OUTSMARTING ALGORITHMIC CENSORSHIP

If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s problem-solving… aka, ethically outsmarting the rules no one likes. I do it by staying on top of platform updates, analyzing performance data, and thinking like Meta’s AI robot. (Sorry if you’re reading this, Meta. No hard feelings.)

Below are the problems we ran into and how my solutions increased performance.

META HATES GUNS

A Big Challenge: Meta’s strict moderation didn’t happen overnight; it escalated in the pandemic era as the platform leaned heavily into AI moderation. Human moderators sued Meta for psychological harm, and as automation took over, the AI began aggressively flagging content. So, it’s no surprise firearms content became a prime target. The AI began associating any gun-shaped object with illegal activity, and many manufacturing companies and FFLs didn’t realize they were being penalized until it was too late.

What I Walked Into: I took over Trijicon’s social media mid-2023. Within the first few days, I found an account strike, plus multiple AI-flagged posts for “potential” violations. A few weeks later, I was blessed with more strikes from content deployed by the old social media manager years ago.

While investigating data, I saw that posts containing firearms had experienced a year-over-year drop, and eventually the account became shadow banned from Instagram searches. This included username, hashtags, and suggested feeds. Something else the data told me was that Trijicon wasn't alone. Its competitors and partners were experiencing the same suppression—the entire firearms niche was being targeted.

Solution: To beat an AI, you have to think like one. I analyzed every flagged post and identified keyword patterns like “gun,” “pistol,” and “riflescope,” along with copy structures the AI disliked (direct sales language, CTAs, firearm-specific hashtags).

Vague, safer phrasing greatly improved metrics, but I still noticed that product beauty shots were being flagged for "potential" violations.

One night I stayed at the office until 9PM working my way through Meta support until someone finally admitted the solution: add a disclaimer to the profile bio and in each post caption. This disclaimer had to specifically state that account does not sell firearms/firearm accessories on Meta and that the content is for entertainment purposes. This would “tell the AI what to think.” Almost no one was doing this yet, but we tried it and it worked. Performance increased and the account stabilized.

Trijicon later had AMERIGLO follow my lead. I can’t speak to their outcomes, but I left Trijicon with a 145% increase in impressions, 146% increase in engagements, and a 58% increase in link clicks year-over-year.

As of September 2025, Donald Trump Jr. met with Meta to address unfair treatment of the firearms industry. Since then, Instagram has become noticeably more lenient, and firearm-related keywords have returned to search.

ELON HATES HUNTING (PROBABLY)

Challenge: I also manage a hunting client (a branch of Trijicon). For reasons unknown—and probably not because Elon is a vegan—X automatically blurs hunting content, even when it was clean, respectful, and focused on wildlife conservation.

With no appeal options, we needed a way to reach followers without triggering its moderation system.

Solution: I asked the client to let me test text-only posts, and these ended up delivering through the feed uncensored. Retweets from reputable accounts, especially Trijicon, also passed moderation without issue. This boosted impressions and helped the account begin adding followers again.

Meanwhile, any posts with an image or YouTube link continued to be automatically blurred, but we needed to still show the products. The answer was shareable content. I identified assets involving partner brands that positioned our client’s product as the hero. This encouraged retweets and bypassed censorship, helping us reach new audiences.

Performance since implementing this strategy has increased 60–200% across key indicators.

SAFELY PROMOTING RESTRICTED ITEMS ON META

I’m actually not giving this one away here—I don’t need Meta learning my tricks.

Ask me in person!

THE FASTEST WAY TO GET YOUR CONTENT DEMOTED

Challenge: If you want people to buy your product, great! But, please don’t write “buy now” followed by a link on every single post. Most users won’t read it, and Meta’s AI will not be a fan. When the AI sees repeated sales language, it thinks: “Oh, they’re trying to sell on here without buying ads? I’ll show them. Demotion activated!"

One client insisted on CTAs and links on almost every post for a month. I did it, they’re the boss, but organic impressions dropped from the usual 500–700K a month to about 100K. Out of 25 posts, only one performed well (~60K impressions), and that was the only one without a sales caption.

Solution: My data revealed that these captions get demoted, but adding CTAs to the first comments, Stories, and X threads do not. I presented our findings to the client and was approved to move CTAs to those placements, as well as create copy that felt more authentic. Post performance and website visits climbed dramatically afterward. We adopted this tactic across all accounts.