# So Facebook and Twitter decide to be Publishers **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 15, 2020, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006 "2020-10-15T12:15:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/1 "2020-10-15T12:15:00Z")
New York Post report about Hunter Biden’s emails about Berisma and VP Biden. Twitter and FB took down any mention of the emails. They have become publishers not a town square. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/2 "2020-10-15T12:19:20Z")
The Dipshit was impeached specifically _because_ of this article. We knew it was coming, we knew it would be completely fake, and when it arrived, I guess Facebook and Twitter… being, in the end, American companies… decided not to continue to allow this obvious Russian op to be distributed. After all, foreign interference in our elections is something which should never be tolerated, and FB and Twitter are not tolerating it, at least not in this obvious, blatant manner. Should this not be celebrated? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/3 "2020-10-15T13:02:51Z")
why can’t they be publishers? Freedom of the press applies to the owners of the press. You cannot make them publish or not publish something. these days anybody with a few bucks can start their own press/website. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/4 "2020-10-15T13:35:02Z")
What they did was censor. If they want to be press they are not allow to censor new stories. The story is that FB and Twitter censored a story from a credible source. They want to be a public forum. Can’t have it both ways. Their stocks took a dive. The owner of Twitter even said they handled it wrong. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/5 "2020-10-15T13:45:10Z")
> [@eenerms](#): > > credible source nope. It was photoshopped. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/6 "2020-10-15T13:52:58Z")
They didn’t censor. Don’t be ridiculous, the NY Post has their own website and, if rumors be true, an actual printed edition. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/7 "2020-10-15T13:53:55Z")
Can’t have publicly traded ‘stocks’ and a single owner of the same entity, just FYI. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/8 "2020-10-15T13:58:58Z")
Yes they did. If you tried to post the article on FB or Twitter it was removed. That’s censorship. The public are the fact checkers not social media. CNBC and other outlets said the same thing. Watch Jimmy Dore ( a Progressive ) YouTube on this. To get the perspective of Big Tech censorship. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/9 "2020-10-15T14:01:49Z")
From a [New York Times article](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/us/politics/hunter-biden-ukraine-facebook-twitter.html) on this, “Hours after the Post published its article, Facebook said on Wednesday that it had decided to limit the distribution of the story on its platform so it could fact-check the claims. Twitter said it was blocking the article because it included people’s personal phone numbers and email addresses, which violated their privacy rules, and because the article violated their policy on hacked materials.” Remember that in the 2016 election, a lot of bullshit tweets, memes and so forth created by Russian troll farms were allowed to appear on social media. Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged that his company did a poor job of policing for accuracy in what was posted on Facebook. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/10 "2020-10-15T14:04:36Z")
Remember the “Birther” conspiracy ? There was nothing to it. Absolutely nothing. But Trump isn’t stupid. He’s evil. He knew there was nothing to it, but that wasn’t the point. His trafficking in endless conspiracy theories is just Trump and his people doubling down on the same tactic: the allegation alone is damaging enough. There doesn’t need to be any evidence behind it. If actual evidence was the goal, the Republicans control the Senate and Trump OWNS the DoJ. You wouldn’t need to exhume Count Chocula, retain him, and send him to a foreign government – one that YOU believe is corrupt – to “dig up dirt.” [“Separate channels,” for those who’ve forgotten, is how we got into the Iraq War ([Office of Special Plans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Special_Plans)). What a cool thing it would be if we EVER learned from our mistakes as a nation.] ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/11 "2020-10-15T14:05:05Z")
> [@eenerms](#): > > If they want to be press they are not allow to censor new stories. When did this become a rule? Did we get a new Amendment I didn’t hear about? ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/13 "2020-10-15T14:06:21Z")
So as not to pollute the forum with this nothingburger, what am I supposed to be outraged about with Hunter Biden? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/14 "2020-10-15T14:09:43Z")
That is not censorship, that is ‘refusing to publish.’ Just as I have a complete and total right not to post (Publish) to this Board, Facebook and Twitter have a complete and total right to not post the NY Post to their feeds. But! The NYPost still exists! They still have their story, out there for all to see! So… go see it! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/15 "2020-10-15T14:18:42Z")
And not only that, but President Individual 1 was literally impeached for asking for foreign interference in the 2020 election involving Hunter Biden, in a scheme where Rudy Giuliani and others were acting as go-betweens for the President and these foreign actors in an effort to gain hidden information, via a Ukranian government investigation, which would be later released in time to help the Trump campaign. And here we are, in October, and… after all this work, after knowing that the entire world is laughingly awaiting this… their goddamned plan is nothing more than a high-school replay of the 2016 ‘but her emails’ playbook, and a crappy one at that, a plan so inept, so useless in achieving its goals, that Trump supporters like Eenarms above are reduced to whining about Facebook no longer wanting to be a distributor of misinformation. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/16 "2020-10-15T14:24:55Z")
I would like to apologize for the above. I have been to a few high school productions where it’s obvious that one or two of the kids has a competence on stage which may translate into a career. Maybe not A-lister talent or presence, but someone singing in the chorus line at the age of 26. No one involved in this story, from Trump to Giuliani to the computer shop guy who really can’t ID a goddamned thing, has displayed the competence Katie Garcia showed on stage at the 11th-grade production of Grease. Except Hunter and Joe Biden. Because there isn’t shit in these emails. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/17 "2020-10-15T15:11:21Z")
The story isn’t about the Biden thing , it’s that Twitter is activity silencing The press. The New York Post is the fourth largest publication ., and to block anything could be construed as election interference. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/18 "2020-10-15T15:13:55Z")
Twitter is merely a platform. No one has a right to be on Twitter. I notice the story isn’t in the local paper, is that censorship as well? ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/19 "2020-10-15T15:17:32Z")
Social media isn’t a town square. It’s a private entity with no intrinsic posting rights. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/20 "2020-10-15T15:18:22Z")
If you don’t let me festoon your car with Biden/Harris stickers, are you committing ‘election interference ?’ ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006/21 "2020-10-15T15:21:45Z")
> [@eenerms](#): > > The New York Post is the fourth largest publication ., and to block anything could be construed as election interference. Then the NYPost doesn’t need Facebook to get their message out. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-facebook-and-twitter-decide-to-be-publishers/923006.md?page=2)