Tulsi Gabbard Says Instagram ‘Suppressing’ Her Reach Without Noting the Platform Was Just Banned in Russia

Former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard complained this week that Instagram is “suppressing” her voice. However, she neglected to mention that in Russia, where she has become popular, Instagram is now banned.

Gabbard joined The Ingraham Angle on Wednesday, where she argued that Big Tech is preventing her from sharing messages far and wide.

“Just before coming on your show today, I found out that Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, is also suppressing my voice,” she told host Laura Ingraham. “Normally, on average, videos that I post on Instagram get somewhere between 250,000 to 300,000 views, tens of thousands of likes.”

Gabbard said that a video she had posted the night before had only been viewed 15,000 times. She continued,

It is very clear that they are doing all they can to suppress my voice, suppress the message that I’m carrying out and it just points to yet another example of this larger machine that is very clearly at work, that is controlling our marketplace of ideas. And this machine is made up of the power elite, it’s made up of these big social media tech giants, it’s made up of the politicians, the powerful politicians from both parties in Washington.

Silicon Valley’s alleged suppression of certain voices in recent years is widely documented. So the former congresswoman from Hawaii could be among “shadow-banned” conservatives.

Still, New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights recently found that despite claims of censorship, conservatives rule social media in terms of engagement.

A look at Gabbard’s Instagram page does show a sharp decline in views and overall engagement since mid-February.

But since that time, Gabbard has taken a hardline stance against assisting Ukraine as it fends off an invasion by war criminals. That might have turned off some of her followers.

There is another reason why Gabbard’s engagement might have taken a skid: Russian President Vladimir Putin banned Instagram in Russia just last week.

Beginning March 14, nine days before Gabbard’s interview on Fox News, Instagram lost an estimated 80 million users in Russia after Putin deployed his country’s censors.

It is difficult to imagine a scenario where Gabbard was receiving 94 to 95 percent of her engagement from inside Russia.

But given her opposition to intervention in Ukraine, it would not be surprising if she had thousands of fans in Russia.

Gabbard’s videos may be reaching fewer people. But she might have Putin to thank for that, and not necessarily Mark Zuckerberg and Meta’s censors.

She might also have herself to thank, as her views on the conflict in Ukraine could be responsible for some people tuning out.

In any event, Gabbard went on primetime TV this week and complained about censorship without offering Ingraham’s viewers crucial context.

Watch above, via Fox News.