X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, sparked widespread criticism on Thursday after it posted a warning label on links to an NPR story about former President Donald Trump’s controversial visit to Arlington National Cemetery. The NPR report alleged that a physical altercation occurred between a Trump campaign staff member and a cemetery employee who attempted to prevent the campaign from taking photos, potentially violating federal law.
When users attempted to access the NPR article via X, they were met with a warning that read, “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.”
This unexpected move by X drew immediate backlash, with many accusing CEO Elon Musk of attempting to suppress the story by misleading users into believing the NPR link was unsafe. Critics argued that the warning label was a deliberate attempt to dissuade people from reading the article.
“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.”
The warning was perceived by some as an act of censorship, with journalist Dave Troy remarking, “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.”
Others echoed these sentiments, with CityLab editor Kriston Capps noting, “Twitter/X is now running a warning that NPR’s story about Trump’s TikTok video at Arlington National Cemetery is a malicious link. I’ve never seen this once in the thousands of years I’ve spent on this site.”
Christian Vanderbrouk, a conservative commentator and former George W. Bush administration official, suggested that X’s decision to flag the NPR story as potentially unsafe “Goes to show how damaging” it is to Trump’s campaign.
The controversy surrounding the warning label adds another layer of scrutiny to both Trump’s actions at Arlington and Musk’s management of X, particularly regarding how information is curated and presented on the platform. As the story continues to circulate, the debate over the role of social media platforms in shaping public discourse and controlling the flow of information remains at the forefront.