• by Colin Kirkland , August 24, 2023

Not long after blocking links to Meta's competitor platform Threads, X has been called out for temporarily blocking links to NGP VAN, a major voter database and political organizing software used by the Democratic Party for Democratic and progressive campaigns.

“On Wednesday, August 16, we became aware of an issue preventing links from our secure.ngpvan.com domain from being shared on X (formerly known as Twitter),” a representative for NGP VAN told TechCrunch. “In the past, we've had direct contacts at Twitter that helped us solve problems quickly, however, those contacts no longer work for the organization.”

Over the course of a week, the organization and its X users were unable to share links to volunteer event signups, donation portals and additional resources for political causes backed by the Democratic Party on the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Users reported seeing an error message when they tried to post a NGP VAN-affiliated link which stated that the content had “been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful.”

After NGP VAN’s outreach to X regarding the issue was continuously ignored, the company reached out to its X user base for help, asking them to file additional reports with the platform.

“Thank you to everyone who helped us bring this issue to X’s attention!” NGP VAN posted on X shortly after the issue was resolved on Thursday morning. “Happy organizing!”

This is not the first time an organization or company has faced unexpected limitations on X since Elon Musk took over the company last October. Users who have experienced broken links or suspended accounts have typically either misaligned with the owner's political views or posed a potential threat to the platform's success.

In December, Musk's company suspended the account of Twitter alternative Mastodon, issuing the same error message seen by NGP VAN. Soon after, X made it impossible for its users to like, reply or retweet to Substack links, two days after the subscription newsletter platform launched its Twitter-like Notes feature.

More recently, X has been flagged for selectively blocking links to Threads.net's website after it launched -- making it difficult for anyone to surface conversations on Threads or locate users' profiles. The Musk-owned platform was also called out for blocking Google Search results just before Meta released Threads.

Before Twitter rebranded to X, a select group of news outlets, such as NPR and PBS, also faced misleading “government-funded” media labels, including a “state-affiliated” label that is typically reserved for propagandist outlets like Russia's RT.

According to TechCrunch, an NGP VAN representative informed them that X had not yet explained why the links were blocked.

“NGP VAN is a significant resource for organizers to reach and maintain broader networks of potential voters and volunteers,” Shayna O’Reilly, a former campaign worker and current HR lead at a political research firm, told TechCrunch. “Sharing RSVP links to Mobilize events online, for example, presents opportunities for people to engage with campaigns and advocacy organizations in a more comfortable, accessible way.”

With the burgeoning election season coming to the forefront in the U.S. X’s track list since Musk took charge begs the question of whether NGP VAN links were blocked due to an error or a conscious company decision.