X, the social media website formerly known as Twitter, stunned observers on Thursday when it posted a warning on links to an NPR story detailing former President Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery earlier this week.
The NPR report in question alleged a physical confrontation that took place between a Trump campaign staff member and a staff member at the cemetery who tried to stop campaign members from taking photos at the site, in potential violation of the law.
Clicking on the NPR link through Twitter results in receiving a message that reads, “Warning: this link may be unsafe. The link you are trying to access has been identified by X or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe, in accordance with X’s URL Policy.”
Many Twitter users accused X CEO Elon Musk of trying to discourage users from reading the NPR story by falsely telling them that the link that they wanted to access is spam.
“Musk/X has slapped a spam/dangerous content warning on this NPR link,” wrote Tom Watson, a professor at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies. “This shows just how damaging this explosive story is to Trump. Let’s get it wide, folks.”
“Marking US public broadcaster content as ‘unsafe’ is the sort of revenge move the KGB has fantasized about for decades — and it tells you everything about what Musk and X actually are,” wrote journalist Dave Troy.
“Twitter/X is now running a warning that NPR’s story about Trump’s TikTok video at Arlington National Cemetery is a malicious link,” wrote CityLab editor Kriston Capps. “I’ve never seen this once in the thousands of years I’ve spent on this site.”
Christian Vanderbrouk, an anti-Trump conservative commentator who previously worked in the George W. Bush White House, remarked that X’s apparent decision to throttle the NPR story “Goes to show how damaging” it is to Trump’s campaign.
