Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admits it was a mistake to block New York Post's Hunter Biden laptop story - but REFUSES to say who authorized it
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Thursday it was a 'total mistake' for The New York Post to be locked out of its Twitter account for tweets sharing the newspaper's report on Hunter Biden's emails.
'We made a total mistake with the New York Post, we corrected that within 24 hours,' Dorsey told House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, who had asked about that example. 'It was not to do with the content, it had to do with a hacked materials policy, we had an incorrect interpretation,' Dorsey added.
Scalise had probed the Twitter boss on The New York Post's treatment, versus that of The Washington Post, which had to run a correction recently on a report of a conversation between former President Donald Trump and a top Georgia election official
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Thursday before a Congressional hearing that it was a 'total mistake' for the social media company to lock out The New York Post after the newspaper shared stories about Hunter Biden's emails
The New York Post published a number of emails and photos from a laptop that reportedly belonged to Hunter Biden (pictured). The Post was locked out of its Twitter account over tweets promoting the initial story
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey why The New York Post was locked out of its Twitter account, while tweets remained up from The Washington Post promoting a story that needed to be corrected
The Washington Post incorrectly quoted the ex-president, though the sentiment expressed was similar.
The Louisiana Republican complained that The Washington Post's tweets about the story remained, after The New York Post had been punished.
Dorsey said that Twitter doesn't write policy 'according to any particular political leaning.'
'If we find any of it, we route it out,' he said of violations.
Dorsey also said that Twitter didn't 'block' The New York Post's account for two weeks, instead the newspaper was locked out because editors refused to delete the tweet in question.
Since then, the process has changed, Dorsey testified.
'We didn't block their account for two weeks, we required them to delete the tweet and then they could tweet it again. They didn't take that action so we corrected it for them,' Dorsey said. 'It was literally just a process error. This was not against them in any particular way.'
'If we remove a violation we require people to correct it,' he continued. 'We changed that based on them not wanting to delete that tweet, which I completely agree with, I see it, it is something we learned.'
Dorsey said Twitter's main concerns are 'manipulated media, public health and civic integrity,' which might explain why The Washington Post's tweets remain.
In mid-October, The New York Post published a blockbuster report based on Hunter Biden's emails that were purportedly found on a hard-drive of a computer left at a Delaware repair shop.
Copies of messages were given to the newspaper by Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani after ex-Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon made reporters aware of them.
The emails seemingly detailed some of Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine, suggesting he and his father, the Democratic nominee, were using their name for profit.
After the release of emails and compromising pictures of Hunter Biden reportedly found on the laptop, the Trump-picked Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said the laptop 'is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign.'
A day later, the Federal Bureau of Investigations said the agency had 'nothing to add at this time' about the laptop.
A number of Democrats and ex-intelligence officials came forward and said they suspected the leaked emails and photos were part of a Russian disinformation campaign aimed at hurting now President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Dorsey testified alongside Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet's Sundar Pichai before House Energy and Commerce subcommittees on the topic of 'Social Media's Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation.'
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