Facebook, Twitter limiting spread of New York Post story about Hunter Biden
CHICAGO - There is outrage from the right as both Twitter and Facebook announced they'd be 'limiting' users' ability to view the New York Post story about Hunter Biden.
Facebook also announced it would soon be banning anti-vaccination ads.
This is all raising larger questions about the trustworthiness of using social media as your primary news source.
“They see something on Facebook, they see something on IG, they see something on TikTok...well it must be true! Right?” asked Jim Warren of NewsGuard.
"Wrong," says Jim Warren with Newsguard, a firm that rates news sites for trustworthiness.
“The distribution of misinformation has now become politicized. Republicans saying you take things down that are vaguely conservative, that's unfair. Democrats saying the exact opposite,” said Warren.
The right is claiming emails obtained by the paper show Joe Biden abused his power as Vice President to help his son, Hunter. The post claims it is being "censored", while the social media giant says it'll be conducting a third-party fact-check on the article, before removing controls over it.
Facebook says it's also getting ready to ban any advertisements against vaccinations. This all comes less than 20 days until the election.
“And you know that folks peddling misinformation will ramp up their forays in the next couple weeks,” said Warren.
Warren urges users to always be careful what source you trust, and when in doubt? Double check.
“There are other operations such as factcheck.org, politifact, the Washington Post fact checker column, and reputable old time sources: the NYT, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal that are national treasures and despite their occasional slip-ups place an actual priority on whether statements are true,” said Warren.