McKenna Geer, who is a competitive rifle shooter on Team USA for the Paralympics, is the latest person to be censored on social media. In her case, the offense was merely posting pictures with the guns that she uses in competitions. While possessing a gun is a protected individual right, Instagram will flag your posts and bar you from some sites if you post a picture with a gun . . . even if it is part of your sport at the Olympics or Paralympics.
Geer posted on Instagram screenshots of Instagram’s notification that her account was now restricted.
Team USA’s website states that the wife and mother has struggled with “amyoplasia arthrogryposis in her left hand and both feet, causing her muscles not to form properly.”
Geer competed in both the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. She won a bronze medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
She noted that “athletes rely on our social media accounts to spread the word about our sport, firearm safety, build our personal brand, and connect with potential sponsors. Many of us (myself included) are either not paid or paid very little for our involvement in this sport. Our social media presence can often be the avenue that pays for us to continue competing.”
In addition to flagging her posts, the Instagram notification informed her that “Your account and content won’t appear in places like Explore, Search, Suggested Users, Reels, and Feed Recommendations.”
Geer’s experience is all too familiar.
While Instagram says that she may appeal the decision, these companies make it virtually impossible to speak to anyone at the company. They do not even make press contacts public. It is often very difficult for people to figure out how to appeal and they often face a corporate brick wall unless the matter gets into the press.
In this case, Instagram wins the gold medal for censorship with its actions undermining both free speech and gun rights. According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 32% of U.S. adults say they own a gun. That is over 75 million Americans. For many of those citizens, shooting is a cherished sport and passion. Yet, taking a picture with a lawful weapon can get you flagged and censored under the systems in place at sites like Instagram.
It is not clear what the company does with other images of guns like these:
Instagram’s policy should be changed. Who the hell decides these things at Instagram —
Instagram is censuring people who exercise their 2nd Amendment Right, at the Paraolympics.
If seeing an image of a gun would make everyone manic to shoot people, then what about all the Hollywood movies with guns?
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Jonathan: So Instagram has apparently “censored” McKenna Geer. And you call that the “gold medal of censorship”? Hardly. No chance Instagram’s decision was instigated by the Biden administration. Otherwise, you would be shouting about that from the roof tops!
Seventy-five million Americans own guns. You apparently think that’s a good thing because “shooting is a cherished sport and passion”. No doubt that is what motivated Tom Crooks father to buy the AR-15 style gun for his son. Little did he know Tom would use the gun to try to kill DJT. That was the son’s “sport and passion”!
Could it be Instagram decided Geer’s account needed flagging because promoting the purchase of more guns was not the image the company wanted to project just after the attempted assassination of the Republican candidate? Can’t fault them for that. And Instagram’s action was that of a private company and Geer can’t argue her “free speech” rights were violated.
Now juxtaposing the iconic photos of Billy the Kid (William H. Bonney) and the Marines hoisting the American flag at Iowa Jima does nothing to support your POV. Billy the Kid was a notorious outlaw who killed killed 21 men and was also involved in New Mexico’s Lincoln County war during which he allegedly committed three more murders–before he was shot dead at 21 yrs. of age by Sheriff Pat Garrett. Crooks only attempted one killing, missed the mark and was shot dead at 20. There the comparison ends. And you also miss the mark with the Marines hoisting the American flag after the bloody defeat of the Japanese army on Iowa Jima. The Marines were holding the flag in their hands–not rifles. I seriously doubt Instagram would ever censor those photos because they are part of American history. Nice try but no cigar!
All the world is a kindergarten and saying pew pew bypasses censorship, for now.
Go to X
Dear Professor Turkey – The proof that being covered in Ridicule is not Fatal:
When I posted your column on my Facebook page , their goons censored me !!!
ALP
This is also filtering down to where we live.
I am 77 rears old. Buying beer, I got carded to see that I was over 21. Yup. Mandatory.
Not one person in that huge operation was trusted to use common sense. Welcome to “equity”, there the bar is set at “dumbest”. We can not do any better than the dumbest around us.
I’m not sure how many years 77 rears old is.
Then again, I read typonese. I just got carded while 81. One of those “everyone is carded” places too.