U.S. competitive shooter McKenna Geer, who recently qualified for the U.S. team heading to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in August, had her account restricted on Instagram by Meta last week for what the company described as sharing content that “impedes our ability to foster safer communities.”
Three of Geer’s Instagram posts were flagged, with pictures that simply show the talented Paralympic athlete, who uses a wheelchair, with her rifle in competition.
Screenshots that Geer shared on Instagram explain the egregious censorship and restrictions by Meta, stating, “This content can’t be recommended to non-followers. Consider editing or removing this post. Content that follows our Recommendations Guidelines could get you more reach.”
Geer, who is from Arlington, Washington, will make her third Paralympic appearance at the upcoming Paris 2024 Games and is slated to compete in three events: R4 Mixed 10m Air Rifle Standing SH2, R5 Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH2 and R9 Mixed 50m Rifle Prone SH2. She previously competed at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics and the Rio 2016 Paralympics, picking up a bronze medal in the R5 event at the latter. In Rio, Geer became the first U.S. woman Paralympic athlete in history to capture a Paralympic medal in shooting, also marking the fifth Paralympic medal ever for a U.S. athlete in a shooting event at the time.
On her Instagram page, Geer said about the censorship, “I have always feared the day the media would censor my sport and speech just because I use firearms … That day has finally come.”
She added, “This sport is life-changing because of its ability to unite both able-bodied and disabled athletes, young and old, foreign and domestic. [My fellow athletes and I] rely on our social media accounts to spread the word about our sport, firearm safety, build our personal brand, and connect with potential sponsors. Many of us (myself included) are either not paid or paid very little for our involvement in this sport. Our social media presence can often be the avenue that pays for us to continue competing.”
Meta and Instagram’s technology has flagged my competition firearm as something that ‘impedes our [Meta’s] ability to foster a safe community’ as stated in an email to both myself and USA Shooting as we attempted to lift the restrictions on my Instagram account. I am unable to appeal the decisions, and our contacts give us no other avenue to have this situation rectified.”
What’s even more tragic about this turn of events is the fact that Geer uses her social media access to help change the lives of other people with disabilities, just as hers was changed by competitive shooting. She is a mentor that the next generation of kids can look up to and show them all that life has to offer.
Just The News reported that in an effort to resolve the disputed posts with Instagram, USA Shooting’s communication team, “contacted Meta, the parent company of Instagram, which responded this week via email … posts that include regulated goods are not allowed on our platforms under any circumstances, even if they are non-threatening in nature.”
Meta also noted in emails to USA Shooting that Geer is unable to appeal the Instagram restrictions.
In an interview with Ted Nugent on Real America’s Voice, USA Shooting CEO Kelly Reisdorf said, “It’s a real problem. We have the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games coming soon, and McKenna Geer qualified for the U.S. Paralympic Team in Peru last weekend. She went to Instagram to post for her fans and her sponsors, and she was flagged by Meta. We escalated it and company reps told us her content impeded on their ability to create safer communities.”
As of today, Tuesday, July 23, the restrictions have not been lifted on McKenna Geer’s Instagram page.
Shooting Sports USA will continue to report on this story as it develops.
