Meta blocks links to the hacked JD Vance dossier on Threads, Instagram, and Facebook

Meta is restricting links on Threads, Instagram, and Facebook that lead to Ken Klippenstein’s newsletter containing a JD Vance dossier that was allegedly nabbed in an Iranian hack of the Trump campaign. The company has apparently removed posts containing the link and is seemingly blocking links to PDFs of the dossier being hosted elsewhere.

Meta spokesperson Dave Arnold emailed Meta’s statement to The Verge:

“Our policies do not allow content from hacked sources or content leaked as part of a foreign government operation to influence US elections. We will be blocking such materials from being shared on our apps under our Community Standards.” 

A Meta page on privacy violations forbids users from sharing details “obtained from hacked sources,” as well as “material that purports to reveal nonpublic information relevant to an election shared as part of a foreign government influence operation.”

People on Threads have reported that Meta removed their posts containing the link. Meta also appears to be disabling links to the document hosted elsewhere, such as the below post with a Scribd link, or another one purporting to link to the PDF on a Google Drive.

Many Threads posts instead contain links to a Google search for Klippenstein’s Substack article or posting the direct link, with random spaces, words in place of punctuation, or even QR codes. Meta doesn’t appear to be blocking posts about or searches for the dossier.

X has also been blocking links to the story, and other social media users reported being unable to share the document via their Google Drive accounts (although I was able to share it, at least between two of my personal accounts). Neither company responded to our requests for comment by press time. We’ve also asked Box, Apple, Dropbox, and Microsoft whether they’re restricting the document, but none replied before we published this story.