Senate Candidate Josh Mandel Slams 'Silicon Valley Thugs' After Facebook Censors Rittenhouse Meme

Allum BokhariNovember 15, 2021

Former Ohio State Treasurer and early Trump supporter Josh Mandel, who is running in the Republican primary to represent Ohio in the U.S. Senate, was censored by Facebook-owned Instagram earlier today for posting a “soyface wojak” or “soyjak” meme in support of Kyle Rittenhouse.

In a comment to Breitbart News, Mandel slammed “thugs” and “oligarchs” in Silicon Valley for censoring him, labeling them along with the establishment media “the enemy of the people.”

Mark Zuckerberg on Capitol Hill (Getty/Chip Somodevilla)

The meme Mandel posted mocked left-wing commentary around the Rittenhouse trial, in particular the importance that left-wingers give to the fact that Rittenhouse crossed state lines to be in Kenosha, WI, on the night of the riot.

The image features the popular internet meme “soyface wojak,” which typically represents a leftist or low-testosterone man. In the top panel, Soyjak describes borders as “just imaginary lines on a map.” In the bottom panel, the same Soyjak, visibly distressed, complains that Rittenhouse crossed the border of a state.

According to Instagram, this meme violated the platform’s guidelines on “violence or dangerous organizations,” and warned Mandel that he could lose access to his account if he continued to violate the rules.

“We cannot allow these Silicon Valley thugs and oligarchs to continue controlling fact by filtering it through the radical left agenda,” said Mandel in a comment to Breitbart News.

“We must protect our First Amendment rights and fight against censorship and radical indoctrination from the Fake News and Big Tech Thugs. Simply put, they are the enemy of the people.”
As Breitbart News previously reported, Facebook, which owns Instagram, continues to uphold its year-long ban on statements of support for Rittenhouse, even as the prosecution’s case collapses — just today, the judge dismissed the prosecution’s weapons charge against the teenager.

Breitbart News has reached out to Instagram for comment.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.