The social media company that declared Kyle Rittenhouses’s actions in Kenosha, Wisc., during anti-police protests as “mass murder” and severely limited any search results on the Illinois teenager has reversed itself.
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, told Fox Business that “After the verdict in Kenosha, we rolled back the restrictions we had in place that limited search results from returning content related to key terms including Kyle Rittenhouse.”
The spokesman added, “While we will still remove content that celebrates the death of the individuals killed in Kenosha, we will no longer remove content containing praise or support of Rittenhouse.”
The decision reverses a policy that Facebook put in place two days after the shooting. At the time, the company described the incident as a “mass murder” and that under “standard practice” the platform would remove praise and support of Rittenhouse and block searches for his name. Users could still discuss Rittenhouse and his trial in neutral or negative tones while the restrictions were in effect.
Asked whether the company regrets its initial characterization of the incident in light of Rittenhouse’s acquittal, Stone declined to comment. Stone also didn’t immediately respond to questions about whether the platform intends to review its policies.
They removed content that “praised” Rittenhouse but allowed content that condemned him? How is it that one company with hundreds of millions of users can wield that much influence and power?
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board called the Rittenhouse policy an “alarming resort to censorship” and said Facebook had threatened Rittenhouse’s right to due process.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) echoed similar sentiments just hours after a jury announced it had found Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts.
“Big Tech think they’re above the law,” Hawley, a vocal critic of social media giants, told Fox Business. “They made up their minds on this case months ago, sought to deny Kyle Rittenhouse the presumption of innocence and censored those who disagreed.”
Since their heart is in the “right place” — the radical left “right place” — they can do just about anything they wish. Theirs is a consequence-free existence where mistakes — even mistakes that could destroy an innocent person’s life — are disappeared down the left-wing memory hole, never to see the light of day again.
Facebook was wrong. They were wrong to censor content, wrong to characterize the tragedy as “mass murder,” and wrong not to carry out a serious, complete, and thorough internal investigation about the impact their policies had on an innocent person’s life.
Not that it matters at this point.
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