The Kyle Rittenhouse trial is wrapping up, but before it had even begun, leftists in Silicon Valley had already decided that Rittenhouse was guilty — of something.
For the “crime” of defending himself against violent rioters who were captured on video trying to assault him, Facebook instituted a ban on any statements defending the teenager.
Over a year old, the ban is still in place on both Facebook and Instagram and is even catching GOP Senate candidates like Josh Mandel in its net.
Facebook says supporting Rittenhouse violates its guidelines on “violence or dangerous organizations.”
In this Aug. 26, 2020, photo released by the Antioch Police Department is Kyle Rittenhouse in Antioch, Ill. Rittenhouse is accused of killing two protesters days after Jacob Blake was shot by police in Kenosha, Wis. (Antioch Police Department via AP)
But as we’ve come to expect from Big Tech’s far-left censorship machine, there isn’t even the pretense of effort to apply the standards evenly or fairly. Note that expressing support for Antifa and Black Lives Matter, the groups that started the violence in Kenosha and in many other American cities that summer, is still allowed on the platform.
In fact, if you express disagreement with the far-left, racist, pro-violence, pro-looting movement inside Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg himself will reprimand you.
There’s also no Facebook ban on supporting Rittenhouse’s weapon-wielding assailants, or the assailants who attempted to grab his gun, including convicted child molester Joseph Rosenbaum.
While it seems to have relaxed its enforcement, Twitter implemented similar policies shortly after the Kenosha riot, suspending users — including journalists — for expressing support for Rittenhouse.
Like Facebook, Twitter implemented no such ban on expressing support for the rioters, or for Rittenhouse’s assailants. In fact, as Breitbart News reported at the time, Twitter allowed looters to use its platform to coordinate criminal behavior during the summer riots.
If Silicon Valley leftists had their way, Rittenhouse wouldn’t be able to raise money for his legal fees either. GoFundMe banned all fundraisers in support of the teenager shortly after the Kenosha riot.
A Christian-owned fundraising platform stepped in to fill the void — and was promptly hacked by leftists, who the media characterized as “transparency activists” as they published people’s private transaction histories.
Naturally, Twitter didn’t use its “hacked materials” policy to stop the spread of the hacked information (the excuse they used to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story).
Far from banning support for left-wing criminality and violence, including deadly violence (the riots claimed dozens of lives), Big Tech platforms suppress their victims.
After a member of the conservative organization Patriot Prayer was murdered in cold blood by an Antifa supporter in Portland, Oregon, Facebook responded not by banning Antifa, but by banning Patriot Prayer. The examples are endless.
In the case of the Rittenhouse trial, bans on support for Rittenhouse serve another purpose. They prevent his advocates from defending him in the court of public opinion, a court which — thanks to the left and the establishment media — is now more important than ever.
Because they face no opposition, rabid leftists on the platform, including Antifa and Black Lives Matter supporters who are allowed to run rampant despite their consistent support for violence and looting, face no opposition. Their smears of Rittenhouse (and the presiding judge) grow ever more deranged. They are convinced that Rittenhouse is guilty, and no one is allowed to convince them otherwise.
As such, they are more likely to lose their minds if Rittenhouse is found innocent. And, again, these are people who are fond of rioting. Thus does Facebook’s biased, lopsided enforcement of its “anti-violence” rules lay the ground for more violence.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.