X has marked links to a National Public Radio story as “unsafe,” raising concerns that the Elon Musk-owned platform is censoring the news outlet.
When X users clicked on the link to NPR’s story titled “Army says Arlington National Cemetery worker was ’pushed aside’ by Trump aide,” they were met with a warning screen. The screen indicated that the link they clicked “may be unsafe” and asked if they would like to return to X.
The warning attached to the NPR link is typically associated with links that host malware, spam or otherwise misleading information. It’s unclear why the label was slapped on the story, and X has not commented on the situation.
NPR has since changed its URL for the story, which is no longer flagged as unsafe.
The story in question covers the confrontation between members of former President Donald Trump’s staff and a worker at Arlington National Cemetery. The story includes a statement from the U.S. Army saying Trump officials pushed the employee after the worker tried to stop them from recording footage at the site.
The Trump team countered, with campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita, a retired Marine who was with the GOP nominee at the cemetery Monday, saying, “A nameless bureaucrat at Arlington whose job it is to preserve the dignity of the cemetery is doing the complete opposite in trying to make what was a very solemn and respectful event into something it was not.”
While it’s unclear what caused X to label the link unsafe, the incident calls X’s free speech bona fides into question. While Mr. Musk has tried to make X a place where users can freely discuss current events, he has had an openly hostile relationship with legacy media outlets like NPR.
Last year, when the site was still known as Twitter, Mr. Musk labeled NRP as state-affiliated media, a tag mostly reserved for foreign outlets like Russia Today. In reaction, NPR officially left Twitter and hasn’t returned.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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