Twitter still hasn’t unlocked the New York Post’s account

Related Article: What could polls be missing for this election?

Update: Twitter finally unlocked the New York Post’s account on October 30th. This occurred after the Senate Commerce Committee interview multiple Tech CEOs, including Jack Dorsey of Twitter.

Disclaimer: I’m a registered voter with no party affiliation. I have a personal interest in tracking major news networks such as CNN, Fox News, Breitbart, the New York Times, and other outlets who publish misleading information since 2008. Twitter is a recent example of a large, influential medium that has now subjectively interfered with information flow to the public.

It has been over 10 days since the famous New York Post story discussing Hunter Biden’s activities with the Ukranian energy firm Burisma. Twitter reacted by locking the New York Post’s Twitter account from any activity, citing they were trying to prevent the spread of hacked information. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admits blocking the story was a mistake and ended up reallowing the sharing of the story on Twitter.

Then one must ask, why is the New York Post’s Twitter account still locked?

If the decision was reversed, why isn’t the New York Post’s account unlocked? Why isn’t the New York Times account locked due to releasing Trump’s tax returns that were clearly stolen or “hacked”? Especially after the New York Times declined to share their evidence? Here’s a quote from the NYT article where they decline to share:

“…Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, said that “most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate” and requested the documents on which they were based. After The Times declined to provide the records, in order to protect its sources…”

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/27/us/donald-trump-taxes.html

So no records have been released “in order to protect sources”, which isn’t an explanation as to why the actual documents haven’t been published. You can publish tax returns without exposing your sources (for an example, look at all of the WikiLeaks releases over time). Ironically, by publishing the tax returns, you’ll force the hand of Trump to actually release his returns. Instead, all we have is the NYT claiming to have records that they won’t show and have obtained without permission. So why is the New York Post account locked and the NYT account not?

A speculation

Maybe the answer lies in Twitter’s rules and policies, which give plenty of wiggle room by utilizing “exceptions” that they alone determine is best for the public interest. Apparently unverified and unreleased tax returns are important for the public interest, but direct evidence of high-ranking US politician’s family member receiving a highly paid position without prior credentials is not of concern to the American public.

Maybe it turns out that Twitter is in fact biased? Considering it’s difficult, if not impossible for a human being to truly be entirely objective, Twitter’s review units are undoubtedly biased themselves since they’re made up of humans. Should there be insights into who makes up the committees that Twitter uses to review posts and their potential biases? Either way, the main question is; why are they subjectively trying to change the flow of information to the American public?

You’ll have to come to your own conclusion on that.

To be transparent, this is my opinion.

Any institution (private or public) with the power to influence outcomes of anything at scale, are incentivized to take a side. Since humans make up these institutions, they are inherently biased, no matter how hard they try to be unbiased. The resulting bias from the institution’s parts eventually come through as the bias of the whole institution. It’s inevitable and unavoidable, and this is what we’re seeing on Twitter’s decision to lock the New York Post’s account but not the New York Times.

The New York Post should be able to post their own articles without limitation unless other media outlets are restricted as well (such as BuzzFeed news). Unless every single news article is researched by a transparent committee with their justification on blocking/allowing it, one side will always benefit.

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