When social platforms limited a Burisma-linked story in October 2020
A look back at the two days when a New York Post report on Hunter Biden and Burisma prompted Twitter and Facebook to restrict its spread.
What happened on 15 October 2020, and why did a story about a Ukrainian gas company end up at the centre of an argument over social media? The day capped a rapid sequence of events that began on 14 October 2020.
On 14 October, the New York Post reported that newly uncovered emails suggested Hunter Biden had introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas firm. The Post said it had obtained the alleged emails from Rudy Giuliani, described as a top adviser to Donald Trump.
The same day, Twitter and Facebook announced that they were limiting the distribution of the article until it had been fact-checked.
On 15 October, Twitter locked the Trump presidential campaign's account for sharing private information without that person's permission, in connection with a controversial Hunter Biden video. The account was later unlocked.
The wider theory
The episode belonged to a broader set of claims. Since 2016, Donald Trump and his allies have promoted several conspiracy theories linked to the 2019 Trump–Ukraine scandal. One seeks to blame Ukraine, rather than Russia, for interference in the 2016 United States presidential election. Others include accusations against Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
For readers in Kyiv and elsewhere, the days of 14 and 15 October 2020 showed how a Ukrainian company's name could become part of a foreign election contest, and how the platforms that carried the story chose to restrict it while checks were pending.
