By: José Niño

A Facebook page belonging to a pro-Second Amendment group in Utah was shut down after the social media platform announced it would take down accounts that allegedly incited violence.

Utah Citizens’ Alarm was among the thousands of groups closed down after the social media platform rolled out its “anti-violence” policies. The Utah pro-Second Amendment group was formed in the wake of protests against police misconduct and has positioned itself as a pro-law enforcement group in a time when law enforcement across the nation is being assaulted by radical leftist mobs.

Facebook took its thought-controlling policies to the next level on August 26, 2020 when it revealed that it will remove or restrict pages that it views as a public safety threat, but that don’t constitute a higher standard for a complete removal from the platform.

Utah Citizens’ Alarm founder Casey Robertson criticized Facebook’s course of action, insisting that his group did not promote violence.

“Facebook seems to be confused about the difference between the constitutional right to bear arms and a propensity for and inclination toward violence,” Robertson said in a statement.

Robertson stated that the group backs First Amendment rights and is vehemently against violence during political demonstrations. Utah Citizens’ Alarm has plans to continue operating its website following Facebook’s decision to take down its page and those belonging to its administrators “without warning and seemingly without any recourse,” Robertson said.

“This isn’t going to stop us. Not even close,” he continued. “It’s going to just make us stronger.”

In Facebook’s announcement from last week, the social media giant said it would clamp down on more pages. According to Deseret News, Facebook expanded the category to “include pages celebrating violent acts, those showing they have weapons and suggesting they will use them, or pages with specific followers who have patterns of violent behavior.”

The 21st century has witnessed the development of social media platforms that have become some of the most effective media for consensus-building in matters relating to public opinion. In addition, they possess a degree of soft power, whereby elites can use these platforms to shut out any type of discourse that goes against the ruling class’ narratives. Any type of organization that casts the Second Amendment in a positive light will likely be on top of the social media thought-controllers’ hit list.

Gun organizations would be wise to develop their own email lists and newsletters as a means of sustaining their operations. Based on social media platforms’ behavior, Second Amendment advocacy may no longer be fruitful there as in previous years. Oftentimes, politics requires us to adapt. And failure to do so will likely lead to stagnation and decline. Being aware that social media titans are no friends of the Second Amendment is the first step in adapting to this new political reality.