On Aug. 25, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse shot three rioters in self-defense in Kenosha, Wisconsin. But several weeks later, social media giants like Facebook and Twitter are teaming up to silence his supporters, like John Pierce, the teen's own attorney, and Mark Dice, a conservative commentator.
Now, where's the justice in that?
The truth about Kyle
Kyle Rittenhouse hails from Antioch, Illinois. Pictures and video interviews on the day of the incident show Rittenhouse cleaning up graffiti before the shooting and protecting a car dealership.
Car dealerships were being burned and targeted in the days prior to the shootings.
A glimpse at his mother’s Facebook page shows photos of the teen in what looks like a police cadet uniform and a firefighter’s uniform. A picture shows the teenager and his mother, with the words, “We Back the Blue” and a heart-shaped American flag with a thin blue line flag in it.
Another photo shows Rittenhouse taking part in a program for youths interested in law enforcement. The teen also allegedly joined in a cadet program through the Antioch Fire Department and the Grayslake Police Department. Reports also suggest that Rittenhouse worked as a YMCA lifeguard.
In 2018, the teen started a Facebook fundraiser for Humanizing the Badge, a nonprofit, to “forge stronger relationships between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve.”
Silencing support for Rittenhouse
Rittenhouse acted in self-defense, but both social media giants Facebook and Twitter have declared the teen guilty of “mass murder.” However, while video and court records show that Rittenhouse shot and killed two criminals and wounded a third person, Facebook and Twitter are banning users from speaking up in defense of Rittenhouse.
Social media users are also not allowed to show videos that depict the teen in a favorable light, even if they don't show the shootings. The users banned by the two social media giants include Pierce and Dice.
Both Facebook and Twitter claim that Pierce and Dice's posts defending Rittenhouse violate policies that forbid praising or glorifying “mass murder.”
But this is problematic for two reasons:
- Lin Wood, the attorney who helped put together Rittenhouse’s legal team, has “flatly declared” the Twitter notice “defamation.” Wood has already threatened to sue over Twitter's brief suspension of his account.
- Both platforms seem to have no problem letting users create or share content that glorifies actual mass-murderers like Charles Manson and Mao Tse-tung.
Using his Twitter account, Pierce showed his support for Rittenhouse, tweeting, “Kyle Rittenhouse will go down in American history alongside that brave unknown patriot at Lexington Green who fired 'The Shot Heard Round The World' on April 19th, 1775.”
Twitter censors then limited some features on Pierce's account. Wood then tweeted a screen capture of the warning Pierce received, which reads, “What happened? We have determined that this account violated the Twitter rules. Specifically, for:
1. Violating our rules against glorifying violence. We prohibit content that condones or celebrates acts of violence that could promote imitation of the act. We also prohibit the glorification of mass murderers or genocides when protected categories have been the primary target or victims. Glorifying the perpetrators of such violence is also prohibited.”
The implications are clear: Twitter assumes that Rittenhouse is guilty of mass murder and that his "victims" belonged to “protected categories.” Unbeknownst to Twitter users, convicted sex-offenders and domestic abusers also belong to these “protected categories.”
https://twitter.com/LLinWood/status/1301411353425444865
Meanwhile, Dice was censored for a harmless Facebook post. The same video, which is still available on Dice's Twitter account, only shows Rittenhouse helping an injured woman.
In a screen capture of Dice's Facebook post, the commentator wrote, “Newly uncovered video of Kyle Rittenhouse shows him helping an injured protester after she was struck in the foot with a projectile.”
Dice continued, “In another video he told the cameraman that he brought a medical kit, which is the bag he was carrying. Further proving he had no malicious intent by showing up. In fact, he was there to help anyone who needed it.”
Facebook also deemed the post was against its “standards,” with a warning that began, “Our standards on dangerous individuals and organizations....”
The Facebook warning continued, “We don’t allow symbols, praise or support of dangerous individuals or organizations on Facebook.
We define dangerous as things like:
- Terrorist activity
- Organized hate or violence
- Mass or serial murder
- Human trafficking
- Criminal or harmful activity”
According to the Facebook warning, Dice's “page is at risk of being unpublished because of continued community standards violations.”
In response, Wood tweeted that Dice's Facebook account was unjustly being censored in what is a clear instance of “defamation.”
Unlike other users, Wood has a reputation for pursuing legal action against media companies that smear the innocent. The attorney has also threatened to sue Twitter for temporarily suspending his account.
While Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects social-media companies from defamation lawsuits because of what users say about other users, it doesn't protect the companies from a lawsuit due to defamatory claims by its own employees.
Facebook's warning for Dice suggests that Rittenhouse was responsible for a “terrorist” act, “organized hate or violence” and “mass or serial murder.” (Related: Mainstream media is LYING about American hero Kyle Rittenhouse’s act of self-defense.)
Along the same vein, Twitter implied that Pierce’s post “glorifi[ed]” the “perpetrator” of “mass murder.”
Wood has even revealed that despite receiving death threats, he will continue to protect Rittenhouse. In another tweet, Wood showed one of many anonymous death threats wishing harm on him and the teen.
https://twitter.com/LLinWood/status/1301535174866268166
Not walking the talk
Despite the move to censor people showing support for Rittenhouse, it appears that both Facebook and Twitter have no problems when users glorify mass murder. If you search both social media platforms using the names of infamous mass murderers, you'll find countless users who glorify them, along with many pages or accounts doing the same.
Both users and groups on Facebook and Twitter are free to show their admiration for mass murderers such as Fidel Castro, Jeffrey Dahmer, Che Guevara, Charles Manson and his Family and Mao Tse-tung.
It is shocking that Facebook and Twitter don't consider these men as mass murderers while social media users are silenced for supporting Rittenhouse, who only defended himself from rioters.
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