Green Party presidential hopeful Jill Stein recently had her Instagram account suspended by Meta, the parent company responsible for Instagram and Facebook. While Meta eventually overturned its decision earlier this week, it was not before Stein rallied hundreds of supporters to sign a petition opposing the company’s decision.
News of the suspension was initially reported as being in response to a video Stein posted as part of her initial campaign announcement. While Stein only just recently declared the launch of her campaign, she stated on social media that she would be seeking the Green Party presidential nomination for a third time earlier this month. Included in that original announcement were a series of videos featuring Stein, including one remarking on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, where she implied that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had engaged in war crimes.
“I want to speak to the massacre now taking place before our eyes in Gaza,” Stein wrote along with her video. “We call for an investigation of the Netanyahu regime’s war crimes as well as the role of Biden and US leaders in aiding and abetting them. And above all, these crimes must stop now.”
Stein’s Instagram account, which she initially created after losing access to her original account used during her previous campaign, and also where she shared her recent campaign videos, was suspended in the following days. Additionally, her separate, older campaign account was also disabled.
“After refusing to help me regain access to my @instagram account drjillstein, @Meta disabled my new account, claiming it violates rules on “account integrity & authentic identity,” Stein wrote on social media platform X following her suspension, “All your info will be permanently deleted. You cannot request another review.”
Following what happened, independent media outlets reported that her suspension resulted from her comments regarding Netanyahu and war crimes. For instance, Press TV, an international independent media organization headquartered in Tehran, described her suspension as having resulted from “criticism of Israel.”
However, Stein offered a more detailed explanation, describing a situation where Meta presumed her account for the current presidential election cycle was fraudulent and left her with no options for recourse. During this time, she urged her supporters to sign a petition hosted on her campaign site, where she further explained that Meta disabled her Instagram account, citing that they claimed she was pretending to be Jill Stein.
“Giant tech corporation Meta has disabled the Instagram account of Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein for allegedly violating rules on “account integrity and authentic identity” that prohibit users from “creating content that pretends to speak for a public figure, like a politician. In short, Meta is shutting down Jill Stein’s Instagram account because they claim she’s pretending to be Jill Stein,” her statement read.
“Meta made this decision without any apparent attempt to verify that the account is Jill’s. Not only that, it comes just days after Jill contacted Meta support asking for help regaining access to her old account @drjillstein, which Meta refused to do.”
While the exact number of signatures Stein gathered is unknown, she did accumulate at least 1,250, which is what she initially sought to do.
This past Tuesday, however, Stein had her suspension overturned and access restored to both accounts. In a follow-up post on X, Stein wrote that Meta unlocked her original account and thanked her supporters for signing the campaign’s petition. Meta has issued no statement or formal response to what happened.
https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/1727470209282257281
Editorial note: The above piece has been edited on 11/24/2023 to remove a duplicate paragraph regarding Jill Stein’s more recent Instagram account.
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