No Instagram Ban For Actual Terrorist

Do you like Hamas? No, not the creamy chickpea spread popular in the Middle East – that’s hummus.

Hamas is the Islamic Resistance Movement, a militant Muslim Palestinian nationalist movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that is dedicated to establishing an independent Islamic state in historical Palestine.

Jonathan Xie, a 20-year-old Hamas supporter living in the United States, was arrested on May 22, 2019, and charged with two counts of attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, two counts of making false statements, and one count of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.

Xie is a resident of Basking Ridge in the New Jersey county of Somerset. He is accused of wiring money abroad to Hamas, performing “detailed surveillance” on the Trump Tower in Manhatten, New York, lying on his U.S. Army enlistment application, and threatening pro-Israel supporters with violence.

Xie’s alarming threats appeared on one of the social media platforms that is silencing conservatives for committing the newly-fabricated non-crime of hate speech. Instagram, despite its loud condemnation of hate speech, let Xie post some really atrocious, anti-social content.

Instagram is owned by Facebook. Both companies have recently banned several conservative commentators deemed to be “dangerous people.”

This list includes Hollywood actor James Woods, independent news reporters Alex Jones and Paul Joseph Watson from the Infowars network show, Milo Yiannopoulos (British political commentator, public speaker, and writer), and Laura Loomer (American political activist, conspiracy theorist, and internet personality).

But not Xie.

In April 2019, the young radical extremist then recorded an Instagram Live video in which he was seen wearing a black ski mask while voicing his fervent opposition to Zionism and the neo-liberal establishment. After another person in the video asked Xie if he would travel to Gaza to join Hamas, he replied, “yes, If I could find a way.”

Later in the Instagram Live video, Xie displayed a Hamas flag and brandished a handgun. Xie then stated:

“I’m gonna go to the f**king pro-Israel march and I’m going to shoot everybody.”

Did Instagram ban Xie for his bad attitude? Nope. Instead, Xie went on to post this fine example of terrorist hate speech:

“I want to shoot the pro-Israel demonstrators…you can get a gun and shoot your way through or use a vehicle and ram people…all you need is a gun or vehicle to go on a rampage…I do not care if security forces come after me, they will have to put a bullet in my head to stop me.”

In December 2018, Xie sent a Moneygram for $100 to a person in Gaza whom Xie believed was a member of the Al-Qassam Brigades, a faction of Hamas with a history of violent attacks, including suicide bombings against civilian targets inside Israel. At about the same time, Xie revealed the kind of dangerous scofflaw he is – on Instagram:

“Just donated $100 to Hamas. Pretty sure it was illegal but I don’t give a damn.”

In February 2019, Xie posted his desire to join the U.S. Army “to learn how to kill…So I can use that knowledge…Idk [I don’t know], if I pass the training…If I should do lone wolf. That is why I have to learn military techniques from the Army…”

Xie did follow through and completed a Security Clearance Application for National Security Positions in February 2019. On that federal document, he answered “no” to the question “Have you EVER associated with anyone involved in activities to further terrorism?”

An application processing error required Xie to complete the National Security job application a second time about ten days later. He repeated his “no” answer to the question regarding association with terrorist groups.

In April 2019, Xie provided a website link for the Al-Qassam Brigades to an undercover FBI employee. Xie then took screenshots of the website and sent them to the undercover agent. Xie demonstrated how to use a new website option for Bitcoin donations – before Xie himself donated about $20 in Bitcoin from the website to test the feature on April 26.

Around April 20, 2019, FBI surveillance observed Xie outside of the Trump Tower building in New York City. Two days later, Xie was arrested.

When all is said and done, one has to wonder what the people in charge of Community Standards over at Instagram were thinking when they banned Alex Jones merely for Questioning Authority while allowing flagrant anti-Israeli hate speech to flourish on their proprietary social media platform?

As Infowar’s Watson put it:

“Instagram literally allowed a would-be terrorist to brag about his maniacal plans while banning conservatives for the crime of offending people with words.

“Let that sink in.”