X suspends journalist Ken Klippenstein after he published J.D. Vance dossier

X suspended journalist Ken Klippenstein’s account earlier this afternoon. X’s Safety account says they issued the temporary suspension “for violating our rules on posting unredacted private personal information, specifically Sen. [J.D.] Vance’s physical address and the majority of his social security number.”

Several news outlets that received the vetting dossier of the Republican vice presidential candidate leaked by hackers chose not to publish the sensitive document since it contained personal information. Klippenstein felt the dossier was newsworthy and decided to publish it on Substack and his social media channels and one of them took down his account.

Engadget has viewed the dossier and can confirm the details mentioned by X’s Safety team are present and unredacted in Klippenstein’s copy of the document except for the last four numbers of Vance’s social security number.

Klippenstein explained his decision to buck the media’s trend and release Sen. Vance’s dossier on his Substack. President Trump’s campaign has accused Iran’s government on more than one occasion of hacking into its files and releasing the dossier back in June. Other news outlets chose not to release the document but Klippenstein says he felt they declined “in fear of finding itself at odds with the [US} government’s campaign against ‘foreign malign influence’” referring to the National Counterterrorism Center’s organization of the same name that seeks to prevent interference in elections.

“I disagree,” Klippenstein added. “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.”

The suspension extends beyond Klippenstein’s account. X has flagged the link to the dossier and automatically prevents anyone who attempts to post it. Those who do receive a warning from X saying “We can’t complete this request because this link has been identified by X or our partners as being potentially harmful.”

X (then Twitter) updated its policy on “hacked materials” after it blocked stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020, saying it would allow stories about hacked materials but not links to the material if it was published by the hacker or someone working “in concert” with them.

Update, September 27 2024, 1:55PM ET: Meta will also block the sharing of the newsletter containing Vance’s personal info, according to a Washington Post report. The company told the Post sharing the dossier was in contravention of its policies on hacked materials and foreign meddling.