Twitter Banned Me - Ken Klippenstein
Self-styled free speech warrior Elon Musk’s X (Twitter) banned me after I published a copy of the Donald Trump campaign’s JD Vance research dossier. X says that I’ve been suspended for “violating our rules against posting private information,” citing a tweet linking to my story about the JD Vance dossier. First, I never published any private information on X. I linked to an article I wrote here, linking to a document of controversial provenance, one that I didn’t want to alter for that very reason.
The principle involved here is complex. I do not believe it is the job of the news media to alter documents, as if it’s a defacto government deciding what the public should and shouldn't know. 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.
The document itself describes its method of acquiring the so-called “private” information about Vance: "We undertook an examination of all readily available and relevant electronic and online records, several hundred Nexis and news articles, dozens of active and archived web pages, and several dozen public records from Nexis and the resources of various federal, state, and municipal government offices." In other words, everything was out there, either readily or for purchase.
