MARKET

Twitter apologizes for blocking Biden's son scandal, FTX Trump contract hits bottom and rebounds

share
Twitter apologizes for blocking Biden

On October 14, the conservative tabloid "New York Post" published an exclusive article titled "Biden Secret Emails," revealing the private emails of Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, which exposed his role as a middleman for the Biden family in connecting with the Ukrainian business community.

Upon the release of this article, both Twitter and Facebook restricted the spread of the news based on their platform policies, sparking a heated debate. Twitter officially made clarifications and corrections on October 16. In addition, changes were observed in the contract products predicting the election results on the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

Twitter's Clarification and Amendment

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey responded to a post by Twitter's Head of Security and Policy, Vijaya Gadde, stating that it was incorrect to have blocked the link to that particular post on Twitter, and this has now been rectified.

Vijaya Gadde, who is responsible for implementing policies, provided a detailed explanation of their actions. She mentioned that they had received a lot of feedback regarding the enforcement of the "hacked material policy" in this case. After discussions, they decided to change their approach.

Why the Change in Approach?

Vijaya Gadde expressed concerns that following this incident, it might lead many journalists, whistleblowers, and others to lose trust in Twitter's mission to facilitate public conversations.

The use of the "hacked material policy" in this instance was due to the leaked emails of Hunter Biden, which were obtained through copied computer data. The policy was established in 2018 to prevent stolen private data from being exposed. Vijaya Gadde stated that they are still seeking a balance between privacy and freedom of expression.

What is the New Approach?

Vijaya Gadde mentioned that they have introduced a new feature that allows posts to be labeled to provide more context about events, rather than simply removing tweets as before.

Under the new policy, unless hacked information is directly disseminated by hackers or related parties, it will not be immediately deleted. Instead, Twitter will label posts containing hacked information with contextual tags, rather than blocking them.

Hacked material related to private information, manipulated content, and non-consensual nudity still need to comply with Twitter's guidelines.

Twitter's Labeling Previously Used on Trump

Interestingly, former U.S. presidential candidate Trump was also involved in disputes with social media platforms in May. He was angered by being labeled as spreading misinformation on Twitter and even issued executive orders to protect freedom of speech, holding social platforms accountable for infringing rights.

With various actions taking place on the eve of a sensitive election, questions arise about the sudden appearance of leaked information obtained by the New York Post. Why did Twitter's labeling feature, which has been in place, not appear in Biden's scandal?

FTX's Changes in Election Contracts

The exchange FTX offered contract products for both Trump and Biden, with the winning side being settled at $1 upon expiration. Trump's contract price dropped from 0.44 to 0.31 by the end of September, a decrease of 29%. After 14 days, it briefly rose to 0.4, and is currently back at 0.36.

Furthermore, based on the win rate data compiled by Finance M Square, Trump and Biden did experience fluctuations in October, but overall Biden's winning odds remain at 60%.