Big Tech is generally quick to censor anything firearm related, look no further than YouTube and Facebook to see what I mean. TikTok, the Chinese spyware on everyone’s phones, is now joining the fold of companies looking to punish those who openly express their 2nd Amendment rights.
The bans we are seeing from TikTok appear to be part of a larger push by the company to shut down TikToks that feature firearms and users that frequently show firearms on their accounts. Among those who recently received bans was US Olympian Lanny Barnes aka Lanny Oakley.
The message that Barnes received from TikTok read “Your account was permanently banned due to multiple violations of our Community Guidelines.”
In response to the ban Lanny Oakley took to Facebook to vent her frustration. Lanny said “Thanks @tiktok . Just motivation to try harder to be more inspiring to others in real life and not just on social media. To motivate and push people to live their dreams, set goals and be the best they can be.”
Talk about the winner’s mentality, this is a grade a classy response from Oakley and what we should expect from an Olympic athlete.
What Lanny Oakley is experiencing is more common than you would think. As mentioned previously, multiple big tech platforms are pushing to cancel Second Amendment content and firearms content.
For the liberals working in these industries this is about reinforcing the narrative that firearms are taboo and should be considered an “adult” topic. They are able to do this because they equate showing a firearm on social media to “promoting violence”.
Many of the big name creators on YouTube know to avoid specific things when handling firearms in their videos. It would seem that on the YouTube platform specifically there is a problem with disassembling firearms, custom ammunition(or irregular ammunition), and videos showing “unsafe” firearm practices. Playing with these different topics in videos is a quick way to end up in trouble with the tech tyrants.
As for community guidelines, many creators have to make assumptions about what they can and can not post. The no-go topics we listed for YouTube are not clear rules set by the company, this is all assumed based on what videos get demonetized and removed by the platform. This isn’t just YouTube though, TikTok, Facebook, as well as Instagram all engage in similar practices.
On TikTok for instance, Lanny Oakley made no threats of violence and did not simulate any violent acts but still got hit with the ban hammer for allegedly promoting violence. None of Oakley’s content promoted violence, most of her videos on the platform consisted of target shooting(as you might expect from an Olympic shooter).
The trouble 2A world is running into with big tech platforms is a major problem and one with no clear solution. There is a long battle ahead for gun owners in America and we can only take things one step at a time.
