It has been hard in recent years to get anyone remotely left of center to care about the threat of tech censorship. The matter has either become such a right-wing obsession or been taken up by various figures who have fallen afoul of liberal opinion that it’s become a virtual point of faith for many that it’s all a bunch of Donald Trump supporters complaining that they’ve lost the ability to spam misinformation online — despite copious evidence to the contrary.
But that could, and certainly should, change now, after Twitter — now known as X — suspended former Intercept reporter Ken Klippenstein’s account over a story he had published that was potentially damaging to the Trump campaign, even going so far as to prevent the link to the piece from being shared on the website. In fact, Klippenstein was “permanently suspended,” meaning he has been banned forever, barred from even making a new account. As of the time of writing, you still can’t share his story, with Twitter informing you that the link “has been identified by X or our partners as being potentially harmful” if you try to post it.
Officially, the reason Twitter/X has suspended Klippenstein is because the story he published — internal opposition research on Trump’s running mate J. D. Vance, which was allegedly hacked from the Trump campaign by the Iranian government — contained “unredacted private personal information.” Specifically, the document as published contained Vance’s address and part of his Social Security number (both have been redacted now).
This is similar to what happened four years ago, when the New York Post published its own “October surprise,” using material from Hunter Biden’s laptop while his father was trying to win the…
La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: Branko Marcetic
