Donald Trump, Jr. is taking advantage of Meta’s new free speech commitment and pushing the platform to end anti-gun censorship.
Trump Jr. founded Field Ethos, a hunting and firearms brand, to challenge wokeness in the outdoors lifestyle industry. He recently announced on Instagram a meeting with executives from the platform’s parent company Meta to address censorship of hunting and firearms content. Trump Jr. celebrated Meta’s apparent effort to correct the longtime problem, noting that Field Ethos’s “concerns have been taken seriously.”
In his Instagram story, Trump Jr. shared a statement from his company which read, “Recently, we’ve had several promising direct conversations and in-person meetings with the top brass at Meta with regard to freedom of speech and the steps being taken to ensure that companies in the firearms and hunting related industries are able to communicate and exist unencumbered on the Meta platforms.” Field Ethos added, “Our concerns have been taken seriously.”
The platform has a long track record of censoring gun content, including in November, when Facebook suddenly suspended firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson’s page just before Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Back in June 2023, Instagram suppressed The Blaze TV hostess Sara Gonzales for posts of herself at a gun range. In July, Instagram restricted the account of Paralympic shooter McKenna Geer.
Field Ethos encouraged victims of Meta’s censorship to reach out to the company for help in reversing the censorship. “If you are a firearms/optics/ammo hunting company and your account is de-platformed, feel free to reach out to us so we can assist in having your account reviewed and restored in a timely manner.”
The statement concluded, “As for ‘shadow banning,’ repairing algorithm censorship is in progress and we can all expect to see improvement in this area through Q1 and Q2 this year.”
Meta has promised a new trajectory going forward, and MRC President Brent Bozell has encouraged the platform in this, calling it “a giant step toward helping to grow freedom everywhere.”
Nevertheless, there are over 50 gun-related Meta censorship cases logged in MRC’s unique CensorTrack database. Find them others listed and linked below:
‘Kyle Rittenhouse’ Facebook Search Results
Virginia Citizens Defense League
Conservatives are under attack. Contact Facebook headquarters at (650) 308-7300 and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “misinformation” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
