Episode #6: Monopolies and Censorship in Elections with Ken Klippenstein

A leak of Trump campaign communications led to a reporter's suspension from social media. This is the nexus of Big Tech, national security, and the Trump campaign.

Welcome to the podcast Organized Money. You can listen to today’s episode on tech platforms and censorship on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

We hear a lot about how Big Tech uses algorithms to serve up information. But on this episode, we have a story about how they also use their power to control what you can see and hear.

Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein wrote a story sharing a dossier about the pros and cons of selecting JD Vance as Donald Trump’s running mate, allegedly obtained in an Iranian hack of the Trump campaign. Almost immediately, X suspended his account and blocked links to his Substack. People that shared his post on X had their accounts suspended and were told to take down the post if they wanted their accounts reinstated. The dossier was even made impossible to share on Google Drive.

This all happened despite the fact that the Vance dossier was merely a compendium of publicly available information and links. No other news agency would touch it, claiming that there was no news value. What they may have feared was what happened to Klippenstein happening to them.

Eventually it came out that the Trump campaign asked Elon Musk, a major Trump donor and supporter and the richest man in the world, to censor the dossier. Musk dutifully did so. Only after the embarrassment of that revelation was Klippenstein’s X account restored. But even then, the FBI paid a visit to Ken.

This is a cautionary tale about how Big Tech uses its power to limit speech, and how that's not limited to going after one political party or persuasion.

Listen via Apple:

Or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks for listening, and let us know how we’re doing in the comments or by responding directly to this email.

-Matt and Dave

[photo via Gage Skidmore]