OpinionBy Larry Keane
Vincent Hancock did it again. The 35-year-old won the Men’s Skeet Olympic gold medal, breaking a wildly-impressive 58 out of 60 clay targets and edging out his fellow teammate, competitor and student, Connor Prince, by just one shot.
Hancock became a four-time Olympic gold champion in his sport, having previously earned Olympic gold medals in 2008, 2012, and 2021. He is the only skeet shooter to take home an Olympic gold medal more than once.
That should earn him some accolades. Maybe something like a Google-doodle. Don’t count on it, though. The Big Tech overlords celebrated in a much more sinister fashion. Meta shut him down. No Facebook. No Instagram. No celebrations of American shooting gold.
Big Tech Poor Sports
Just last week, NSSF highlighted the Big Tech bias against the USA Shooting, when YouTube and Meta shadow-banned McKenna Geer, a Paralympic shooter who will represent Team USA in Paris for the 2024 Paralympics.
“I have always feared the day the media would censor my sport and speech just because I use firearms,” Greer wrote on Instagram after her account was blocked. “That day has finally come.”
Geer even wrote that athletes like her in the shooting sports rely in social media to spread the word not just about their sport but also about firearm safety.
That wasn’t good enough for Meta. Just the News reported, “According to the Instagram notification, Geer’s account and the three flagged posts are not recommended to non-followers.
‘Your account and content won’t appear in places like Explore, Search, Suggested Users, Reels, and Feed Recommendations,’ the Instagram notification reads. The notification also tells Geer to consider editing her profile and either edit or remove the flagged posts. Geer said her Instagram account says that she ‘should have the option to appeal the decision,’ but the button to appeal it doesn’t work.”
NSSF isn’t alone in noting Big Tech’s silent treatment of the shooting sports. Tim Rupli authored an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal noting that Meta is censoring Olympic athletes. He quoted Kelly Reisdorf, USA Shooting’s CEO saying, “By silencing an athlete’s voice, you infringe not only on their freedom of expression but subtly on their right to bear arms as well, as these platforms are critical for educating and sharing the legitimate and safe use of firearms in sport.”
Target: Shooting Sports
Now, Hancock is getting similar treatment. It’s not that Hancock’s achievements aren’t noteworthy. Hancock joined an elite group of U.S. Olympians when he broke his final clay and clinched his most recent gold medal.
USA Shooting celebrated the achievement, noting in a press release that, “Hancock, of Eatonton, Georgia, is now the sixth Olympian ever to win four gold medals in the same event, joining Al Oerter (USA, discus), Paul Elvstrom (Denmark, sailing one-person class), Carl Lewis (USA, long jump), Michael Phelps (USA, 200m individual medley), and Mijain Lopez (Cuba, Greco-Roman heavyweight). He is the first shooting Olympian to accomplish this feat.”
Hancock is one of the most decorated shooting sports competitors of all time. He’s brough home 29 medals from a variety of world competitions, including the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2012 London Olympics, 2020 Tokyo Olympics and now the 2024 Paris Olympics. That’s on top his medal-worthy performances at the World Championships, Pan American Games and World Cup Finals. He’s a U.S. Army veteran, having served with the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit.
USA Shooting also noted that the first-and-second place finishes from Hancock and Prince also marked another “first” for the U.S. Olympic team.
“Hancock and Prince’s double podium marks the first time the U.S. has earned more than one medal in Men’s Skeet at an Olympic Games,” USA Shooting’s press release stated. “The was also the first time more than one U.S. athlete competed in an Olympic Men’s Skeet final.”
Hancock’s fourth Olympic gold medal was celebrated by The Guardian, a notoriously antigun United Kingdom publication. NPR – no friend to lawful firearm ownership – also headlined his achievement. ESPN, with its own antigun bias, also praise the victory.
Meta, instead gave Hancock their own salute. It was the same one they gave Geer just weeks ago.
“Your account and content won’t appear in places like Explore, Search, Suggested Users, Reels, and Feed Recommendations,” his Instagram page reads.
Meta and Google got the media spotlight treatment after they wrongly claimed that photos of former President Donald Trump raising his fist in the moments after an assassination attempt were “being marked as digitally altered” and censored. When they got caught in that censorship scheme, they quickly beat feet to reverse their policy, admitting that incorrect fact checks were being applied to the now-famous photo.
“Facebook has just admitted that it wrongly censored the Trump ‘attempted assassination photo,’ and got caught. Same thing for Google,” Fox News reported that former President Trump wrote on his proprietary social media platform Truth Social. “They made it virtually impossible to find pictures or anything about this heinous act. Both are facing BIG BACKLASH OVER CENSORSHIP CLAIMS.”
Big Tech Bias
NSSF has steadfastly held that Big Tech and social media giants hold hostile attitudes toward the lawful use of firearms. They’ve defunded YouTube channels and censored small businesses, even when ads didn’t have anything to do with firearms.
The firearm and ammunition industry has more than a few instances of documented antigun bias by social media companies. There’s a love-hate relationship with the social media platforms. They’ve become so ubiquitous that it’s nearly impossible to reach customers without them. NSSF has argued they’ve become the virtual public square, where people from every walk of life can not only see pictures and videos of friends and family but express ideas, debate topics, and participate in civic discourse. That is, of course, if they’re allowed.
Olympic athletes like Hancock, Prince, and Geer have taken their sport to the world stage and show what safe and responsible firearm ownership looks like. They demonstrate a competitive spirit, the ethos of Olympic competition, and the American values for respect of rights and freedom.
They just can’t talk about it on their social media platforms.
About The National Shooting Sports Foundation
NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org
I thought shotguns were liberal approved. Was it Dementia Joe that said fire two rounds wildly in the air to scare off an imaginary noise he heard from his porch.
Liberals…
don’t forget kommie-la’s newly appointed v.p. nominee No Balz proudly posing with a shotgun.
are we expecting his social media be shadow banned?
The Secret Service had to hide his shotgun because he kept doing that inside the house.
I’m no longer a fan of the Olympics but will watch trap, skeet and biathlon when they are broadcast. I also donate to USA Shooting every year. If you can spare a couple bucks, think about sending it their way. I think of it as both an advocacy for our sport and a spit in the eye of the IOC. usashooting.org .
Excellent idea.
When social media accounts don’t honor the rights of people it’s time to not honor thier crap either . META and Google are both POS that need some serious over sight or just removed from the web permanantly . Give them the same treatment they give people who partake in shooting sports . They don’t like guns and freedom I do not like them or thier Marxist bullshit .
Google was recently found guilty of monopoly practices and hopefully will be split up. With any luck, META won’t be far behind.
Unfortunately the 1st amendment only applies to government censorship. I would dump You Tube if it wasn’t so darn helpful and entertaining. Therein lies the problem, they seem to have a monopoly on internet video content.
I slept Utube on my phone , they can eat shit as they are not that important in my life .
I didn’t watch the Olympics for the first time in my life.
Thank you LGBTQIA+ABC communist mob for destroying another pillar of our lives.
The United States did very well and earned 126 medals — 40 gold, 44 silver and 42 bronze.
The Olympics were worthless when the US sent the dream team more than once to compete.
It’s supposed to be amateur games.
Fטck the Olympics. And Fטck every politician and ceo that has allowed any form of censorship.
I say a prayer every night before bed that I’ll wake up to news that a bunch of those CEO’s and Politicians have been been deprived of breathing permanently.
Cry me a river. People have complained about Facebook censorship for years, but will they delete their accounts and move to another platform? Oh no, “All my friends are on Facebook!” If everyone with grievances against Facebook would delete their accounts and move to another social media platform, Facebook would soon be bankrupt and all your friends would be on those other platforms. It’s that simple.
When is 230 protection going to be removed from these companies so we can sue the fטck out of them.
Make those companies bankrupt.
Kudos to Mr Hancock and Ms Greer. I hope “C” will adequately cover shooting sports.
Meta et all can go suck an egg! If anyone wants to advertise on them, they won’t reach me.
Oh, wait a minute!!! I’m not the demographic they want to reach.
Silly me!
Big Tech is now running or will soon run everything! Control Communication, control everything, including Government.
Big Tech, oligarchs in every respect.
got an “awaiting for approval”.
doesn’t make sense in any fashion; my comment needing approval or their “awaiting for approval”. someone needs to go back to english class. and i wasn’t even that good at english.
just sent emails to rubio and scott and gimenez to see if they can do anything about this censorship.
Look at the last name at who was the front person for Fakebook, which was previously just a .gov program called lifelog. It ends in “berg”. Nothing improves till you understand the poisonous subversion of jews.
Huh?
You’re an !diot