Twitter, FB restrict users' dissemination of article critical of Biden

Washington DC: Facebook and Twitter decided to limit links to a New York Post article critical of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, in a move that President Donald Trump and conservatives slammed as "censorship", reported Deutsche Welle on Wednesday.

In a story headlined "Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad," the New York Post reported that it had obtained a computer abandoned by Biden's son Hunter tying the former vice president to Ukrainian energy company Burisma, where Hunter served as a board member.

"So terrible that Facebook and Twitter took down the story of "Smoking Gun" emails related to Sleepy Joe Biden and his son, Hunter," Trump wrote on Twitter.

Trump's campaign issued a statement saying that the emails were proof that Biden "lied to the American people" about his son's business dealings.

Joe Biden has denied any such involvement. As Biden's campaign denied he ever met the businessman in question, Burisma board advisor Vadym Pozharskyi, Facebook and Twitter placed restrictions on linking to the article, saying that there were questions over its truthfulness.

"This is part of our standard process to reduce the spread of misinformation, said Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone.

"I want to be clear that this story is eligible to be fact-checked by Facebook's third-party fact-checking partners. In the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform," said Stone.

Twitter said it was limiting the article's spread due to questions about the "origins of the materials" included in the article.