While Twitter maintains its policies do not prevent revealing the name of the whistleblower in the Trump Ukrainian debacle, Facebook said its harm policy prevents “outing of witness, informant, or activist.” (First Amendment Watch, November 12, 2019)
Social media users, though, are reporting they have been suspended from Twitter from mentioning the supposed name of the whistleblower in posts. (The Blaze, November 7, 2019, by Sarah Taylor)
YouTube is also removing the whistleblower’s name. Most of the mainstream media has avoided publishing the name of the whistleblower, mindful of putting the person at serious risk. (CNN, November 8, 2019, by Oliver Darcy)
In the meantime, at Trump’s instigation, his followers unleashed a furious online effort to unmask the whistleblower. Before Facebook removed it, a North Carolina businessman ran an ad on a Facebook page with the supposed name of the whistleblower. The whistleblower’s lawyer warned in a letter to a Trump lawyer that should any harm come to the whistleblower or his family, his client would be responsible. (The Washington Post, November 7, 2019, by Isaac Stanley-Becker and Craig Timberg)