Why Is X/Twitter Blacking Out Images on FBI Controversies?

There is more robust and rambunctious free speech on X in many ways than existed before Elon Musk bought and renamed Twitter.  But my experience this week with X blacking out images of the FBI in my posts reminded me of dealing with Facebook in 2017. I walloped Facebook in USA Today for blocking my post on Attorney General Janet Reno showing the 1993 burning of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco.  X even blocked me from posting a photo of former FBI chief Robert Mueller.  At a time when President Trump is threatening to violently annihilate an entire foreign country, why does X believe that artistic representations of controversial FBI cases are “sensitive content” that must be shrouded?

For the video I made on Tuesday tied to my article, “How I Busted the Ruby Ridge Coverup,” I used the art from my 1995 Playboy magazine article showing a rifle and sniper crosshair on a Madonna and child. But X blacked that out.

I replaced that image with a tombstone-type ad showing the top of the Wall Street Journal piece I did that torpedoed the coverup. That passed muster and eventually got more than 50,000 views.

Here’s the original cover shot that got blacked out by Twitter/X:

Since X didn’t like that image, I asked Grok to create an image showing a sniper crosshair trained on a mother holding a baby. Grok kindly obliged, and X/Twitter had no trouble with me using that for an illustration.

X also blacked out my repost of my 1995 cover story in the American Spectator. I tweeted: “Does X consider FBI chief Louis Freeh sacrosanct or what?

Grok explained why  my original header was blacked out:

I appreciate that X/Twitter did not shadow ban my post despite the initial complications with the cover image.

On Wednesday, I reposted my Future of Freedom Foundation article on FBI Boss Robert Mueller Conned America to Ravage Our Rights. But X blocked my image for the article:

Here’s the image that got blackened:

I asked Grok: WTH?

I could not even post a photo of Mueller to illustrate the article.

X allows much more robust criticism of U.S. foreign policy and some other topics than prevailing elsewhere in the American media.

But these FBI blackouts do raise questions.