Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
The folks over at Open Source Defense have a fascinating column by former Facebook engineering manager Chuck Rossi on the new social media policies at Facebook and subsidiary Instagram that target influencers who create gun-related “branded content.” Rossi says the move by the tech giant is a “significant change” for the companies, because they’re not just going after ads for firearms (which have been banned on the platform for several years), but are now cracking down on organically created content.
The key will be to understand if this new restriction applies only to people who have an Instagram business account or use the Instagram Brand Collaborations tool. This would seem to be the only way to fairly enforce a restriction like this. If the enforcement goes beyond those areas, we’re looking at a situation where you, as a user of the platform, cannot create content that states “I think this pistol is a great beginner gun and I think it’s what you should get if you’re interested in getting into the shooting sports”. Implementing a policy like this would be exceedingly difficult and would introduce more errors and user frustration in an area that is already having issues with fairness and bias.
For a couple of years during his time at Facebook, Rossi says he tried to create fair and transparent rules for users of the platforms, especially for gun owners, gun stores, firearms manufacturers, and others associated with lawful gun culture. Rossi says it’s become clear that, while Second Amendment supporters haven’t been totally silenced, it’s clear that some large issues exist for gun owners on Facebook and Instagram.
Rossi also notes the punitive nature of the policies in place, as well as the “weak to no-support” offered to individuals who are incorrectly flagged for a post or comment.
When I asked for your thoughts on what to do about the new content crackdown from Facebook and Instagram, I mostly heard variations on the theme of “we need to start something new/we need to quit using Facebook.” Rossi says that’s counter-productive, and he advises gun owners and Second Amendment supporters to “live in the public square and not be pushed off into the corners.”
First off, we should know the details and nuances of the policies. Hopefully this article helps on the Facebook and Instagram side, but sites like YouTube are notoriously vague when it comes to understanding the details of what’s allowed. Use their support infrastructure.
Second, we should always be appealing, always be escalating. Use the appeal flows offered by the platforms, use online searches to find the appeal flows that are hidden or might not be obvious, reach out to your followers, and reach out to anyone you know who works at these companies. Failing that, talk to your representatives in government, framing the issue as a consumer protection crisis, not a Second Amendment issue.
As Rossi correctly points out, if “your cable company, phone company, utility company, or virtually any other consumer service did this at the scale the social platforms do, it would be a national crisis.” Why should Facebook get a pass just because it’s a social media platform?
There are too many great paragraphs in Rossi’s column to quote here, so be sure to visit OSD and read the entire column for yourself. I’ll be reaching out to Rossi and hope to have him on “Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co.” when shows return on December 30.
Cam Edwards has covered the 2nd Amendment for more than 15 years as a broadcast and online journalist, as well as the co-author of "Heavy Lifting: Grow Up, Get a Job, Start a Family, and Other Manly Advice" with Jim Geraghty. He lives outside of Farmville, Virginia with his family. https://bearingarms.com/author/camedwards/