X suspended journalist Ken Klippenstein’s account earlier this afternoon. X’s Safety account says they issued the temporary suspension “for violating our rules on posting unredacted private personal information, specifically Sen. [J.D.] Vance’s physical address and the majority of his social security number.”

Several news outlets that received the vetting dossier of the Republican vice presidential candidate leaked by hackers chose not to publish the sensitive document since it contained personal information. Klippenstein felt the dossier was newsworthy and decided to publish it on Substack and his social media channels and one of them took down his account.

Engadget has viewed the dossier and can confirm the details mentioned by X’s Safety team are present and unredacted in Klippenstein’s copy of the document except for the last four numbers of Vance’s social security number.

Klippenstein explained his decision to buck the media’s trend and release Sen. Vance’s dossier on his Substack. President Trump’s campaign has accused Iran’s government on more than one occasion of hacking into its files and releasing the dossier back in June. Other news outlets chose not to release the document but Klippenstein says he felt they declined “in fear of finding itself at odds with the [US} government’s campaign against ‘foreign malign influence’” referring to the National Counterterrorism Center’s organization of the same name that seeks to prevent interference in elections.

“I disagree,” Klippenstein added. “The dossier has been offered to me and I’ve decided to publish it because it’s of keen public interest in an election season.”

The suspension extends beyond Klippenstein’s account. X has flagged the link to the dossier and automatically prevents anyone who attempts to post it. Those who do receive a warning from X saying “We can’t complete this request because this link has been identified by X or our partners as being potentially harmful.”

X (then Twitter) updated its policy on “hacked materials” after it blocked stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020, saying it would allow stories about hacked materials but not links to the material if it was published by the hacker or someone working “in concert” with them.

Update, September 27 2024, 1:55PM ET: Meta will also block the sharing of the newsletter containing Vance's personal info, according to a Washington Post report. The company told the Post sharing the dossier was in contravention of its policies on hacked materials and foreign meddling.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-suspends-journalist-ken-klippenstein-after-he-published-jd-vance-dossier-214219066.html?src=rss

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has officially issued its full recommended fine against political consultant Steve Kramer for a series of illegal robocalls using deepfake AI technology and caller ID spoofing during the New Hampshire primaries. Kramer must pay $6 million in fines in the next 30 days or the Department of Justice will handle collection, according to a FCC statement.

Kramer violated the Truth in Caller ID Act passed in 2009 that prohibits anyone from “knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information with the intent to defraud, cause harm or wrongfully obtain anything of value,” according to legislative records. The law preceded the widespread usage of AI, but the FCC voted unanimously to have it apply to such deepfakes this past February.

The phony robocalls delivered pre-recorded audio of President Biden’s voice using deepfake AI technology to New Hampshire residents leading up to the 2024 presidential primary election. The phony President Biden told voters not to vote in the upcoming primary saying “Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday,” according to an earlier report from CBS New York. The robocalls were spoofed so as to appear to originate from the former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, according to the New York Times.

Kramer hired New Orleans magician (no, really, an actual magician) Paul Carpenter to make the phony recordings. Carpenter showed NBC News how he made the deepfake audio files of President Biden using an AI voice generator called ElevenLabs. The recordings, he claims, only took around 20 minutes to make. Carpenter says Kramer paid him through Venmo and he thought the work he was doing was authorized by President Biden’s campaign. Eleven Labs has since shut down Carpenter’s account.

Kramer claims he sent the robocalls to raise awareness about the dangers and misuse of the technology. His apparent experiment only cost him $500 but, according to the political consultant, resulted in a massive return. “For me to do that and get $5 million worth of exposure, not for me,” Kramer told CBS New York. “I kept myself anonymous so the regulations could just play themselves out or begin to play themselves out. I don’t need to be famous. That’s not my intention. My intention was to make a difference.”

Kramer doesn’t just face a hefty FCC fine, he’s also facing criminal charges. New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella announced last May that Kramer received 13 felony counts of voter suppression and 13 misdemeanor counts of impersonation of a candidate.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/fcc-fines-political-consultant-6-million-for-deepfake-robocalls-190050186.html?src=rss