The technocratic overlords who run Meta, and whoever else is in the pocket of the U.S. government, the deep state, or otherwise affixed via Operation Mockingbird, have truly jumped the shark. The other day when I was searching for my own work here at Bearing Arms via a search engine, I could not find the piece. That multi-colored logo did not deliver, even when I put the full title of the piece into the search. It actually happened again with another article. Alphapet Inc. is not the only company that’s putting the clamp down on searches they find disagreeable. I got a ping the other day about a search in a Meta property that did not go according to plan.

My friends over at News2A.com were doing some research for an article that they were working on. Much like many journalists, leaning on social media for details or information gathering, News2A was cruising Facebook. Just lurking in some solid 2A pages will provide a luscious amount of fodder to look into following up on. In this particular instance, they got an angry notification after trying to execute their search.

In the search bar were entered the words “Gun shop.” What they were following or trying to get at, I have no idea. But what popped up after that was the following notification:

Are you sure you want to continue?

The term you searched for is sometimes associated with the private sale of firearms, which isn’t allowed on Facebook.

They were given two options: “Continue” or “Go to News Feed.”

I’m having a hard time with Facebook’s claims here. “Gun shop” is quite the contrary to what they’re claiming. A gun shop is somewhere that an individual would normally go for a non-private sale of a firearm. A federally licensed dealer. Facebook wags their finger, making sure that everyone knows that you can’t buy or sell guns on Facebook. No la dee da.

When the News2A co-editor doubled down and smashed the “Continue” button, he was greeted with another pop-up warning.

This search may be associated with the sale of firearms

The private sale of firearms can cause harm and is illegal in most countries.

When people don’t follow our Community Standards, we sometimes restrict or disable their account.

What kind of gibberish warning is this? The search they were doing clearly is associated with the sale of firearms. Just not through Facebook, nor their little network. Calm down Meta, you’re being used as the Yellow Pages, grow up.

The second claim is just laughable, “The private sale of firearms can cause harm and is illegal in most countries.” There’s mother-may-I Meta just assuming that “Gun shop” means private sale, again. Beyond that, who cares what countries the practice is illegal in. Whoa. And, what harm can a legal private sale lead to anyway?

When I read the tertiary warning, I really did not know what to think. In this instance, is Facebook threatening to restrict or disable the News2A account because they’re doing a search? The veiled language has the smell of a North Jersey pork store on it, as if the butcher is in there wagging a bloody cleaver at someone while simply trying to “make a point.”

There were two options again. The return to sender, “Go to News Feed.” Or let’s see what’s in the box, “See Results Anyway.”

Guess what our friends did. They tripled down. Why the heck not? At this juncture, who knew what was going to be at the end of the tunnel. What was next? Another warning! The Meta equivalent to Homeland Security’s “See something, say something” campaign. We want you to rat out your fellow man!

If you see the private sale of firearms, please report it.

We remove content that doesn’t follow our Community Standards.

Spoiler alert, Facebook removes content that doesn’t follow their standards. Or doesn’t fit the narrative. Or hasn’t been fed to them by their handlers. Or talks crap about election fraud. Or, you get the idea.

The only option they were given was to hit the button that said “See How to Report.” A real button of broken glass.

I don’t know if our friends over at News2A.com found what they were looking for, but I’m gathering they found something more. A grim reminder that we live in a hoplophobic control state when it comes to internet freedoms. The internet used to be a bastion of liberty and freedom.

Those who could navigate the world wide web had the keys to a digital wild west. Now we’re living in that weird period in the history of the movie “E.T.” from 2002 to 2012, when the guns were edited out. #Truth. Guns got edited back into the movie eventually. When will firearms get edited back into social media by the graces of our technocratic overlords?

This is just another one of those sad stories that should make you shake your head. There are many out there like this, but this is just the latest. Sadly, it won’t be the last. It’s a disgusting state of affairs when just doing a search for a term will return such a result.