If you're a conservative anywhere near social media, you remember the "bad old days" in 2020 and 2021 -Tweets and Facebook posts dissenting from the CDC's party line getting banned, getting "time outs" for asserting gender was a biological reality ratther than a "construct", Facebook groups (like the one David and I ran to advocate re-opeining Minnesota during the pandemid) arbitrarily disappearing the the dark of the night, as if a digital Black Maria had vistied.
Elon Musk and the incoming Trump Administration did a lot to reverse the worst of the abuses - at least, the ones that involved the collusion between government and tech.
But while the executive branch is out of the censorship business (at least until 2029), the other side of the equation - companies run by progressives who still support the agenda - is still very much in effect.
Google - whose ostensible motto, "Don't Be Evil", seems as anachronistic as "Clippy" more and more every year - has been throttling ad revenue going to pro-Second Amendment publications:
Google is quietly strangling pro-gun journalism — punishing any website that dares republish Second Amendment reporting. Call it what it is: censorship. https://t.co/1xsYZv1ioc
— The Truth About Guns (@guntruth) April 18, 2026
I recently got some bad news from the owners of a well-established pro-gun website. They can no longer publish stories from the Second Amendment Foundation — or from any other pro-gun group, for that matter.
The reason? Google.
Their site now takes a “hit” from Google’s algorithm whenever it publishes non-original content, they told me. So from here on out, they can only run stories they’ve written themselves and that have never appeared anywhere else. The days of sharing SAF reporting — or reporting from any other Second Amendment outlet — appear to be over. At least for now.
So, why not just produce original content?
Because (looks around the Hot Air newsroom) producing original content is a lot of work, which is fine if that's what you exist for - as the Second Amendment Foundation does. But most Second Amendment publications aren't in the writing and reporting business; they amplify other voices, like the Second Amendment Foundation and our sister publication, Bearing Arms.
The change in the algorithm is having a serious impact:
Stephen Gutowski, Founder and Editor of The Reload, reported exclusively to NSSF that his site’s search traffic is down approximately 25 percent year-over-year, citing a correlation with the way Google has cannibalized search traffic with AI...“Firearms media have always faced an uphill battle regarding visibility online,” Jacki Billings, Editor-in-Chief of Pew Pew Tactical, also told NSSF. “Recent algorithm shifts prioritizing AI-generated search snippets present a new challenge for our industry. Like others in the firearms space, we’re concerned about the impact.”
“Algorithm shifts and platform policies don’t just affect publishers; they hurt readers as well,” Billings continued. “When AI summaries replace clicks, the flow of information narrows and leaves people with less to work with when making decisions or learning about important issues. In short, when tech platforms limit access to information, readers pay the price.”
Does it affect the other side - the anti-gun publications that recycle content from the Violence Policy Center or "Everytown"? Maybe, but the gun control movement gets a lot of its money from progressive anti-gun plutocrats like Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer - they're a little more insulated.
Just remember that to Big Left, the only thing better than diminished visibility to Second Amendment activists is no visibility at all. Pro-ultra-left shills Pro Publica:
For roughly two decades, Google has boasted that it doesn’t accept gun ads, a reflection of its values and culture. But a ProPublica analysis shows that before and after mass shootings in May at a New York grocery store and a Texas elementary school, millions of ads from the some of the nation’s largest firearms makers flowed through Google’s ad systems and onto websites and apps — in some cases without the site or app owners’ knowledge and in violation of their policies.
Ads from gun-maker Savage Arms, for example, popped up on the site Baby Games, amid brightly colored games for children, and on an article about “How to Handle Teen Drama” on the Parent Influence website. Ads for Glock pistols loaded on a recipe site’s list of the “50 Best Vegetarian Recipes!” as well as on the quiz site Playbuzz, on the online Merriam-Webster dictionary and alongside stories in The Denver Post, according to Adbeat, which aggregates data about web and mobile digital ads.
It's been a good couple of years for the gun rights movement. But it's waaaaay too soon to get complacent.
