Trump Slams Facebook, Twitter For Restricting Joe Biden Article, Calls For Repeal Of Law Providing Immunity To Social Media

US President Donald Trump has slammed Facebook and Twitter for restricting the distribution of a New York Post article criticizing Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

The New York Post published a series of stories on Wednesday (14 October) citing emails, purportedly sent by Biden's son.

The reports claimed it got those emails from Trump's private lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, reports NPR.org.

Facebook limited the spread of the story which was liked, shared or commented on almost 600,000 times on Facebook, according to data from CrowdTangle.

In an unprecedented step, Twitter blocked users from posting pictures of the emails or links to two of the New York Post's stories, citing its rules against sharing "content obtained through hacking that contains private information."

Twitter said that the "images contained in the articles include personal and private information -- like email addresses and phone numbers -- which violate our rules".

However, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey acknowledged that the company's communication about why it was blocking the articles "was not great".

"Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we're blocking: unacceptable", he tweeted.

The action by Facebook and Twitter resulted in a political storm in the US.

Trump tweeted that it was "so terrible that Facebook and Twitter took down the story".

Although Facebook did not remove it from its platform but limited its spread.

"REPEAL SECTION 230!!!" Trump said in a tweet.

It should be noted that section 230 of US Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996 provides immunity from liability for providers and users of an "interactive computer service" who publish information provided by third-party users.

Section 230 also provides "Good Samaritan" protection from civil liability for operators of interactive computer services in the removal or moderation of third-party material they deem obscene or offensive, even of constitutionally protected speech, as long as it is done in good faith.

Earlier, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri sent letters to Facebook and Twitter, pressing them on the decisions to reduce distribution and block the story.

Twitter and Facebook have been reportedly acting more aggressively to curb the spread of false claims and manipulation related to the election.

(With inputs from IANS)