Wikileaks Claims Facebook Censored Democratic National Committee Leaks

Zipper on mouthThe Wikileaks hacking group claimed this weekend that Facebook censored information it released last Friday from the Democratic National Committee. The leaked documents caused a stir when some seemed to indicate that the DNC actively sought to undermine presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

Wikileaks, which is known for stealing and releasing government and corporate information, claimed on Twitter that Facebook was censoring its links to the DNC data trove. The group then provided a workaround link for its Twitter followers to access the information. However, Facebook’s Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos responded to the group on Twitter, saying that the blocking problem had been fixed.

Now, Facebook hasn’t said why the link was removed in the first place. It’s possible it was accidentally flagged by the site’s anti-spam algorithm, but Wikileaks is a well known website that makes news all around the world. The issue of politically motivated censorship is a particularly touchy subject right now for Facebook; the site has barely recovered from the uproar over its alleged biases against conservative news in its Trending Topics feed.

The site was also accused of censorship when it briefly removed a Facebook Live video of African-American man Philandro Castile being shot by police on July 6. Facebook often feigns ignorance or blames its algorithm when content is removed, but its clear the social media giant needs to step back and assess how it delivers the news. script type=”text/javascript”>//