Facebook Bans American AF Clothing Company's Page For 'Selling Trump Merchandise'

Nick Kangadis | October 29, 2020
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(Headline Image: Screenshot/YouTube)

Social media companies suck. They currently couldn’t be more overt in their censorship of anything that doesn’t fall in lockstep with their own pre-approved biases.

Veteran-owned apparel company American AF has reportedly been “permanently banned” by Facebook for what the clothing company is claiming “selling Trump merchandise.” Facebook claims that they banned the company’s page, because they say that American AF’s claimed their products are officially licensed Trump merchandise, which the company denies.

“We’re independent. They know that,” American AF CEO Shawn Wylde told American Military News. “What that tells us is that this [decision] is malicious. It was done to punish us, to stop us from doing what they think is helping Trump in the election.”

Wylde also said that his company has made designs with former Democratic presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Most of American AF’s merchandise is of the parody variety.

As American Military News reported:

After banning his page, Facebook informed Wylde that he could create a new page and continue his advertising – something that they even offered to help him set up[…]

American AF amassed $15 million in annual sales in 2019 and expects to reach $10 million in 2020. Its advertising is also significant, with $4.3 million spent on Facebook ads in 2020 alone. The company has spent more than $16.6 million in Facebook advertising over the past five years. A study by New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering listed American AF as Facebook’s third-highest political advertiser even though only some of its apparel is politically-themed.

Attorney for Wylde, Timothy Parlatore, spoke to American Military News and told the outlet that while American AF has done business on Facebook for years, it’s kind of peculiar that they would ban the company “two weeks before the election.”

“What makes this case so different is that his content has not changed,” Parlatore said. “He’s paid so many millions over the years and they’ve never had a problem with his content until two weeks before the election.”

Perusing American AF’s official website shows that the company sells products for a variety of presidents throughout the history of the U.S. It appears they do lean to the right, but parody is typically the name of their game.

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