X advises its users to display a link to an NPR report about Donald Trump’s recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery, raising questions about whether the Elon Musk-owned platform is backing the former president.
On Thursday, NPR reporter Stephen Fowler posted a link to an article quoting an Army official who said an Arlington National Cemetery employee was “abruptly pushed aside” during an event attended by Trump and members of his campaign earlier this week. The network had previously reported that a “physical altercation” with campaign staffers occurred at the event because federal law prohibits campaign activities at the cemetery.
Some users on X who attempt to click on a link to the story are greeted with a warning message saying that X considers the link to be “potentially unsafe.” It states that the link may be malicious, violent, spammy, or otherwise violates the platform’s rules, but does not explain why the link was flagged. Fowler posted a thread on X whose tweets all contained a link to his story—the warning appears to refer to the first two occurrences of the link, but not the others, for unknown reasons. It is highly unusual for such a warning to appear before a link to a mainstream website. Other links to NPR, as well as other reports on Trump’s visit to Arlington, do not appear to carry such a label.
Of particular note, Musk has been a vocal supporter of Trump this election and recently had a lengthy, live-streamed conversation with him on X. Musk has also publicly feuded with NPR in the past, labeling its account “government-affiliated media” for several months last year. NPR has not posted from its main account on X since adding the label last April.
X did not immediately respond to questions about the use of the label.
