Here is what happens when a Facebook user tries to post a link to the Hunting Consortium.
Big Tech Censors Set Their Sights on Harming the Hunting Community BY CORINNE WEAVER
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ASSISTANT EDITOR AT MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER
ocial media companies, especially Facebook, are targeting the hunting community with censorship, even if hunters don’t break the rules. Censorship is no stranger to the conservatives and others advocating a traditional lifestyle on social media. Former President Donald Trump and his campaign have been assaulted with innumerable instances of censorship. Multiple figures in the media have been suspended, banned, or suppressed in some way online for expressing opinions that the left deems offensive. It’s not just politics: guns, discussion of gender, and even religion are enough to get a user banned from social media. The hunting community falls into this category. Companies that arrange hunting trips, hunters, and hunting enthusiasts have repeatedly been removed, covered up, or suppressed by social media. Even if users adhere to the letter of the community guidelines, it doesn’t seem to matter. The Media Research Center has taken on the job of fighting for free speech online for conservatives. Through CensorTrack, the nonprofit organization provides numerical evidence of online censorship. Facebook attacked The Hunting Consortium, an international hunting agency, by censoring it into a state of paralysis. “The Hunting Consortium, (@huntingconsortium) has recently fallen victim to the censorship issue that has been plaguing the hunting community for some time now,” stated Vice President of the Hunting Consortium Rob Kern. “In July, we experienced a censorship issue greater than anything we, or any of the experts 82 HUNTER'S HORN™ SPRING 2021
we have talked to, have encountered.” According to Kern, between 1,000 and 1,500 photos were removed from the agency’s Facebook page. What is more troubling, however, is how links to the website are treated on Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram Direct Messaging. “Our URL www.huntcon.com has been banned on both Instagram and Facebook, to include Instagram messenger and Facebook Messenger,” he said. The nonprofit Media Research Center reached out to Facebook to intervene on behalf of the Hunting Consortium and was partially successful. However, even though some censorship was addressed, the Hunting Consortium is still under fire today, months later. Facebook refuses to fix the rest of the problem.
HYPOCRITICAL HUNTING CENSORSHIP
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hunts animals, according to his own testimony. In 2011, he admitted to hunting “wild boar” with a bow and arrow. That personal detail does not seem to make Facebook sympathetic to the plight hunters face online. But the Hunting Consortium is not alone. In 2014, Facebook deleted a series of hunting photos from the account of cheerleader Kendall Jones. Later, in 2016, Facebook also reportedly deleted a photo of a man holding up a hammerhead shark that he had caught while fishing. “We remove reported content that promotes poaching of endangered species, the sale of animals for organized fight or content that includes extreme acts of animal abuse,” said a Facebook spokesperson in 2014 to Mashable. However, hunting itself is not poaching, organized fighting, or extreme animal abuse. It seems as if Facebook is interested in removing all photos of hunting, regardless of the settings.
