X is blocking links to an independent journalist's newsletter that published documents allegedly used to vet J.D. Vance, believed to be part of the Iranian government's hack of the Trump campaign. .
The social media platform formerly known as Twitter, now owned by billionaire Elon Musk, also suspended Ken Klippenstein, the journalist behind the newsletter.
Currently, when a user types a link to a newsletter into the X search bar, an error flag tells the user to “try searching for something else.”
When a user attempts to post a link, they receive an error similar to the following: “This link cannot be completed because it has been identified by X or our partners as potentially harmful. Please visit our Help Center for more information.”
News outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Popular Information, and Semaphore refused to publish the hacked documents, which have remained in their pages for several months.
But in a message inviting new readers to subscribe to his newsletter, Mr. Krippenstein wrote, “We publish what others won't.”
According to LinkedIn, Klippenstein, a political reporter who previously worked for The Intercept, The Nation and The Daily Beast, said a source known as “Robert” provided him with the 271-page document via email.
News organizations that refused to publish J.D. Vance's alleged report states that they were also contacted by “Robert.”
In a post on its safety account, Company X said the reporter had been “suspended” by Company “for violating our rules regarding posting unredacted personal information.”
The document appears to contain part of Vance's name, address and social security number.
X did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Krippenstein's newsletter confirmed that the reporter was banned for “publishing personal information in violation of regulations,” Clip News wrote in a post on X.
Before Musk bought the social media giant in 2019, Twitter prohibited posting or linking to hacked content.
When the Post reported on the contents of Hunter Biden's discarded laptop in 2020, social media platforms blocked users from accessing the information. Twitter banned links to The Post's article, citing its hacked content policy.
However, Twitter later changed its policy after receiving backlash for silencing the article, and Musk appears to support the decision.
“Suspending a major news organization's Twitter account for publishing a truthful story was clearly extremely inappropriate.” Musk said this in an April 2022 post to X..
Krippenstein's newsletter defended its decision to link to an article about X, which linked to the hacked documents.
In a post on X, Clip News accused other media outlets of not doing the same and accused the government of playing games by “deciding what the public should and should not see.”
“There was no act of 'documentation' in the release of so-called 'personal information,'” Clip News said in X.
“There is no malicious intent, and the principle is that by deleting something, Ken Klippenstein is merely affirming the government's assertion that information that is not completely classified is routinely kept from public disclosure.”
