Ooh, it was an accident they said. Well, to be accurate Instagram’s official response was that the No Kings account becoming inactive at an important point of the No Kings marches yesterday was an “Error.” I call bullshit. Like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg who owns FB/Meta and it’s derivative Instagram doesn’t want Democrats regaining power and regulating social media. Or limiting the explosion in Data Center construction. The third No Kings event on Saturday Oct. 17 was about more than protesting. It had a specific goal of mobilizing early in-person voting. So yes, I have NO doubt that Zuckerberg ordered throwing sand in the gears.
There are multiple articles about just what happened and I fervently want to see Democrats politically roasting Zuckerberg on a spit, hopefully in not just House hearings but the Senate too. Under freaking oath. Make him perjure himself because there have been some folks who have worked for him who developed a spine and come forward with evidence of what he’s said and ordered be done behind the scenes. So just what happened yesterday? Let’s start with Newsweek’s article which led with the basic facts – that for about 90 minutes yesterday the No Kings coalition main account on Instagram was suspended. This is what they and users saw:
That’s not all Instagram did to interfere with an event that was focusing on getting people to vote early – in person. What makes this even more sleazy is Instagram telling users ‘Sorry. It’s fixed now’ when it actually wasn’t:
The problem is that while users could again log in to the No Kings page, the organizers who were working with rallies around the country to coordinate could NOT:
Even after the page became public, organizers said they remained unable to access the account’s backend for roughly four hours, preventing them from posting or communicating with their network.
“This suspension deprived the movement of a crucial platform right as communities were joyfully and nonviolently mobilizing,” a representative for “No Kings” told Newsweek on Saturday via email. “We cannot post or communicate with our network, meaning Meta is still actively depriving us of our platform at a critical time.”
Zuckerberg and his minions can serve up this mealy-mouth crap but I say what he set in motion was specific voter suppression. Even the dumbest of MAGA goobers knows why. Like Musk and other ‘tech bros’ Zuckerberg doesn’t want Democrats to regain power as I said in the opening paragraph. He can Musk aren’t just obscenely rich, they own the two largest and most influential social media platforms. Musk is mostly throwing hundreds of millions to GOP candidates, mostly in Texas. Zuckerberg is, as he has done in the past using a social media platform he owns/controls to manipulate, or in this case suppress voters.
In another article, in this case by Mediate we hear directly from organizer Ezra Levin:
Organizer Ezra Levin told Meidas Touch, “In the middle of that joyful experience at the protest locally, I got word from my team that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta had suspended the Instagram account for the No Kings Coalition. They suspended it. We didn’t have access to it. We couldn’t post to it. Nobody could go to the page. That was for about an hour-and-a-half, during the height of the mobilization while people were still getting their No Kings protests together. As I talk to you, there are people still pulling their No Kings protests together, but we can’t access the account now.”
He wasn’t done explaining the magnitude of Zuckerberg’s/Instagram’s f***ery:
You can go to it publicly now, but we can’t post, and despite us trying to get back access to it while these mobilizations are going on, the No Kings Coalition has no access to the back end of that account. Look, this is strikingly reminiscent of what we saw in Brazil just this week. A court ruled against Meta for favoring the authoritarians in that country. And we might be seeing something similar from Meta in our country right now, but rest assured, we’re not going to stop organizing against this regime.
🚨 EXCLUSIVE: No Kings organizer Ezra Levin is SOUNDING THE ALARM after Meta suspended the movement’s Instagram account during massive nationwide protests.
LEVIN: “This is strikingly reminiscent of what we saw in Brazil… We might be seeing something similar from Meta in our… pic.twitter.com/B5QW2QCEpH
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) October 17, 2026
Instagram’s ‘Oops. Our system wasn’t supposed to do that because No Kings meets community standards. Sorry guys’ is one sorry-assed and totally insincere apology. It’s actually pure, unadulterated bullshit. It’s not like yesterdays No Kings event popped up out of the blue! It’s been known for months, and millions of people around the country were, in some 3000 (as it turned out) places were accessing No King’s site to get information on rallies close to them, or get assistance in setting one up and so on. Everyone including Zuckerberg saw how huge the first two were.
What made this one different is that early voting is underway in so many states and yesterdays was more than gathering with others to give voice to their desire to see once again a government that is responsive to the wants and needs of the people as a whole, and not just a small handful of uber-rich a-holes. Knowing how furiously Trump has tried, and will continue to screw with mail-in voting there was a specific purpose to get folks to vote early. In person.
The more who do so the less ammunition Trump has to cast doubt on the validity of the election. A major push for in-person early voting also has the benefit of minimizing the so-called ‘Red Mirage’ in which because some states (most notably Pennsylvania) count voting day ballots first and traditionally more Republicans vote in person and on election day early returns suggest they will win. Once ALL the votes are counted their early leads go away. Not that Democrats haven’t suffered in a similar way. In states where early mail-in ballots are processed as soon as they come in, once the polls close on election day they are counted first. In swing and red states that first dump of votes heavily favors Democrats but it’s known that as election night progresses the in person voting on election day may (and often does) wipe out the early lead.
In any case what I’m seeing early on in the early voting process the numbers are up and in some cases (such as North Carolina where I live) by a lot. Again, since it’s in person voting there will be less mail-in ballots for Trump operatives in election offices to challenge. Or just throw in the dumpster. I for one believe in some places they will have a list of names of Democratic voters (thanks to information provided by Zuckerberg and Musk from posts on their platforms) are tasked with doing just that.
Being disabled and still recovering from what happened to me during the summer I’d like to once again vote by mail. However the goddamned Trumpism that’s been injected into the system has convinced me I will have to endure a long, difficult day casting my vote in person. Although I live in a country where Democrats are in charge it’s also where the state Capitol with our viciously gerrymandered GOP supermajority is located. So, this year I don’t trust my vote will be counted unless I complete it at the polling station and feed it into the scanner myself.
I know I’m not alone in thinking that way. Not this election. That’s why the organizing and encouraging early, in-person voting at yesterday’s No Kings rallies was so important. Zuckerberg knew this too. That’s why he interfered. He’d never be convicted but I think he and Instagram site should be dragged through the legal not mud but shiite from the sewer under Trump’s fake gold toilet.
Vote. In person if you can. And get others to vote. If each Democrat or Democrat leaning Independent can get at least one, preferably two people who weren’t going to bother doing so to cast their vote to put Democrats back in power it WILL wind up making a difference. In the meantime I will, multiple times every day say “Mark Zuckerberg – go F**K yourself. Sideways. With a giant roll of barbed wire smeared with feces and toxic waste. And when you’re done, do it again! And again and again!”
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
