**Update- Since publication, TikTok has magically reinstated both videos, which have been linked below. The public relations team from TikTok has not returned emails to Law Enforcement Today as of this writing.
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UNITED STATES- Law Enforcement Today (LET), which is the largest police-owned media outlet in the country is active with large followings on social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn (until they de-platformed us), and of most recent TikTok.
Within two weeks of starting the TikTok account, the police-supporting media outlet had nearly 80,000 followers. Now, it just had one of its recent TikTok videos shut down for violating the big tech company’s “hateful behavior” community guidelines.
The video that was shut down was of an interview that LET National Spokesman Kyle Reyes originally did nearly four years ago. However, the video could not be more relevant today.
In the video, Reyes was being interviewed about hiring millennial employees and spoke very candidly about the blatant disrespect of an entire generation for law enforcement. He said:
“We’re no longer teaching kids about principles and about our country. We’re teaching them how to be pansies. This is the same freakin’ school that doesn’t assign letter grades to students anymore.”
@lawenforcementtoday Full #video #banned on #linkedin going #viral #cops #vet #police #thinblueline #safespace #crayons #conservative #trump2020 #maga #snowflakes
Reyes added:
“…So we have moved on and instead of being in the day-in-age where we see a horrible tragedy and we learn how to process it and we learn how to deal with it, instead we’re creating safe spaces for these little pansies and giving them therapy dogs and crayons so that they can get through a historic process. It is out of control.”
In the beginning of the interview, Reyes was referencing back to September 11th and being a student during that horrific time, seeing two planes crashing into the Twin Towers in New York City and acknowledging the discomfort but how as a country, America moves forward.
During a time when there is a clear and unprecedented attack on law enforcement across the country, LET posted a clip from the video to TikTok and unsurprisingly, the big tech company shut it down.
According to TikTok’s “hateful behavior” community guidelines:
“TikTok is a diverse and inclusive community that has no tolerance for discrimination. We do not permit content that contains hate speech or involves behavior and we remove it from our platform. We suspect or ban accounts that engage in hate speech violations or which are associated with hate speech off the TikTok platform.”
The big tech company added:
“We define hate speech or behavior as content that attacks, threatens, incites violence against, or otherwise dehumanizes an individual or a group on the basis of the following protected attributes: race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, serious disease, disability, or immigration status.”
Yet, in the video posted by LET, a police-owned media outlet that supports all law enforcement in America, Reyes did not attack, threaten, incite violence or dehumanize; he simply spoke a truth. In fact, it seems that TikTok is the one targeting an entity that supports law enforcement; they are the ones with hateful behavior.
LET had another video shut down on TikTok. This video was of an officer talking about how he stopped a wanted felon and was shot 10 times in 2.8 seconds by that wanted felon. The officer was ambushed and he survived. The caption under the posted video was, “Defend the Police.”
@lawenforcementtodayThe full interview with Dub Gillum is on our website. #thinblueline #bluelivesmatter #copsoftiktok #vetsoftiktok #police #lawenforcement #cops♬ original sound – Law Enforcement Today
In the video, the officer detailed who he was and what had happened, which apparently violated TikTok’s “violent and graphic content” community guidelines:
“TikTok is a platform that celebrates creativity but not shock-value or violence. We do not allow content that is gratuitously shocking, graphic, sadistic, or gruesome or that promotes, normalizes, or glorifies extreme violence or suffering on our platform. When there is a threat to public safety, we suspend or ban the account and when warranted, we will report it to relevant legal authorities.”
Yet, in the video, the officer did not share any type of details that normalized or glorified violence. What he did was speak the truth about what happened to him:
“I stopped wanted felon that night and I had been on patrol eight years, was a field training officer, martial artist, soon to become a firearms instructor, on a waiting list for the governor’s protected detail, I was going to move upward and onward. Trained everyday and ran everyday and I just broke loose of my rookie for six months and I go to nights by myself.”
The officer added:
“And I stopped a reckless vehicle driving 85 in a 55 and he stopped in the middle of the road. I got him to pull off the road, it was about 8:15 at night and so I get out and I had just broke a rookie loose, told him how to do it, how to approach on the driver’s side, the passenger’s side, different tactical ways to do it and I go walking to the vehicle and he rolls down his window and leans out his window, says, ‘what’s the problem officer?’ and shot me 10 times.”
He added:
“10 times in 2.8 seconds. How’d I get shot? I’m an eight year veteran. That’s a long time in law enforcement.”
LET posted these videos to show that there is a blatant disrespect for officers across this country; that there is a war on cops across this country and for that TikTok shut down their videos claiming “hateful behavior” and “violence and graphic content.” This is censorship at its finest.
LinkedIn censors former DHS official – one year after shutting down every Law Enforcement Today page
April 27th, 2021
The following contains editorial content written by a retired Chief of Police and current staff writer for Law Enforcement Today.
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SILICON VALLEY, CA- Big tech’s version of George Orwell’s 1984 continued this week when Microsoft-owned LinkedIn censored a former Department of Homeland Security official’s posts about tech censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election.
Law Enforcement Today, as well as our national spokesman and our founder know all too well about LinkedIn censorship. More on that in a bit.
Stewart Baker said LinkedIn has refused to explain why certain content was removed, but believes it is related to his use of the word “rigged” in describing the 2020 election possibly triggering an algorithm which flagged the post.
Earlier this month, the Daily Mail posted a bombshell report which described the verified contents of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, and describing some of what were referred to as “shocking details” the younger Biden conveniently left out of his recently published memoir, Baker tried to share it.
A former general counsel for the National Security Agency as well as a Department of Homeland Security subcabinet appointee, who now works in private practice, Baker decided to share it on LinkedIn.
In his post, Baker wrote:
“The social media giants that won’t let you say the 2020 election was rigged are the people who did their best to rig it: Hunter Biden laptop was genuine and scandalous—Daily Mail,” Baker wrote while including a link to the story.
Baker’s post did not stay up for very long. LinkedIn informed Baker that the post was removed for violating its “Professional Community Policies,” while warning him that depending on “the severity of the violation, your account may be restricted indefinitely.”
Under the guidelines, LinkedIn vaguely advises that any content “should be professionally relevant and meant to contribute to the LinkedIn community in a constructive manner.” Users are advised to report content deemed “unsafe, untrustworthy or unprofessional.”
Further, the guidelines advise users not to post anything “misleading, fraudulent, obscene, threatening, hateful, defamatory, discriminatory or illegal.”
Baker was shocked his post got flagged.
“I’ve got more than 5,000 contacts on LinkedIn, and I use it in business almost every day,” Baker wrote in a blog post. “Losing my account would be a blow.”
Baker told media sources that in the ten days after LinkedIn first threatened to suspend his account, they still have not told him how exactly his post violated its rules.
“I’ve also been looking for a mechanism to appeal the original suppression, and I haven’t found one,” he wrote in an email.
At Law Enforcement Today¸ we can absolutely relate to Mr. Baker. As the largest police-owned media company in the country, LET publishes stories which impact over 800,000 police officers and other law enforcement officials across the country.
The stories we publish concern areas of law enforcement, public policy and politics, all areas which impact the law enforcement community in one way or another.
Last September, both our national spokesman, Kyle Reyes, as well as our founder, Robert Greenberg, a respected active law enforcement officer were permanently banned from LinkedIn, where both were premium members.
Not only did we see two or our key people banned on LinkedIn, but we have also had our content throttled, or restricted if you will on both Facebook and Twitter.
Why did this happen? We have to believe it has to do with what appears to be a bias on behalf of social media companies against anyone or anything which leans to the right. As a site dedicated to law enforcement, clearly conservatism most accurately describes the overwhelming majority of most of our target audience.
So what happened? Last August 24, Robert Greenberg received communication from LinkedIn advising that his account has been “restricted due to a violation of LinkedIn’s User Agreement,” while then referring to specific content which was apparently deemed false by LinkedIn’s cellar-dwelling, soymilk drinking, liberal fact-checkers.
One story flagged as false was a story I wrote, which was completely sourced, including a government-issued press release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The story dealt with a man, in the country illegally who raped and murdered a 92-year-old woman as she was walking home in New York City.
The murder occurred in January 2020, and the man had been arrested the previous November on weapons and assault charges, however, was released due to New York’s “bail reform” law and sanctuary policies.
Another flagged story involved a story on August 4, 2020, in which another widely reported story, completely sourced from mainstream news sources reported on “unsanctioned ‘murals’ reading ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Defund the Police’ are ok, but the pro-life message apparently wasn’t. Even though it was in chalk. So they’re suing.”
This involved pro-life activists who wrote a pro-life message on the street in Washington, DC in chalk, and who were subsequently arrested and charged.
The writer for this case cited a Fox News report, as well as an interview conducted by Tucker Carlson of those arrested which aired on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Other articles flagged included one where former President Trump expressed the “opinion” that his campaign had been spied on by the Obama Administration after information came forth about former acting attorney general Sally Yates.
Yates said she would not have signed off on surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page if she had the information which came forth showing the information used to get a FISA warrant was knowingly false.
Once again, all of this was widely sourced, the president expressed his opinion and the post got flagged.
Finally, we published an article in which then Senator Kamala Harris said at one time she would confiscate guns through an executive order.
A CNN town hall in Manchester, New Hampshire was cited in which Harris clearly said exactly that. In fact, we made it clear that a meme which was going around suggesting Harris would send police to people’s doors to confiscate guns was NOT included in our reporting.
Robert Greenberg reached out to LinkedIn and spoke to some soy boy named Wyatt, who works as a “LinkedIn Member Safety and Recovery Consultant.” We don’t know if he gets an official badge for that position, but it sounds like a really important position for a millennial.
Wyatt told Greenberg his appeal was denied, and the original decision stood. When asked for clarification, Wyatt told him the account was “restricted permanently.”
And what of Kyle Reyes, our national spokesman?
Reyes didn’t know he was even restricted until he logged on to his account. According to LinkedIn’s publicist, the company claims they advise people when they are going to have restrictions placed on their account and advise the reason why. Reyes didn’t receive that notice.
What ended up happening to Reyes, Greenberg and Law Enforcement Today was that we were basically “shadow banned.” In other words, content that we posted on social media platforms through Hootsuite, such as Facebook, Twitter and Facebook were being throttled—in other words, having our reach significantly restricted.
Initially, after Reyes contacted LinkedIn about the throttling, they removed the restriction. That didn’t last for long and eventually Greenberg, Reyes and LET were banned from posting on LinkedIn.
In claiming that Reyes (and LET) violated their “standards of service,” LinkedIn claimed the “content was not relevant to their audience.” The content DID NOT violate their standards of service. They simply made the editorial decision that the content “wasn’t relevant” to their audience.
One such article cited involved a verified threat against police officers, which LinkedIn apparently didn’t feel was relevant to over 800,000 police officers nationwide. It should be noted that police officers, sheriffs, correctional officers and dispatchers, as well as those who retire from those fields are a significant portion of LinkedIn’s subscribers.
Another case involved an article about a truck driver who was robbed, and about one of the armed robbers subsequently being run over by the truck and killed. LinkedIn claimed the article was “graphic and obscene,” and therefore violated their standards. LinkedIn might want to read up on exactly what cops do because unfortunately, a lot of it is indeed “graphic.”
So what are the standards involving “graphic and obscene” content? It says content is banned “if it INTENDS to shock.” [emphasis added] In the case of this article, the intent wasn’t to shock, but rather to inform and raise awareness about dangers to drivers, in particular truck drivers.
Content such as this was widely distributed and was available on mainstream media outlets, as well as on some social media platforms such as YouTube.”
Sadly, much of the content Law Enforcement Today is “graphic” by nature of the job police officers do. They do respond to crime calls, serious motor vehicle accidents, and shootings. Our audience IS first responders and police officers and those who are interested in what police do on a day-to-day basis.
So yes, we can relate to what LinkedIn is doing to Baker. His post wasn’t politically correct, and was against the preferred narrative of Silicon Valley.
Media sources reached out to LinkedIn to find out what exactly Baker had done to violate their rules. They got pretty much the same answer that Reyes and Greenberg got from them.
Misleading and false information has absolutely no place on our platform,” a spokesperson replied in an email.
“While we can’t comment on the specifics of a member’s account due to our privacy policy, we can confirm that we only remove content if it’s in violation of our policies,” the email continued.
“Every LinkedIn member has the right to a safe, trusted, and professional experience on our platform. We’re committed to making sure conversations remain respectful and professional.”
LinkedIn’s actions against Baker was strangely similar to actions Twitter took against the New York Post prior to the election regarding emails recovered from Biden’s laptop. At that time, aside from deleting posts mentioning the laptop, Twitter also suspended the New York Post’s account for two weeks after the reported some contents of the computer.
Silicon Valley, Democrats and the mainstream media…the unholy alliance of the free speech suppressors.
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