How Big Tech Continues To Undermine the 2nd Amendment

We all know the ‘usual suspects’ when it comes to gun rights debates: gun rights organizations like the NRA and Gun Owners for America, gun control organizations like Everytown for Gun Safety and The Brady Campaign, and countless politicians and activists who we always see arguing back-and-forth on the news.

But there’s another ‘faction’ that often flies under the radar in regards to gun rights despite playing a very large role in the debate. You see, one of the biggest threats to the 2nd Amendment may not be the progressive policy makers or the activities who go marching down the streets clamoring for stricter gun control laws. Rather, the biggest threat may be something that’s attempting to undermine the 2A behind the scenes. 

You guessed it: big tech.

There’s no question that the Big 5 tech companies (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft) wield an unprecedented amount of power in today’s world when it comes to things like controlling the flow of information on social media and search engines, as well as e-commerce.

As we’ll soon see, this isn’t some tinfoil hat theory either. We’re talking about everything from shadow bans to throttled reaches to add restrictions to restrictions on selling anything firearm-related on mainstream platforms to (in the most extreme circumstances) complete deplatforming. And while they’re at it, they’re collecting heaps of your personal data too. Have you ever wondered where all that data ends up?

So what’s really going on here? That’s precisely what we are going to discuss today.

Shadow Bans and Deplatforming: How Big Tech Suppresses Pro-Gun Voices

Have you ever tried posting something related to guns (such as sharing a review of a firearm or posting to a pro-gun group or posting links to e-commerce sites that sell gun-related components) only to wake up and see that your post(s) have vanished and your account has flagged?

If so, you’re hardly the only person who has. 

And here’s the thing: it’s not a glitch. Big Tech isn’t just sitting on the sidelines of the gun control debate. They’re active participants in it, and they’ve made no secret about what side that they are on. 

Sure, Big Tech companies like to preach about how much in favor of neutrality and freedom of speech they are. But their actions speak largely otherwise, and it’s both everyday people and even those who are more accomplished in the gun world who get targeted. 

Look no further than McKenna Geer, who’s a shooter representing Team USA in the Paralympics (a series of multinational sports events involving athletes who have disabilities). In 2024, Meta flagged a photo Geer posted of the rifle that she used to qualify for the Paralympic Games because they claimed it violated their guidelines, and they subsequently put her on a censorship list as well. One would think that a person like Geer should be celebrated rather than censored, and let alone just for posting an image of her rifle. 

Then there’s the case of famous gun YouTuber Hickok45, who currently has nearly eight million subscribers, who also in 2024 announced that up to 95% of his videos were made inaccessible due to a change in YouTube policies that no longer allowed sponsorship from companies involved in either firearms or firearms-related accessories. 

These two examples, among many others, go to show the stringent actions that Big Tech companies have taken against firearm creators and pro-gun 

What Are Shadow Banning and Deplatforming?

What is a shadow ban, exactly? Basically, it’s when a social media company removes content you’ve posted or created (or otherwise takes action to make your account more difficult to access), and not because it’s bad or violated the Terms of Service or anything but just because they decided that they didn’t like it. 

You don’t get notified that the content was removed or receive any kind of explanation. Instead, you just get radio silence from the social media companies. 

This is exactly what happened to Hickok45, who saw his videos become restricted overnight without an explanation from YouTube. It’s also what happens to countless other creators and everyday people who report having their reach to viewers and subscribers mysteriously plummet on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. 

In more extreme circumstances, some creators don’t just get suppressed. They get erased entirely. This is called deplatforming, and it happens to 2A activists way more often than it should. 

It’s also not only creators and individuals on social media who are bearing the brunt of this either…

Choking the Marketplace: E-Commerce Restrictions on Firearms

If you thought that Big Tech’s grip stopped at silencing or removing social media conversations, you should think again.

Besides trying to control what we say and put out on social media, they’re also working to control what gun owners can buy and sell. It’s become more difficult for individuals and businesses alike in the firearms industry to do business with one another due largely to payment processors, e-commerce platforms, and app stores throwing up roadblock after roadblock that has made it much harder for law-abiding gun owners to buy and sell firearms and accessories, at least online. 

This has happened in the following ways:

• Advertising Restrictions
   

  • Several Big Tech companies (like Facebook, Google, and Instagram) have practically rolled their eyes at anything that is even remotely gun-related. Do you want to promote a new gun or a new accessory like a Sorry, no can do. The ad policies of these companies ban anything that they even remotely perceive as ‘promoting the sale of weapons.’ This also sometimes goes for companies that offer firearms safety training or non-lethal self-defense tools.
     

• E-Commerce Restrictions
   

  • Selling firearms on major e-commerce platforms like Amazon or eBay is already a no-go, but beyond that, it can also be an uphill battle to sell things like scopes or firearms components.
     

• Payment Processing Restrictions
   

  • It doesn’t stop there. Payment processors (like Stripe or PayPal) are notorious for their anti-gun policies. If you’re a business that is involved in selling anything remotely related to firearms, for instance, you’re not going to be able to utilize mainstream payment processing options. 

The result of all of this is simply a choked marketplace. The only question is: where does this end?

Do 

Let’s talk one more thing that should really have your attention as a gun owner: how Big Tech is collecting and making use of your data…and how that information could one day perhaps be used to target you. 

This isn’t some vague paranoia because there are clear examples that should make this a very real issue for anyone who cares about their 2nd Amendment rights. 

For example, did you know that major credit card companies (like Visa and Mastercard) have been working to implement a merchant category code (MCC) for any gun-related purchases?

While the official reason for this is to ‘track suspicious activity,’ it also flags gun transactions separately from other transactions. In other words, it creates a digital paper trail of all of your gun-related spending. What if that data were to be handed over to Big Tech companies or to government agencies?

The big picture here is this: Big Tech isn’t just collecting data here and there about you. They’re collecting information that could be used to build a profile about you and all of your purchasing habits when it comes to firearms. If this information were to be handed over to the government, it would be very easy for them to deduce what kinds of firearms and firearm-related accessories that you own at home. 

Conclusion

All of this is about more than just censoring people, even though that’s already bad enough. It’s also about trying to control the narrative to try to influence the views of the public, and specifically those who may be less knowledgeable about firearms.

But on the flip side of things, the more it gets about how Big Tech companies are working to suppress and throttle pro-gun voices online, the more it could backfire on them as well. That’s because it’s definitely been noticed