Robby Starbuck
Case #
4717

Instagram censors Robby Starbuck post about Balenciaga: Conservative podcast host Robby Starbuck was censored by Instagram when he made a post about Balenciaga. Starbuck had posted an image showing a post he had made on another platform featuring an image from a Balenciaga ad and an image from Google Translate, with text reading "You know how Balenciaga had warning tape in one of their ads spelling their name BAALENCIAGA? A friend just pointed out that if you separate those words in Latin to Baal enci aga then it translates to Baal is the king. Baal is a demon. Pure evil." Instagram placed a fact-check interstitial over the post, labeling it "False Information." The interstitial linked to an article by Lead Stories that detailed some information leading to a conclusion that the Google Translate function had a bug in it that led to a faulty translation. However, what Starbuck posted came directly out of Google Translate, so it was not necessarily his post that was false, but rather Google Translate's results. Instagram placed the interstitial over Starbuck's post to limit engagement with it, thus censoring his post that was reporting what Google Translate provided. According to Facebook, Instagram's sister-company, users fail to click through fact-check interstitials 95% of the time.

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