<
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/01/16/platforms-systematically-removed-a-user-because-he-made-most-wanted-ceo-playing-cards/>
"On December 14, James Harr, the owner of an online store called
ComradeWorkwear, announced on social media that he planned to sell a deck of
“Most Wanted CEO” playing cards, satirizing the infamous “Most-wanted Iraqi
playing cards” introduced by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in 2003. Per
the ComradeWorkwear website, the Most Wanted CEO cards would offer “a critique
of the capitalist machine that sacrifices people and planet for profit,” and
“Unmask the oligarchs, CEOs, and profiteers who rule our world… From real
estate moguls to weapons manufacturers.”
But within a day of posting his plans for the card deck to his combined 100,000
followers on Instagram and TikTok, the
New York Post ran a front page story
on Harr, calling the cards “disturbing.” Less than 5 hours later, officers from
the New York City Police Department came to Harr’s door to interview him. They
gave no indication he had done anything illegal or would receive any further
scrutiny, but the next day the New York police commissioner held the
New York
Post story up during a press conference after announcing charges against Luigi
Mangione, the alleged assassin of UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson.
Shortly thereafter, platforms from TikTok to Shopify disabled both the
company’s accounts and Harr’s personal accounts, simply because he used the
moment to highlight what he saw as the harms that large corporations and their
CEOs cause.
Harr was not alone. After the assassination, thousands of people took to social
media to express their negative experiences with the healthcare industry, to
speculate about who was behind the murder, and to show their sympathy for
either the victim or the shooter—if social media platforms allowed them to do
so. Many users reported having their accounts banned and content removed after
sharing comments about Luigi Mangione, Thompson’s alleged assassin. TikTok, for
example reportedly removed comments that simply said, “Free Luigi.” Even
seemingly benign content, such as a post about Mangione’s astrological sign or
a video montage of him set to music, was deleted from Threads, according to
users.
The Most Wanted CEO playing cards did not reference Mangione, and the
cards—which have not been released—would not include personal information about
any CEO. In his initial posts about the cards, Harr said he planned to include
QR codes with more information about each company and, in his view, what
dangers the companies present. Each suit would represent a different industry,
and the back of each card would include a generic shooting-range style
silhouette. As Harr put it in his now-removed video, the cards would include
“the person, what they’re a part of, and a QR code that goes to dedicated pages
that explain why they’re evil. So you could be like, ‘Why is the CEO of Walmart
evil? Why is the CEO of Northrop Grumman evil?’”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
