The social media company X said on Sept. 26 that it suspended an independent reporter because he posted a document that included the private information of Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), the running mate of Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump.
Klippenstein was suspended “for violating our rules on posting unredacted private personal information, specifically Sen. Vance’s physical addresses and the majority of his Social Security number,” Elon Musk’s company said.
Klippenstein, who previously worked for The Intercept, had published a hacked document on his Substack blog that was entirely unredacted and shared a link to the post hosting the document on X.
X also blocked links to the blog post.
Iran’s activities, “including thefts and disclosures, are intended to influence the U.S. election process,” the Office of Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a statement.
A number of news outlets have said they received the dossier but opted against publishing it. Klippenstein said he was contacted by the same person whom the outlets attributed as the document’s source, who identified himself as Robert and declined to provide details about himself to the news outlets.
“The dossier has been offered to me and I’ve decided to publish it because it’s of keen public interest in an election season,” Klippenstein wrote on his Substack.
After being suspended, Klippenstein defended not redacting Vance’s personal details.
“I do not believe it is the job of the news media to alter documents as if it’s a de facto government deciding what the public should and shouldn’t know,” he said.
“Yes, I know that it is general practice to delete ‘private’ information from leaks and classified documents, but in this case, not only is Vance an elected official and Vice Presidential candidate, but the information is readily available for anyone to buy.”
Phone numbers and addresses of individuals are generally available for purchase through websites like WhitePages.
Klippenstein said he did not regret his decision.
“It’s sad some reporters and media outlets have decided to do Iran’s bidding.” Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s communications director, told The Epoch Times in an email.
Musk had previously said that Twitter, before he purchased the company, should not have suspended the New York Post after the paper reported on information from Hunter Biden’s laptop computer that was at the time said to be from a hack.
