{"id":245545,"date":"2021-11-14T08:45:32","date_gmt":"2021-11-14T08:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=245545"},"modified":"2021-11-15T09:02:52","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T09:02:52","slug":"social-media-companies-suppressed-claims-of-kyle-rittenhouses-innocence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=245545","title":{"rendered":"Social Media Companies Suppressed Claims of Kyle Rittenhouse\u2019s Innocence"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Santi Ruiz \u2013 Washington Free Beacon Nov 11, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Social media platforms rendered a verdict on Kyle Rittenhouse long before he went to trial, suppressing claims that he was innocent and blocking users from searching for details of the case.<\/p>\n<p>Immediately after the anti-police riots that thrust Rittenhouse into the national spotlight, social media companies began to block users who expressed support for the Illinois teen. Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/tech\/2020\/08\/30\/journalist-cassandra-fairbanks-suspended-from-twitter-over-kyle-rittenhouse-support\/\">suspended<\/a> the accounts of users who called Rittenhouse innocent, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-8689559\/Kyle-Rittenhouses-lawyer-plans-sue-Twitter-account-blocked.html\">including<\/a> the defendant&#8217;s own lawyer. Facebook said it &#8220;designated this shooting as a mass murder and \u2026 removed the shooter\u2019s accounts from Facebook and Instagram.&#8221; The platform also blocked searches for &#8220;Kyle Rittenhouse.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Social media platforms often intervene to suppress posts expressing a particular stance on controversial issues. Both platforms <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/poll-majority-of-americans-say-big-tech-censorship-of-hunter-laptop-story-interfered-with-election\/\">censored<\/a> news stories about Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop in the month before the 2020 election. Facebook blocked a Gold Star mother\u2019s criticism of President Joe Biden and suppressed a song that criticized the president. Twitter and Facebook also suspended users who oppose vaccine mandates.<\/p>\n<p>The fundraising platform GoFundMe also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2020\/aug\/27\/kyle-rittenhouse-gofundme-campaigns-removed\/\">removed<\/a> a page set up to support Rittenhouse, which the company said violated its ban on fundraisers involving &#8220;the legal defense of alleged crimes associated with hate, violence, harassment, bullying, discrimination, terrorism, or intolerance.&#8221; GoFundMe supported fundraising for the family of one of Rittenhouse\u2019s assailants, Anthony Huber. The site regularly hosts fundraisers for individuals associated with Black Lives Matter. \u200b<\/p>\n<p>When smaller platforms began raising funds for Rittenhouse, hackers breached the donation lists. News outlets <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2021\/apr\/16\/us-police-officers-public-officials-crowdfunding-website-data-breach\">doxxed<\/a> paramedics and police officers who gave small donations to Rittenhouse\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n<p>Twitter is still <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FruitBowlPsycho\/status\/1455843325584429056?s=20\">banning<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FireForEffect2\/status\/1458397571840348164?s=20\">suspending<\/a> users for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LPNH\/status\/1457821248780750855?s=20\">supporting<\/a> Rittenhouse, even as the trial proceeds. Facebook searches for Rittenhouse\u2019s name turn up no results. Neither platform responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Rittenhouse faces six charges, including two counts of homicide, after shooting three men who attacked him during last August\u2019s anti-police riots in Kenosha, Wis. His murder trial began on Nov. 1. His defense hopes that videos that show rioters assaulting Rittenhouse will bolster his self-defense claim.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/media\/social-media-companies-suppressed-claims-of-kyle-rittenhouses-innocence\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twitter suspended the accounts of users who called Rittenhouse innocent, including the defendant&#8217;s own lawyer. While Facebook blocked searches for &#8220;Kyle Rittenhouse.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":245547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-controlling-the-news-andor-the-free-exchange-of-ideas-and-information","category-The_Media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=245545"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245548,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245545\/revisions\/245548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/245547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=245545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=245545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=245545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}