X suspends journalist Ken Klippenstein after he published the JD Vance dossier

This afternoon, X suspended the account of journalist Ken Klippenstein. X’s security account says a temporary suspension was imposed “for violating our policies regarding the publication of unredacted private personal information, specifically Senator (J.D.) Vance’s physical address and most of his Social Security number.”

Several news outlets that received hacked background checks for the Republican vice presidential candidate chose not to publish the confidential document because it contained personal information. Klippenstein decided the documentation was newsworthy and decided to post it on Substack and his social media channels, with one of them deleting his account.

Engadget has reviewed the documentation and can confirm that the details listed by X’s security team are present and unredacted in Klippenstein’s copy of the document, with the exception of the last four digits of Vance’s Social Security number.

Klippenstein explained his decision to buck the media trend and publish the Senator Vance dossier on his Substack. President Trump’s campaign has repeatedly accused the Iranian government of hacking into his files and releasing the records in June. Other news outlets chose not to publish the document, but Klippenstein says they declined “for fear of conflicting with (the U.S. government’s) campaign against ‘bad foreign influences,'” referring to the National Counterterrorism Center organization of the same name , which aims to prevent interference in elections.

“I disagree,” Klippenstein added. “I was offered this documentation and decided to publish it because it is of great public interest during the election period.”

The suspension goes beyond Klippenstein’s account. An X has marked the link to the documentation and automatically prevents anyone from trying to post it. Those who receive a warning from X saying “We cannot fulfill this request because this link has been identified by X or our partners as potentially malicious.”

X (then Twitter) updated its “hacked material” policy after blocking articles about Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020, saying it would allow articles about hacked material but would not link to the material if it was posted by a hacker or a person working “in concert” with them.