The two companies had markedly different responses to the Post reports. Facebook initially limited its reach while it was being reviewed by the company’s fact-checking arm. Users were free to share it, but it wouldn’t get a “boost” from Facebook’s algorithm in an effort to prevent it from “going viral.” Twitter, on the other hand, took the unusual step of preventing it from being shared by users at all. The company said it was because the story violated its policy around sharing content that was based on “hacked materials.”

Amid the blowback against Twitter, the company updated its hacked materials rules,