A post from a candidate for the California gubernatorial seat announcing his candidacy was temporarily removed from Instagram. In the post, Kevin Paffrath, a YouTuber and real estate investor, called incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom a “weenie baby.”
In a video posted on YouTube, Paffrath asserted that his post was not removed by an algorithm, considering it had remained uncensored for more than 24 hours.
“I think if an algorithm flagged it, it probably would have gotten flagged earlier,” Paffrath said. “And this conveniently getting removed, like, start of the day, it’s like ‘oh, top of the email kind of deal with this report,’ it just feels like a human removal.”
Paffrath also claimed that he believes the post was removed because of the “weenie baby” phrase, “because they called it harassment and bullying.”
Instagram’s policies on harassment prohibit the targeting of “private individuals to degrade or shame them.” But Newsom, as the Governor of California, is not a private individual.
