If James Carville, the election strategist of Bill Clinton's campaign who coined the famous phrase "it's the economy, stupid," was asked what is the phrase governing the US presidential elections in 2020, he might say, "it's freedom, stupid." Wait for a moment before jumping to conclusions. The story may be unexpected as Twitter reversed last Friday its decision to block links to an article published by the New York Post, which includes allegations involving Hunter Biden, son of the American Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, and his relations with foreign countries. Vijaya Gadde, head of Twitter's legal, policy, trust and safety, said in a Twitter thread that the company had decided to make changes to its policy related to hacked materials after the move met with backlash. The company will no longer remove hacked material unless hackers or those working with them directly shares it, and that links to hacked content will be labeled instead of removed, she remarked. But Twitter also said even so, the New York Post story should have been censored, for violating "rules for the protection of private personal information." However, Twitter CEO and Founder Jack Dorsey said that his company made a mistake when it blocked the article's links, and suggested instead that it would use other means, such as tagging the tweet, but the tweets that contained links to the story did not include any posters. Twitter declined to respond to Reuters' questions about whether this was a mistake or a decision related to the company's policies. Twitter also triggered sharp criticism when it imposed a temporary ban on the campaign account of President Donald Trump, when the account posted a video referring to a story in the New York Post about Biden's son. So, can it be said that President Trump is wrong when he talks about fake news? Is it wrong for someone who doubts the policy of Twitter for publication, or says precisely the editorial policy, as it is now no longer an intellectual forum but a publishing house after it seemed to have a political line? Leave that aside, how can social media be believed, as decision-makers are governing and selective while discharging their mission? Therefore, as long as the means of communication are selective, entailing fraud, distortion, and deception, it means lack of credibility and freedom. Therefore, the story now, and in the US elections, is a story that says "it's freedom, stupid." You can say about Trump what you want, and you can sing freedom as you like, but you cannot say that social media is free. The truth is that social media has proven to be ideological, serving a specific ideology, and saying that it agrees with it or disagrees, but it is a clear and scandalous ideology. And if you are a twitterati, it does not matter what you feel, because the story is not the story of the people, but it is the story of those who control it.
