Tulsi Gabbard's Claims of Shadow Banning on Instagram Raise Concerns Over Free Speech and Tech Influence
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore/CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr Former Congresswoman from Hawaii, Tulsi Gabbard, has recently taken to social media to express her concerns about being shadow banned on Meta's Instagram platform. Shadow banning, a practice where a user's content is made less visible to others without their knowledge, has ignited debates around free speech, the power of tech companies, and the influence of mainstream media. Gabbard's allegations come in the form of screenshots, showcasing warning messages that appear when users mention her in their posts. These warnings suggest that Gabbard's account has "repeatedly posted false information," yet fail to provide specific instances or evidence of such "misinformation." This situation has led her to criticize what she calls an "authoritarian trend," raising the question of whether influential voices are being suppressed under the guise of combating misinformation. The former Congresswom