Facebook Fails to Silence Smith & Wesson

Big Tech Censorship is alive and well.

One can always count on social media to carry out the regime's anti-American agenda.

Social media giant Facebook has long been a thorn in the side of gun owners ever since Donald Trump was first elected in 2016. Since that period, Big Tech has taken it upon itself to become the private enforcement arm of the managerial state. In effect, Big Tech companies have functioned as Pinkerton-style law enforcement agencies who do the regime’s dirty work of censoring any individuals or organizations who voice explicitly right-wing views on issues ranging from immigration to gun rights.

Facebook’s privatized tyranny was on full display when the social media giant indefinitely suspended the account of legendary firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson on Nov. 22, 2024. Smith & Wesson was founded by gunmakers Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson by 1852 and has remained one of the U.S.’ flagship gun manufacturers. Smith & Wesson has a large social media following with over 1.6 million users. Facebook’s act of censorship against Smith & Wesson was not by accident and was certainly done to send a message.

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On Nov. 27, the prominent gunmaker posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, about its censorship ordeal:

Despite our extensive efforts and resources spent on trying to adhere to Facebook’s ever-changing community guidelines on firearms, our account was suspended indefinitely on Friday, November 22nd, 15 years after its original creation.

The gunmaker posted the notification Facebook sent them on Nov. 22, which stated, “We suspended your Page.” As usual, the social media giant did not provide any warning for the suspension beforehand.

Smith & Wesson later praised X on this platform:

In an era where free speech and the right to bear arms are under constant attack, we want to thank Elon Musk and X for supporting free speech and our constitutional rights guaranteed by the 1st and 2nd Amendments.

The social media platform alluded to posts promoting gun sales as the reason why it ended up suspending Smith & Wesson, despite the gunmaker making it a point to abide by Facebook’s guidelines for licensed firearms retailers. Curiously, the suspension was later rescinded by Meta, Facebook’s parent company. Meta described the move as a “mistake”.

Although Smith & Wesson’s account was restored on Facebook, its latest censorship ordeal underscores the perpetual threat Big Tech poses to foundational American civil liberties such as the Second Amendment. Trump's first administration saw Big Tech go on a crusade against not only pro-gun websites but any gun-related content regardless of it having a political message or not.

Back in 2020, Karl Kasarda, the founder of YouTube channel InRange TV informed Fox News his channel “was wiped without warning in early 2018.” Kasarda minced no words about Big Tech’s frightening control of political speech on social media:

“The issue of oligarchical control over the Internet and all the impact over the ability to use it for free speech is going to only get worse.” At the time, Kasarda made a reference to the “big five” — Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube — as the principal culprits behind digital censorship aimed at the Second Amendment community and similar right-wing groups.

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“It is unclear what the rules are,” Kasarda stated. “Specifically, with YouTube, they pretty much enforce whatever they feel based on their bias of the day. Regardless of your personal belief, firearms and their accessories are legal in the United States. So why are we seeing continuing restrictions and challenges towards content about something demonstrably legal yet not against that which is clearly illegal?”

In the waning months of 2020, Facebook and Instagram censored international hunting agency Hunting Consortium by not letting users share specific links to the hunting website on its platform or through Facebook Messenger.

“The Hunting Consortium, (@huntingconsortium) has recently fallen victim to the censorship issue that has been plaguing the hunting community for some time now,” said Vice President of the Hunting Consortium Rob Kern. “In July, we experienced a censorship issue greater than anything we, or any of the experts we have talked to, have encountered.”

Kern claims roughly between 1,000 and 1,500 photos were removed from the hunting agency’s Facebook page. Furthermore, the links to the hunting agency’s website were also banned.

“Our URL www.huntcon.com has been banned on both Instagram and Facebook, to include Instagram messenger and Facebook messenger,” Kern recounted.

At the time, Facebook users couldn’t share content posted on the Hunting Consortium’s Facebook page. Kern claimed the Hunting Consortium was not allowed to comment, like, or share on other posts on Instagram.

While Smith & Wesson can breathe a sigh of relief knowing they can resume their daily activity on Facebook, the threat of Big Tech censorship is alive and well. If anything, Facebook likely used this brief suspension as a way to gauge people’s response to blatant acts of censorship. From there, Big Tech apparatchiks can calibrate their attacks against online speech.

Social media is the new public square where millions of people exchange ideas on a daily basis. Due to the proliferation of information disseminated on these platforms, any kind of censorship taking place on social media not only muzzles people’s ability to spread ideas, but it also could deprive them of their livelihoods as many individuals and organizations use social media to make money.

To be sure, companies like Facebook may be private, but by virtue of the functions they exercise, they now have as much power as governments worldwide. The private versus public sector dichotomy that most conservatives have used in the past simply does not apply in this situation. It’s an outdated standard for analyzing politics and ignores the ways the enemies of civilization operate in the current year.

Because it’s very difficult for anti-gun forces to pass direct gun control measures through governmental measures, they have recently turned to the private sector to execute their freedom-trampling agenda. We can expect more Big Tech-style censorship to take place with a Republican trifecta at the federal level. Anti-gunners know all too well their gun control schemes will be dead on arrival in Congress. So, they’ll use private sector actors to do their dirty work.

Republican leaders could do the right thing by passing an Internet Bill of Rights protecting all peaceful speech online from private and governmental forms of censorship. For that to occur, conservative elected officials will need to break out of their pro-business trance and start prudentially using state power on behalf of their pro-gun constituencies.

Breaking the shackles of the failed ideology of conservatism is the first step towards restoring political freedom

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