X
is
preventing
users
from
posting
links
to
a
newsletter
containing
a
hacked
document
that’s
alleged
to
be
the
Trump
campaign’s
research
into
vice
presidential
candidate
JD
Vance.
The
journalist
who
wrote
the
newsletter,
Ken
Klippenstein,
has
been
suspended
from
the
platform.
Searches
for
posts
containing
a
link
to
the
newsletter
turn
up
nothing.
A
screenshot
of
a
search
for
a
link
to
Ken
Klippenstein’s
newsletter.A
search
with
the
result
“No
results
for
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/read-the-jd-vance-dossier”
The
document
allegedly
comes
from
an
Iranian
hack
of
the
Trump
campaign.
Though
other
news
outlets
have
received
information
from
the
hack,
they
declined
to
publish.
Klippenstein
says
in
his
newsletter
that
a
source
called
“Robert,”
with
an
AOL
email
address,
offered
him
the
document.
Contained
in
it
are
what
appear
to
be
Vance’s
full
name,
addresses,
and
part
of
his
social
security
number.
X
said
in
a
post
on
its
safety
account
that
Klippenstein
was
“temporarily
suspended
for
violating
our
rules
on
posting
unredacted
private
personal
information.”
The
company
didn’t
comment
on
why
links
to
Klippenstein’s
article
are
blocked.
The
X
account
for
Klippenstein’s
newsletter
confirmed
the
reasoning
for
the
ban.
“Ken
Klippenstein
has
been
banned
by
Twitter
for
publishing
private
information
in
contradiction
of
its
rules,”
wrote
KlipNews.
Twitter,
before
it
was
bought
by
Elon
Musk,
had
a
policy
regarding
hacked
materials
— but
the
page is
no
longer
available.
A
pre-Musk
version
of
the
policy,
dated
2019,
stated
that
posting
or
linking
to
hacked
content
is
prohibited.
Under
this
policy,
links
to
a
story
by
The
New
York
Post
about
Hunter
Biden,
the
current
president’s
son,
were
banned.
But
in
October
2020,
Twitter
changed
its
policy
to
say
that
it
would
no
longer
block
hacked
materials,
after
an
outcry
about
how
the
company
had
handled
the
Post
story.
“Straight
blocking
of
URLs
was
wrong,
and
we
updated
our
policy
and
enforcement
to
fix,”
wrote
then-CEO
Jack
Dorsey.
Musk
was
one
of
the
people
who
was
unhappy
with
the
decision
to
ban
links
to
the
Post’s
story.
“Suspending
the
Twitter
account
of
a
major
news
organization
for
publishing
a
truthful
story
was
obviously
incredibly
inappropriate,”
Musk
wrote
of
the
decision
on
the
story
in
April
2022.
He
even
invited
former
Rolling
Stone
pundit
Matt
Taibbi
to
examine
internal
documents
showing
how
Twitter
handled
the
decision.
(In
the
course
of
tweeting
his
conclusions,
Taibbi
exposed
the
email
addresses
of
Dorsey
and
Representative
Ro
Khanna.)
It
is
unclear
why
X
is
blocking
Klippenstein’s
story,
but
attempts
by
three
staffers
at
The
Verge
to
post
links
of
Klippenstein’s
newsletter
failed.
We
received
error
messages
that
read,
“We
can’t
complete
this
request
because
this
link
has
been
identified
by
X
or
our
partners
as
being
potentially
harmful.
Visit
our
help
center
to
learn
more.”
Screenshot
of
my
test
post
Update,
September
26th:
Added
comment
from
X’s
safety
account.
(Originally posted by Elizabeth Lopatto)
Comments