Social media censorship of a controversial news story may have drawn more attention to it,  Mark Grabowski told the Deseret News.

When the New York Post recently published an article involving allegations related to Joe Biden's son, Hunter, Twitter and Facebook stepped in to control the story’s spread.

While fewer people may have seen the story on the social media platforms, more were driven to look up the article on the New York Post website, said Mark Grabowski, an associate professor specializing in cyber law and digital ethics at Adelphi University.

“When you try to cover up information, it usually backfires. That’s what happened here,” said Grabowski, who speculates that without social media censorship, the New York Post article would have been a relative nonissue with legacy media sources downplaying or ignoring it. “They ended up making it a bigger story.”

While the censorship does not violate the First Amendment, Grabowski said it goes against the spirit of free speech.

“Do we really want Facebook and Twitter serving as an editor for American media and journalism, deciding what information is suitable for the public?” asked Grabowski, who does not know whether the claims in the New York Post article are true.

In response to a Department of Homeland Security report that China was meddling in the upcoming U.S. election, Mark Grabowski told the Epoch Times that “shouldn’t be surprising.”

China has much riding on the election's outcome. China’s currency trading this week surged to a 17-month high after new data showed Biden leading the polls, he noted, citing media reports.

China’s election interference has been largely underreported and goes beyond what the DHS report has detailed, he added. Furthermore, Beijing’s cyber tactics have become “much more nuanced and sophisticated in recent years than even many experts realize,” said Grabowski, a professor of cyber law and ethics.

Grabowski said he was aware of at least two politics-oriented online forums that have been “slammed with traffic from China in recent months.”

Mark Grabowski has a new article in the latest edition of the University of Baltimore's peer-reviewed Journal of Media Law & Ethics.

The piece examines the  so-called “mugshot” websites through the lens of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics.

"As the national conversation on criminal justice shifts following the police killing of George Floyd, newsrooms are beginning to reevaluate their mugshot galleries and several have decided to discontinue them," he writes. "With the law providing little, if any, help, according to First Amendment scholars, the issue is primarily an ethical one."

Grabowski — a former journalist who teaches "Cyber Law & Ethics" at Adelphi University — concludes that, while mugshot sites are not an inherently unethical journalism practice, many news outlets present mugshots utilizing ethically dubious methods that urgently need to be reformed. 

Mark Grabowski was quoted in a report from CQ Researcher on the future of the controversial internet moderation law known as Section 230.

Section 230, part of the Communications Decency Act, has come under fire from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers because it allows websites and apps to moderate content however they like without liability. 

“Section 230's future is precarious, even if Trump is not re-elected,” said Grabowski, who wrote a textbook on cyber law and teaches a course on the subject. “Both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill agree Section 230 has got to change, but they can't agree on why or how.”

Mark Grabowski is profiled in the latest edition of Adelphi University's Academic & Creative Research Magazine.

The article focuses on Grabowsk's interest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. In addition to teaching a course on "Bitcoin & Blockchain" at Adelphi, Grabowski has written a textbook on the topic. He was also awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study cryptocurrency regulations in The Philippines. 

The profile is available here.