Facebook-owned site Instagram removed a post by wounded Army veteran Omar Avila featuring a picture of Avila with Donald Trump Jr. for allegedly violating the social media platform’s guidelines.
In a post to his own Instagram page, Donald Trump Jr. recently claimed that Instagram removed a post by his friend Omar Avila, an Army veteran who lost his right leg and suffered third and fourth-degree burns across 75 percent of his body. Avila is now an avid hunter and second amendment advocate who met Trump Jr. at an NRA show where they took a photo together. Shortly after Avila posted this photo, it was allegedly removed by Instagram for violating the site’s terms of service.
“INSTAGRAM IS AT IT AGAIN WITH THEIR BIAS DELETING POSTS,” wrote Donald Trump Jr. in his post on Instagram. Trump Jr. further defended Avila in his post and included a screenshot of the removal notice that Instagram sent to Avila:
[This] time the deleted my friend @crispy11b’s post that was simply a post of him and I catching up at the NRA show. There was nothing harsh or political in there and as usual it magically somehow “violated @Instagram standards”, presumably because I’m in it and that’s too much for the social media gods in California.
Omar aka Crispy is a vet severely wounded in conflict who has undergone I believe over 100 surgeries to fix the damage done. He’s been a vocal supporter of other wounded vets and an inspiration to so many because despite everything he manages to live his life to the fullest. His adventures often documented right here are amazing and I’ve never once seen anything but an incredible attitude towards life despite the obvious difficulties.
This man is amazing and he should not be censored, in fact we would be better off as a nation with many more with his attitude, demeanor, and patriotism. I suggest you give him a follow. The bullshit has to stop. If Instagram can censor a hero like this who the hell won’t they suppress??? #america#hero#censorship
The full post by Trump Jr. can be seen below:
Breitbart News spoke with Omar Avila, known as “Crispy,” and asked Avila about the removal of his photo. Avila stated that he met Trump Jr. at the NRA event and took the photo, posting it to his profile where he rarely discusses politics outside of second amendment issues; Avila then traveled home: “and when I got off the airplane, y’know it’s like everybody, I opened up my stuff, I was looking at my account and I noticed it had been taken down and I got that little screenshot you get that says that your post violated Instagram guidelines. Again, I don’t know why, it had nothing on it that was political or that said anything derogatory.”
Breitbart News asked Avila if he regularly faces censorship from social media website to which he replied: “a lot of my stuff gets taken down all the time because I’m a hunter, I shoot guns and that, but I’ve never really been a real big political guy on my page but for some reason that got flagged and got taken down, but I reposted it.” Avila has since posted another version of the same photo featuring Trump Jr. which still remains active on his account.
Breitbart News asked Avila how he feels about social media censorship in general, to which he replied: “I would just love if they let everybody express themselves and not really target one side, I do understand looking for hateful messages and things that both sides would agree shouldn’t be on social media when it’s hateful and targeting one side, but for them just to come after one side and delete our stuff, it’s unfair. I understand it’s their platform and they can do what they please, I’m just somebody using their platform, but keep it fair and let people speak their mind, this is America, we’re lucky to be in this country and have free speech and they’re violating those rights and taking it away from us. I don’t think they should have the power to do that.”
Breitbart News reached out to Instagram for comment but has yet to receive an explanation for the deletion of Avila’s post.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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