Hunter Biden Expose is "Fake News"

[essentialsaltes]

So those working at Facebook who determine what gets through, are they not people? How do they avoid these pit falls?

Their job is not to find THE TRUTH, but to adhere to the company standards.

 

[tall73]

Their job is not to find THE TRUTH, but to adhere to the company standards.

If one of the standards is to limit "Fake news" then how do they do that without determining whether it is true or false?

And if they don't determine if it is true or false, then how does it help with the problem of all the fake news going around that the poster mentioned?

And if people are terrible at figuring out what is true or false, how do they, being people, avoid this problem?

 

[Vylo]

On another site, someone posted a good summary of how flimsy this story is:

"Hunter Biden, who lives in Los Angeles, decides to fly 3000 miles across country, to drop off 3 MacBook Pros at a repair shop run by a blind guy who charges the insanely low price of $85.

He gets off the plane and drunk drives to the repair shop (because there aren't repair shops in LA). He drops them off, signs a contract for repair and then disappears. The repair shop owner recovers and reads Hunter's *private* emails, a few of which mention a possible meeting with his dad and is so alarmed, he contacts the FBI.

The FBI arranges to pick up the hard drives, but the computer repair shop owner takes a totally normal step of copying them. Once he realizes the FBI isn't doing anything with them, he calls up the most credible ex-Mayor on Earth and hands them the contents of these drives.

That totally credible ex-Mayor sits on them for months, then chooses to release them 3 weeks before the election. The mainstream media asks to independently verify their validity but said ex-Mayor does what all people trying to prove facts do and ignores these requests.


No one who does data recovery would read through thousands of personal emails, even if the computer is abandoned. You'd just wipe the drives clean and sell the computers used.
If these emails were as alarming as it's being pushed, Giuliani wouldn't have sat on them for months."

 

[tall73]

If these emails were as alarming as it's being pushed, Giuliani wouldn't have sat on them for months."

There are certainly some strange elements. But I am not sure Giuliani wouldn't sit on them for the most advantageous political impact.

 

[tall73]

Hunter Biden emails not part of a 'Russian disinformation campaign': John Ratcliffe

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe in an interview disputes chairman Schiff's contention that the intelligence community believes it is Russian disinformation, and they have not briefed Schiff saying that.

Ratcliffe admits he knows "so little" about the alleged emails. He indicates that the intelligence community has not been looking into that because the FBI would be the group with jurisdiction. He states the FBI's investigation does not involve looking into Russian disinformation. If there was an element of the investigation involving Russian misinformation he would have to be brought in and involved.

He is not asked about, and doesn't really address the possibility that Schiff may have independently talked to intelligence community members.

Russian disinformation not behind Biden emails, DNI Ratcliffe says

USA Today indicates that they were told the FBI was looking into it by someone familiar with the matter, but no source is given.

Hunter Biden: FBI probing if New York Post story tied to Russia

Robert Costello, an attorney representing Giuiliani, said he was not aware of an FBI inquiry.

FBI officials declined to confirm or deny the existence of the inquiry.

The person briefed on the matter, who is not authorized to comment publicly, confirmed the FBI's involvement but did not elaborate on the scope of the bureau's review


I guess at the least from these contradicting reports we can conclude that if the FBI is investigating whether Russian disinformation is involved they are not stating so publicly, and have not included Ratcliffe, who claims he should be included if it is being reviewed.

 

[tall73]

Federal authorities are investigating if emails allegedly discovered on a laptop at a Delaware repair shop discussing Democratic nominee and his son Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine were connected to a foreign intelligence operation

The FBI took the laptop and a hard drive through a grand jury subpoena that was later published by the New York Post, a conservative newspaper.

The FBI declined to comment to The Hill on the reported probe, citing its standard practice of not confirming or denying an investigation.

This seems to indicate that there is actually a laptop, and it was taken into FBI custody.

 

[tall73]

The New York Post inadvertently revealed the original source of its dubious Hunter Biden story

This story notes that it was the screenshots from the subpoena for the computer that allowed news outlets to track down the particular shop and owner. The Post inadvertently revealed his identity through the screenshots.

The photos, which appeared in a related slideshow, depict the first and third pages of a subpoena seeking a MacBook laptop and an external hard drive. The metadata of both photos show they were taken at, or very close to, a local establishment called The Mac Shop.

Reversing the image of the first page, and superimposing it on a blank version of the subpoena's second page, clearly shows that the placement of the faint handwriting lines up with the placement of the various fields and design elements of the second page. The same handwriting indicates that the subpoena was served to a person or entity with four relatively short names, the third and fourth of which appear to begin with a capital "M" and a capital "I." The owner of The Mac Shop appears to be a man named John Paul Mac Isaac.

Isaac later confirmed he was the source of the Post story in an interview with several reporters who tracked him down at his shop.

I can see how the investigation of the FBI would have to at least in passing ask the question of where the data came from, as part of establishing whether it is legitimate or not. The notion that it could have been planted as misinformation makes sense, but it is unclear that would have to be by Russia.

 

[SimplyMe]

On another site, someone posted a good summary of how flimsy this story is:

"Hunter Biden, who lives in Los Angeles, decides to fly 3000 miles across country, to drop off 3 MacBook Pros at a repair shop run by a blind guy who charges the insanely low price of $85.

He gets off the plane and drunk drives to the repair shop (because there aren't repair shops in LA). He drops them off, signs a contract for repair and then disappears. The repair shop owner recovers and reads Hunter's *private* emails, a few of which mention a possible meeting with his dad and is so alarmed, he contacts the FBI.

The FBI arranges to pick up the hard drives, but the computer repair shop owner takes a totally normal step of copying them. Once he realizes the FBI isn't doing anything with them, he calls up the most credible ex-Mayor on Earth and hands them the contents of these drives.

That totally credible ex-Mayor sits on them for months, then chooses to release them 3 weeks before the election. The mainstream media asks to independently verify their validity but said ex-Mayor does what all people trying to prove facts do and ignores these requests.


No one who does data recovery would read through thousands of personal emails, even if the computer is abandoned. You'd just wipe the drives clean and sell the computers used.
If these emails were as alarming as it's being pushed, Giuliani wouldn't have sat on them for months."

Additionally, the computer shop owner changed his story at least three times, and it comes out that he didn't volunteer the hard drive to the FBI; instead, they FBI got a grand jury subpoena and then picked up the device.

It appears that the NY Post also did not see the original emails as the dates from the copies they posted are from 2019; it appears that Giuliani is not willing to let anyone view the original files -- likely part of the reason Fox News passed on the story.

 

[tall73]

Additionally, the computer shop owner changed his story at least three times, and it comes out that he didn't volunteer the hard drive to the FBI; instead, they FBI got a grand jury subpoena and then picked up the device.

It appears that the NY Post also did not see the original emails as the dates from the copies they posted are from 2019; it appears that Giuliani is not willing to let anyone view the original files -- likely part of the reason Fox News passed on the story.

That is hardly helpful if he wants to verify things. Or, he is dripping out details one at a time with further proof as it goes along. But that would be a pretty bad strategy with as much early voting as is happening this time around. And the longer he does that the more suspicious it looks.

However, Fox has not completely refused to cover the story. This is from six hours ago:

Documents show alleged Hunter Biden signature, FBI contacts with computer repair store owner

Here they show images of five papers, one purported to be a document from the repair store with Biden's name on it, and what appears to be his signature, though they indicated they have not verified the signature to be his. I am not sure what would be involved with verifying it.

The other documents supposedly detail the FBI's interactions with the shop owner.

They have also been indicating they verified with one of the recipients copied on an email that it was legitimate.

Fox News spoke to one of the people who was copied on the email, who confirmed its authenticity. Sources told Fox News that "the big guy" is a reference to the former vice president.

Though again, they don't name their source, which makes that element about as helpful as many of the other anonymous source stories.

 

[tall73]

As for Biden's calendar, it is his VP calendar that is public records, so yes, unless contradicted by something substantial, I do believe it.

If you were going to meet with someone for an illegal scheme to enrich your children or yourself, I somehow think it would not be on the official calendar.


Biden campaign lashes out at New York Post

Biden’s campaign would not rule out the possibility that the former VP had some kind of informal interaction with Pozharskyi, which wouldn’t appear on Biden’s official schedule. But they said any encounter would have been cursory. Pozharskyi did not respond to a request for comment.

And senior Biden advisers who spoke to POLITICO on Wednesday — including Michael Carpenter and Amos Hochstein, who staffed the vice president at the time — similarly said that while there was never an official meeting, it's technically conceivable that Pozharskyi would have approached Biden on the sidelines of some broader U.S.-Ukraine event. But they emphasized that they have no indication that happened, and that they had never heard of Pozharskyi before.

 

[ralfyman]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...40c702-0e4c-11eb-8074-0e943a91bf08_story.html

Social media outlets, WAPO, and intelligence experts were skeptical of the report.

It's can't be considered fake news because even the Post itself acknowledged that it could not verify the authenticity of the material. That means no one can tell for now whether or not it is fake or otherwise.

Given that, investigation is needed, and those involved must be questioned.

 

[tall73]

Where's the contract and is it Hunter's signature?

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxn...ds/2020/10/918/516/Biden-docs-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

You can see what you think.

 

[Pommer]

Which is funny because that idea is about the most progressively academic starting point in the world.

Reality gets “bendy” sometimes; it comes-and-goes.

 

[tall73]

Apparently Twitter re-thought its policy, and now thinks people should be able to assess the material for themselves. It probably had something to do with the threatened subpoena to come testify on the matter. As I mentioned earlier it is not in their best interest to make editorial decisions as a platform enjoying immunity under section 230.


Twitter Changes Policy On Blocking 'Hacked Materials' | Silicon UK

The social network initially barred people from sharing the link under its Hacked Materials policy, which seeks to inhibit the spread of content that has been acquired as a result of a hack.

Twitter’s Vijaya Gadde said such posts will now be flagged as containing hacked material, rather than blocked.

On Tuesday the Senate Judiciary Committee plans to vote on whether to subpoena Dorsey to appear before it to face questions over Twitter’s removal of the link to the controversial Post article.

 

[Pommer]

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxn...ds/2020/10/918/516/Biden-docs-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

You can see what you think.

How. Would any of us know what Hunter Biden’s drunk, (but incredibly steady), signature might look like?

 

[lasthero]

How. Would any of us know what Hunter Biden’s drunk, (but incredibly steady), signature might look like?

I'd also doubt it would hold any water if it were real. Again, no legal expert, but last I checked, contracts are generally considered invalid if the person signing was known to be in a poor state of mind at the time. Otherwise, you could get someone drunk and sign their life away or do crazy stuff like that.

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxn...ds/2020/10/918/516/Biden-docs-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

You can see what you think.

I see scribbling, that can be done by anyone. Including myself.

 

[KCfromNC]

Did you see some of the Russian propaganda stuff in 2016?

The stuff about Clinton's e-mails was all over the news at the time.

And even then it was in various directions to cause dissent more than to just aid one side.

The Senate investigation came to a different conclusion - Republican-led Senate panel: Russia interfered in 2016 election to aid Trump, campaign associates had regular contact with Russians

 

[KCfromNC]

There are certainly some strange elements. But I am not sure Giuliani wouldn't sit on them for the most advantageous political impact.

Or if they don't exist, just make them up.

 

[Kentonio]

So those working at Facebook who determine what gets through, are they not people? How do they avoid these pit falls?

Facebook are a massive corporation who can well afford to pay a professional fact checking department. Their job isn't to decide whether they think people should be allowed to hear opinions, their job is to determine whether claims made are unsupported, deliberately misleading or simply factually incorrect. Obviously that's not a precise science, they can't prove for instance that a newspapers anonymous sources are accurate or truthful, that's the newspapers job, but they can do basic checks on supposed facts stated in the piece and ensure that blatant misinformation isn't being peddled.

If a reputable newspaper reports that sources have told them that Joe Biden used to have contacts with the mafia, then that will almost certainly go through as although dramatic its not something that can be easily dis-proven by outside fact checking, and the newspapers reputation buys them a level of trust. If a tabloid however reports that Joe Biden has been having secret meetings with Chinese spies, and a little fact checking shows he was nowhere near that location on those dates, then it probably won't go through because it's almost certainly sensationalist nonsense.

I really don't see why this is even controversial.