Tammy Nichols
Case #
5612

Instagram censors Senator Tammy Nichols: Idaho state Senator Tammy Nichols posted a picture of a headline on Instagram, which said, “State of Washington Passes Bill Allowing Government to Take Minor Children Away from Parents if They Refuse to Agree to Gender Transition Surgery.” In her caption, Nichols said, “Neighboring state…pure evil.” However, Instagram obscured the headline with a fact-check label. The label read, “False information. The same information was reviewed by independent fact-checkers in another post. See why.” Clicking “See why” provided links to one article from Lead Stories and another from Associated Press News. Lead Stories claimed that “there are no provisions in the legislation (SB 5599) for children to be removed from the household if their parents refuse to agree to gender-affirming surgery for them.” Associated Press said, “The legislation, Senate Bill 5599, is designed to ensure shelter for teenagers who are seeking reproductive health services or gender-affirming care and, for example, were kicked out by their parents.” Both articles focus on custody issues and state that the bill does not address custody battles over gender surgery. Yet the headline which Nichols posted never mentioned custody issues. Instead, the headline revealed that minors are allowed to be kept separated from their parents if the parents refuse gender transition surgery. The Associated Press later admitted that “the bill would also allow youths to stay at host homes, which are private homes that volunteer to temporarily house young people without parental permission.” This actually ended up supporting the claim of the headline Nichol posted.

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