As summer heated up, so did Big Tech censorship.
This past July was rife with online censorship. X and Facebook censored those attempting to report on criminal activity and expose child predators. Instagram additionally suppressed a firearms account, Google's Blogger deplatformed a Catholic Blog of 17 years and TikTok targeted a Jewish Substack page.
Below are the worst instances of censorship in July from MRC’s unique CensorTrack database.
Google's Blogger shut down a Catholic blog for nearly two weeks. Google's Blogger platform deplatformed the Italian language blog Messa in Latino (Mass in Latin), after hosting the blog for 17 years. Google asserted that Messa in Latino committed a “Hate Speech policy” violation, per a screenshot, although the blog was restored after 12 days. Blogger claimed, “Your blog titled 'MiL - Messainlatino.it' was flagged to us for review. We have determined that it violates our guidelines and have made the URL... unavailable to blog readers.” While Google did not specify which content was allegedly hateful, Messa In Latino's July 23 blog post announcing its return to the platform speculated that Blogger objected to Catholic teaching on homosexual “marriage” and abortion. The author wrote, “Crime, felony, murder, and anyone who aborts or causes an abortion is a murderer, a criminal, and a delinquent and deserves the expected automatic excommunication and risks burning in hell. Is that enough hate speech for you?”
X put a warning message on journalist Andy Ngo's post about an accused “transgender” criminal. X censored Ngo’s July 10 post updating his followers about “A Portland trans activist named Adam Matthew Lansky” who attacked a Tesla store earlier this year. Ngo had been posting about and following the story since the attack in February. “Federal liberal Oregon judge Stacie F. Beckerman has ordered that Trantifa firebomber and shooting suspect be released from jail ahead of trial,” Ngo wrote in his July post, according to screenshots he shared. “The DOJ appealed but a second liberal judge… sided with the first judge. Adam ‘Allison’ Lanksy will be released.” Ngo included a link to a post he created in March explaining what happened. The screenshot Ngo shared showed that X notified him that it “put a warning message on these posts because they might have sensitive content - like nudity, sexual content, violence, gore, or hateful symbols.” Users have to click through such sensitive content interstitials to view the content. Similar filters have been shown to reduce user interaction with the content.
X Community Notes labeled a post highlighting a hormone replacement treatment. On July 7, Libs of TikTok posted a video captioned, “HOLY SHLIT: Received from a follower. A clinic across the street from Brink Junior High (@MoorePublicSch) in Oklahoma has a large sign advertising Hormone Replacement Therapy. WTF[.] Parents- BEWARE.” On July 9, X notified Libs of TikTok’s followers that the platform had added a Community Note claiming, “This is an OB/GYN practice that also specializes in anti-aging treatments and hormone replacement therapy. HRT is widely used to treat perimenopause and menopause symptoms; testosterone pellets are also used in women or men who suffer from low T.” Facebook likewise removed Disclose.tv’s video, “NEW - Men in string thongs 'dance' in front of primary school-aged children: Shocking 'pole dance performance' in Berlin, Germany." Facebook claimed a violation of “community standards against child sexual abuse,” but after a review later restored the post.
X age restricted a UK politician who highlighted the issue of rape gangs. Conservative Member of Parliament Katie Lam posted July 27, “The British state won’t protect children from mass gang rape. But it will ‘protect’ adults from hearing about it.” She provided a screenshot of her original X post, which included a label that read: “Due to local laws, we are temporarily restricting access to this content until X estimates your age.” The notice appeared attached to an X post thread she created back in April. In her post, she wrote, “The Government rejected a national inquiry into rape gangs and promised five local ones instead. Months later, we still know almost nothing about them. Victims, survivors and the British public deserve better. They deserve justice. Please be aware, some of this is graphic.” The thread also included a video in which she gave an account of multiple times the British government failed to protect abused children.
Instagram suppressed informational gun content. Instagram search suppressed TN Pickers, a firearms account operated by Chris Gomez. Users searching for TN Pickers using Instagram's search feature must write out the full username in order to find the account. Partial search terms would not bring it up. Additionally, Gomez posted a screenshot indicating that his account would not be recommended. “Your account can't be shown to non-followers. Your account activity may not follow our Recommendations Guidelines,” Instagram notified him, according to the screenshot. “Your account and content won't appear in places like Explore, Search, Suggested Users, Reels, and Feed Recommendations.” Instagram gave Gomez the option to edit or remove two allegedly violative posts.
TikTok deleted Jewish Onliner’s video criticizing communist China. The Substack Jewish Onliner shared a screenshot on X showing that TikTok “immediately removed” one of its videos. “We got a strike and suspension warning,” Jewish Onliner added. The Substack captioned the video in question, “China is secretly funding activist movements in the U.S. to promote anti-American and anti-Israel narratives that advance its geopolitical agenda. Beijing has embedded itself into U.S. activist groups, using millions to influence narratives and divide American society. This is part of its larger strategy to weaken U.S. stability and security, and reshape global power dynamics. Full details on Jewish Onliner.”
MRC Free Speech America Associate Editor Gabriela Pariseau contributed to this report.
