No Kings Coalition says Meta ‘owes us an explanation’
The No Kings Coalition posted on Instagram on Sunday: “We have regained access to our accounts, but Meta still owes us an explanation. Restricting communications about voting in the middle of an election is unacceptable.”
Organizers said they remained skeptical of Meta’s explanation that high-frequency posting triggered the suspension, noting that members “posted only a handful of times and livestreamed to thousands.”
The account went dark for several hours on Saturday while protests focused on increasing early voter turnout were underway, sparking censorship fears among the coalition leaders behind nationwide pro-democracy protests that have drawn millions of Americans to the streets in recent years.
Meta apologized on Saturday, with spokesperson Andy Stone writing on X that the suspension was caused by an automated action triggered “when accounts post, share or comment at very high frequencies.” “Unfortunately, that automated action was clearly taken in error,” Stone wrote. “Everything is now working as it should and we sincerely apologize.”
Senator Bernie Sanders expressed concern on Sunday, writing on X that “billionaire ownership of the media” had resulted in the suspension of the No Kings account.
Despite the outage, hundreds of planned events continued. At the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, a band played for a few hundred people in caps and coats, many of whom were dancing and holding signs that read “VOTE EARLY” and “HANDS OFF MY VOTE!”
In Atlanta, city councilman Michael Julian Bond told the crowd: “The constitution gives you one power, right? That is the power to vote. Are you gonna use that power?”
On the streets of downtown Los Angeles, protesters carried umbrellas to protect them from the sweltering heat as a band trailed behind them on a rolling stage, the New York Times reported. Crowds cheered calls for abolishing ICE and passing California’s billionaire tax.
The No Kings movement began last summer in response to a broad set of concerns about federal layoffs, immigration enforcement and foreign wars. The demonstrations have continued to tackle a wide range of issues and typically lean into anti-Trump fervor.
This year’s focus on voting ahead of the midterm elections is in part due to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act, as well as fears that Trump will again dispute election results without evidence.
No Kings organizers said they planned to recruit volunteers at Saturday’s events to mobilize in case of “election sabotage,” Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, a progressive group that helps organize No Kings events, previously told the Guardian.