Knife Rights statement on the “Instagram Knife Apocalypse”

Over the past weekend my phone was blowing up with messages, texts and emails from knifemakers whose Instagram accounts were restricted by a new algorithm.

The good news is that the accounts were not canceled. The bad news is that the account is limited to be shown only to those who follow the account, which eliminates the ability to grow the account organically. That means instead of an instant death, it would be a slow death.

The better news is that it appears that the vast majority of accounts that have appealed the algorithm’s penalty are reinstated with full capabilities.

To see if your account has been flagged, tap on the Menu Bar on your account home screen, tap on “Settings and Privacy” and scroll way down to “Account Status.” If your account is restricted, appeal the restriction. The account is then reviewed by a human being. If the appeal doesn’t reverse the restriction, then appeal to the Oversight Board, which is a somewhat longer process.

Unfortunately, there appears little that can be done to influence Meta, Instagram’s (and Facebook’s) parent company, into leaving us all alone. With so many accounts flagged and then reviewed and the algorithm’s decision reversed, the algorithm should be modified fairly quickly…until next time.

Knife Rights will continue to look for alternate avenues to address these sorts of social media censorship. This is not the first time this has happened and it won’t be the last.

The Knife Rights logo says “Essential Tools – Essential Rights,” which is a concise way of saying that our knives are tools used by millions of Americans every day at home, work and while recreating, but they are also occasionally used as a tool to defend one’s life or that of another. Unfortunately, sometimes criminals and the insane misuse the tool to harm others. Some, including some companies with a misplaced sense of self-righteousness, simply can get beyond the latter to see the former and too often act upon that. The fact that a knife can be used as a weapon simply overshadows everything else.

www.kniferights.org