetings, as alleged by New York Post, that’s been the case, “said the Biden campaign.
The Trump campaign, struggling to overcome a sharp voting deficit against Biden ahead of the presidential election, swiftly issued a statement in the campaign saying the email was proof Biden “lied to the American people” about his son’s business dealings.
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