Earlier this afternoon, X suspended journalist Ken Klippenstein’s account for violating their rules by posting unredacted private personal information, including Senator J.D. Vance’s physical address and most of his social security number. Despite leaks of the vetting dossier of the Republican vice presidential candidate by hackers, many news outlets chose not to publish it due to its sensitive nature. Klippenstein, however, believed it was newsworthy and published it on Substack and social media, leading to the suspension of his account. Engadget confirmed that the details mentioned by X’s Safety team were present in Klippenstein’s copy of the document, except for the last four digits of Vance’s social security number. Klippenstein defended his decision to release the dossier, disregarding concerns of potential foreign influence due to President Trump’s campaign accusing Iran of hacking into its files. Despite Klippenstein’s insistence that the dossier was in the public interest during an election season, X extended the suspension to flag the dossier link and prevent its sharing. X, formerly Twitter, updated its policy on “hacked materials” following the incident, allowing stories about hacked materials but restricting links to material published by hackers or associated parties.
