Twitter CEO: Wrong to block links

Company says it has updated its policy to instead give context

Twitter was wrong to block weblinks to an unverified political story, CEO Jack Dorsey said Friday as the company responded to criticism of its handling of the story that had prompted cries of censorship.

“Straight blocking of URLs was wrong, and we updated our policy… to fix,” he tweeted.

Dorsey weighed in after an executive at the social media company announced changes late Thursday to its policy on hacked content following criticism.

Twitter will no longer remove hacked material unless it’s shared directly by hackers or those working with them, the company’s head of legal, policy, trust and safety, Vijaya Gadde, said in a Twitter thread.

And instead of preventing links from being shared, tweets will be labeled to provide context, Gadde said.

“We want to address the concerns that there could be many unintended consequences to journalists, whistleblowers and others in ways that are contrary to Twitter’s purpose of serving the public conversation,” she said.

Twitter and Facebook moved quickly this week to limit spread of the story published by the New York Post, which cited unverified emails from Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son that were reportedly discovered by President Donald Trump’s allies. The story has not been confirmed by other publications.