The social media platform X temporarily banned independent journalist Ken Klippenstein on Thursday after he published a hacked dossier that contained personal information about vice presidential candidate JD Vance, including his home address.
Back in February, the Trump campaign began compiling a 271-page dossier in its vetting process for JD Vance as a potential running mate, which included a whole section on his “potential vulnerabilities.” Months later, when Trump tapped Vance as his vice presidential pick, the campaign revealed in August that it had been hacked by Iranian intelligence. Though the hacked items were sent and shared with various news outlets, they refused to publish the documents “on the grounds of both the unclear provenance of the information as well as its apparent lack of newsworthiness,” per Mediaite.
On Thursday, Klippenstein published the dossier on his website without redacting key personal information belonging to JD Vance, including his home address and a sizable portion of his social security number.
“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,” Klippenstein wrote. “It’s a 271-page research paper the Trump campaign prepared to vet now vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. As far as I can tell, it hasn’t been altered, but even if it was, its contents are publicly verifiable. I’ll let it speak for itself.”
Shortly after publishing the documents and sharing his findings on X, the platform temporarily banned him. The platform also does not allow users to link the report.
An X spokesperson later told journalist Justin Baragona that the temporary suspension was strictly about the dossier containing unredacted personal information belonging to Vance.
“Ken Klippenstein was temporarily suspended for violating our rules on posting unredacted private personal information, specifically Sen. Vance’s physical addresses and the majority of his Social Security number,” said the X spokesperson.
