Facebook said Wednesday it was suppressing a story about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son, a move President Donald Trump’s campaign called outrageous.
The story centered on documents and photographs from a hard drive obtained by the New York Post.
“While I will intentionally not link to the New York Post, I want [to] be clear that this story is eligible to be fact checked by Facebook’s third-party fact checking partners. In the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform,” Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesman, said in a statement.
Trump’s campaign said the move showed Facebook “is actively interfering in the election” and “is rigging the election for Joe Biden.”
“This is outrageous,” Tim Murtaugh, the campaign’s director of communications, said in a tweet.
Critics noted that Stone used to work for Democrats in Congress, including former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
Facebook, Twitter, and other technology giants are facing heightened scrutiny from Congress, mainly Republicans, because of evidence showing bias against the GOP.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is facing a subpoena after refusing to appear voluntarily before a Senate panel to answer questions on how the company moderates content and users, among other issues.
The Trump administration recently proposed an alteration to Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act, proposing a removal of liability protections that currently shield Facebook and some other tech platforms from many lawsuits.
“So @Facebook is going to actively censor a @nypost investigative story on the Democrat candidate for president. But rest assured, Facebook is a neutral platform with no political viewpoints!” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
Both Facebook and Twitter are planning on censoring a number of posts before and around the time of the Nov. 3 elections, including what the companies are describing as premature claims of victory.
From The Epoch Times
