Social media firm Twitter has revised its Hacked Materials Policy, which initially blocked users from sharing an article link about Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
Under the policy, Twitter users were initially prohibited from sharing materials gathered through hacking, including the article about presidential candidate Biden and his son.
Twitter's Legal, Public Policy & Trust and Safety Lead Vijaya Gadde said the policy has been updated so that such content are flagged as containing hacked material, rather than blocked.
However, content that were directly shared by hackers will still be taken down.
The Biden article and Twitter policy
The New York Post article included screenshots of emails allegedly sent and received by Hunter Biden, son of presidential candidate Joe Biden. It also had personal photos of Hunter that were allegedly taken from a laptop computer while undergoing repairs at a store.
Twitter did not initially address questions why the link could not be shared and chief executive officer (CEO) and founder Jack Dorsey referred to the lack of clarity behind the earlier decision as "not great".
The initial block placed by the company on the controversial Biden article spurred accusations of censorship from Republicans. The Senate Judiciary Committee is planning to vote on Tuesday over whether to summon Dorsey to appear to answer questions on the issue.
In response to these accusations, Gadde argued: "We put the Hacked Materials policy in place back in 2018 to discourage and mitigate harms associated with hacks and unauthorized exposure of private information."
"We tried to find the right balance between people's privacy and the right of free expression, but we can do better," she added.
Gadde also pointed out that "empowering people to assess content for themselves" was a better alternative for the public.
The two key changes to the policy as a result of recent events were that hacked content will no longer be removed from Twitter unless it comes directly from hackers and that links to hacked content will be labelled instead of removed.
Facebook also placed a limit on the sharing of the Biden article after it was initially posted on the platform. The company argued that it was part of a "standard process" to give third-party fact-checkers time to review the content and decide if it should be treated as misinformation.
Stricter rules on election-related content
Last week, Twitter announced new rules that prohibit users, including candidates, to make advanced victory claims in the upcoming US election.
According to Twitter, it will add a warning label to any tweets claiming victory before a clear projection of the US election. The announcement follows a similar move by Facebook in September.
Under the new policies, Twitter will only allow users to claim a result if an announcement has been made by state election officials or if two "authoritative", independent national news outlets released their projection.
In addition to receiving a warning label, users reading tweets that falsely claim a win will also be directed to the platform’s official US election page.
Aside from banning premature claims to victory, Twitter will also temporarily change the way retweets work by requiring users to "quote tweet" and put in their own thoughts about the quoted statements before spreading the message.
Twitter explained: "Though this adds some extra friction for those who simply want to retweet, we hope it will encourage everyone to not only consider why they are amplifying a tweet, but also increase the likelihood that people add their own thoughts, reactions and perspectives to the conversation."
This temporary change will be implemented from October 20 "until at least the end of election week".
