Congressman Gonzalez Seeks Answers from Meta Over Recent Shadow-Bans of Team USA’s Olympic and Paralympic Athletes’ Social Media Accounts

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last evening, Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34) sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., outlining concerns over the platform shadow-banning athletes’ accounts for their shooting related sports content. These include the censorship of Team USA Olympic and Paralympic athletes – Conner Prince and Vincent Hancook, Olympic Men’s Skeet and McKenna Geer, Paralympic Para Shooting.   

The letter states, “As the leading social media platform, you are a leader in how content is regulated and by which standards to abide by. It troubles me that if there is multiple reporting in this one specific matter, there could be many unreported cases in which your company’s algorithm is unjustly  taking away individuals' abilities to communicate on their chosen platforms. Therefore, I urge you to lift the shadow-bans on sports-related posts.” 

Furthermore, Congressman Gonzalez urges Meta to answer specific questions on the company’s content guidelines and appeal process.  

The full letter is available here. 

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