The National Rifle Association (NRA) has launched a scathing attack on Meta, the tech behemoth, accusing it of "election interference."
This follows Meta's decision to clamp down on social media posts that it classified as "false information" concerning Vice President Kamala Harris.
According to Fox News, the NRA, a staunch advocate for gun rights, had previously criticized Harris for her liberal stance on gun control. This is a position she has since tried to distance herself from in her role as the Democratic presidential nominee. On September 18, the NRA highlighted a 2007 video of Harris, who was then serving as San Francisco's District Attorney, where she took a hard line on the city's campaign against handguns.
"Just because you legally possess a gun in the sanctity of your locked home doesn't mean that we're got going to walk into that home and check to see if you're being responsible," Harris stated in the video.
The NRA added captions to the video, stating, "Kamala Harris will seize your legally owned guns," and "Kamala Harris wants mass gun confiscation, and shes willing to weaponize the government to enter your home and seize your legally owned gun."
However, on September 24, both Instagram and Facebook, platforms owned by Meta, flagged the post as "false information." Users were informed by disclaimers that "independent fact-checkers" had found no factual basis for the information in the post. Both disclaimers directed users to an article by FactCheck.org, an organization that collaborates with Facebook to debunk misinformation on social media.
FactCheck.org's article stated, "During the 2020 presidential race, then-Sen. Kamala Harris came out in support of a mandatory buyback program for so-called assault weapons. As the current Democratic nominee for president, Harris continues to support a ban on purchasing certain semiautomatic weapons. But her campaign told us she is no longer advocating that Americans be required to give up weapons that they had legally purchased."
The article also quoted Harris from the presidential debate saying, "Were not taking anybodys guns away," and accused the NRA of "misrepresenting" her current stance on firearms.
Another NRA post on Instagram, which claimed "All Kamala Harris knows about guns is that she wants to ban them," was also flagged for "missing context." The post included a video of Harris' heated discussion about universal background checks during an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists.
Randy Kovuch, executive director of the NRA's lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), expressed his concern to Fox News Digital. He stated, "In the precious few weeks left before the election, the NRAs ability to reach key audiences is crucial. Efforts by left-wing organizations like FactCheck.org that exploit Metas rules to throttle key messaging from groups like the NRA become their own information operation and come uncomfortably close to election interference."
Kovuch further added, "Given Metas self-admitted record of censoring certain viewpoints, we would hope they wouldnt allow their platform to be manipulated once again. The American people deserve to understand what is truly at risk with regard to their right to keep and bear arms in this election."
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