Facebook Yanks Account of Gun Rights Group Without Explanation
While it may seem like the smoke is clearing, in reality, Big Tech’s purge is only getting started.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the Virginia Citizens Defense League, “a top Virginia gun-rights group,” has been banned from Facebook without any explanation.
This isn’t even the first time. “At the end of January, it booted the group before later restoring its page — also without explanation,” the outlet reported.
It’s not as if the VCDL is some radical group. As the Free Beacon noted, VCDL president Philip Van Cleave “said neither he nor the group has ever advocated for violence or been involved with protesting the results of the 2020 election.”
“Van Cleave said the group used its Facebook page exclusively to communicate with its members as well as organize electoral and legislative efforts. The group’s page helped raise awareness of Gov. Ralph Northam’s (D.) controversial gun-control agenda in 2020 and mobilized activists to help block some Democratic proposals.”
Van Cleave added that “the lack of clarity from Facebook suggests that the ban is ‘political’ and may soon expand to other gun groups.”
Facebook’s hostility towards the Second Amendment is nothing new.
According to National Review, back in 2016, Facebook removed a large number of pro-gun and pro-law enforcement pages with little warning. This followed actions earlier that year to ban all gun sales from the platform.
Furthermore, Michigan Radio reported last October that the Michigan 2A for Sanctuary Counties group, which was founded “as a way to organize support for local resolutions to declare counties ‘sanctuaries’ for the Second Amendment,” was shut down because it “violated Facebook’s policy on ‘militarized social movements.'”
You can read the policy here. It’s vague and easy to abuse.
However, this latest instance in Virginia takes Facebook’s aggression against the Second Amendment to a whole new level. This time, the platform banned a group that was not only large but effective.
Surely, if there were legitimate violations of Facebook’s policies, the company would be able to specify what was violated and when.
Instead, Facebook is repeatedly avoiding the question, hoping to get away with what it did with neither input nor accountability from the general public.
It’s clear that Big Tech has it out for our constitutional rights and will do whatever it takes to suppress the American people’s expression of them.
First, it was the First Amendment, and now they’re coming for the Second.
Social media platforms have arguably become a traditional public square, and if that is the case, then they have an obligation to keep free speech and gun rights in mind.
Unfortunately, unless things change, Pandora’s box may have already been opened.
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