An NPR story about the Donald Trump campaign team and its altercation at Arlington National Cemetery was temporarily flagged as “unsafe” and “spammy” on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X.
After NPR journalist Stephen Fowler wrote an update about the incident Thursday, users noticed that a link he posted to the piece appeared to be accompanied by a “warning” that stalled users trying to get to the original story on the public radio network’s website.
The lengthy message from the platform previously known as Twitter told users to consider if the link led to “violent or misleading content that could lead to real-world harm” or “malicious” sites that could compromise users’ personal information or devices before allowing them to click “ignore” and proceed.
Users who noticed the warning wondered if the label was an effort to suppress the story.
About an hour after the original post, Fowler was able to share the same URL in follow-up posts without any issues, however.
The social media platform’s decision to flag the news story is interesting, considering X’s history with NPR.
In April 2023, the platform designated NPR’s account as “state-affiliated media,” a label often reserved for sites promoting propaganda from authoritarian countries. The label was eventually removed, but NPR has not posted to its X account since the dispute.
Thursday’s NPR story included a statement from the U.S. Army that updated its earlier reporting that broke the news of Trump staffers allegedly verbally abusing and physically pushing a cemetery employee who tried to prevent the team from filming and taking photographs at a Monday ceremony.
Federal law bars any Army national cemetery from being used as the backdrop for campaign activities.
Trump and company were at Arlington to attend an event marking a 2021 terrorist attack at Kabul International Airport that killed 13 members of the U.S. armed services.
The former president has often used the incident as an example of the Biden administration mishandling the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan.
A Trump spokesperson called NPR’s reporting “defamatory” and, on Wednesday, his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), lashed out about the accusations.
During a campaign event in Erie, Pennsylvania, he said Vice President Kamala Harris could “go to hell” for criticizing the incident, despite the fact the Democrat has yet to comment on the matter.
