After a two-week Twitter lockdown just days before the 2020 presidential election, Twitter has reinstated the New York Post’s Twitter account after changing its policy of “not retroactively overturning prior enforcement,” meaning that “decisions made under policies that are subsequently changed & published can now be appealed if the account at issue is a driver of that change.”
Going forward, if Twitter changes its policy, the account that spurred the change can appeal Twitter’s “punishment.”
In response, we’re updating our practice of not retroactively overturning prior enforcement.
Decisions made under policies that are subsequently changed & published can now be appealed if the account at issue is a driver of that change. We believe this is fair and appropriate.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 30, 2020
Dorsey announces lift on ban
The move came after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced during his testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee that the ban on the Post’s story about Hunter Biden emails had been lifted.
The New York Post account was still shut down when Dorsey announced this, however, and users attempting to tweet the article in question were still getting error messages, Breitbart reported. Dorsey apparently had to unblock the Post’s account after his testimony to make what he said true.
In response to the Post account still being disabled, Dorsey said that the Post would have to delete the original tweet with the article link and then Twitter could unlock the account and the Post could tweet the same article.
The changing of the retroactive overturning policy enabled the Post’s account to be unlocked without deleting the original tweet.
Dorsey blamed the original decision on the assessment that the article relied on “hacked” materials, which it didn’t.
Post celebrates “important moment” for freedom
“This is an important moment for journalism and for the freedom of the press,” News Corp. spokesman Jim Kennedy said in a statement, The Wall Street Journal reported.
He continued, “The arbitrary blocking of the Post was a significant moment during a critical time in this election season. It also had a negative commercial impact, but the Post team was determined that principle should prevail and it has.”
There’s no telling whether the Hunter Biden story might have gotten traction sooner than it did without the action by Twitter to block it, or the impact that the blocking might have had on the 2020 election in any number of races.
On the other hand, the story may have gotten even more attention because of Twitter’s move to censor it.
The post Twitter reinstates New York Post account after changing policy first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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