Hawkeye Reporter

In recent years, the Hunting Consortium has found itself in the crosshairs of social media giants Facebook and Instagram who seem intent on banning the group and its supporters from their online platforms. 

The international hunting organization has seen hunting images banned from its social media platforms and has fought back on its website and with petitions against the censorship.  

“The Hunting Consortium has recently fallen victim to the censorship issue that has been plaguing the hunting community for some time now,” Rob Kern, vice president of the Hunting Consortium, said in a statement on the group’s website. “In July (2020), we experienced a censorship issue greater than anything we, or any of the experts we have talked to, have encountered.”

Kern noted on the website that more than 1,000 images were purged from the organization’s Facebook page last year. He also said the website address has been targeted on Facebook and Instagram. 

“Our URL www.huntcon.com has been banned on both Instagram and Facebook, to include Instagram messenger and Facebook messenger,” Kern said. 

Kern also said that hunting enthusiasts have been targeted on social media platforms for years, citing incidents as far back as 2014. 

“We have suffered a devastating blow with this censorship and have been in touch daily with some of the biggest hunting organizations and advocacy groups in the world,” Kern said. “We will not take this lying down and will fight to have Facebook and Instagram remove the censorship of our page.”

For its part, Facebook has established Community Standards on its website detailing what it terms “objectionable content.” The social media giant has noted that pictures of animals will be removed if the images do not have any value with regard to the manufacturing, hunting, consumption, processing or preparation of game. 

Facebook also noted that images that show wounds and internal parts of animals will be removed if there is no clear context with manufacturing, hunting, taxidermy, treatment or rescue or food consumption, preparation or processing. It also said it prohibits images of skinned animals. 

Meanwhile, Outdoor Life reported that Nosler Inc. maintains that Instagram features filters that may limit content that it deems potentially upsetting or offensive. The website reported that seemingly simple posts can end up flagged as offensive and removed. 

To step up its efforts against censorship, the Safari Club International sent a letter last fall to Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg requesting information regarding the restrictions on the Hunting Consortium’s page. The letter requested an explanation for the restrictions and sought to have the deleted images and posts restored. There is no evidence that this has happened.