December 26, 2023
Shaun King Faces Fresh Questions About Trustworthiness
The skepticism surrounding King has not gone away, many have questioned the legitimacy of his work around his supposed work to free Palestinian hostages, and that skepticism will only continue to grow the louder he gets about his work.
Controversial activist Shaun King had his Instagram account removed. King claimed his account was banned due to his advocacy for the rights and freedoms of the Palestinian people. King posted under a friend’s Instagram account, thanking his nearly 6 million followers for their support. King said he was safe and grateful and had been through more than this current dilemma.
King claimed that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, “decided to stand in the way of those of us who are fighting for the human rights and dignity of Palestinians.”
King continued, “Frustrated that Instagram has banned me for fighting for Palestine and speaking up for the human rights and dignity of Palestinians, but I refuse to betray my values and principles by staying silent about this genocide and the war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank.”
King also said that he had involved lawyers and wants to return to Instagram, but not at the cost of his integrity. Meta told The New York Post that they had disabled King’s account because of “multiple instances of praise for designated entities in violation of our policies.” However, his Facebook account remains active.
According to The Daily Beast, Human Rights Watch claims that Meta has been engaging in “systematic censorship” of posts related to the bombing of Palestinians by Israeli forces. Human Rights Watch said that Meta was involved in a “pattern of undue removal and suppression of protected speech including peaceful expression in support of Palestine and public debate about Palestinian human rights.”
Users on various social media platforms have long criticized King for grifting with a list of nicknames hinting at his fraudulent history. In October 2023, Ashley Ray Harris was a guest on a re-aired episode of an August 25 episode of Laci Mosley’s “Scam Goddess” podcast, dedicated to King. The two walked through King’s history of “scam likely” jobs, including a stint as a pastor.
In May 2022, King was accused of scamming customers through his clothing brand, A Real One. Eight months after the launch of his clothing line, customers had yet to receive their orders. Harris pointed out that King had blocked her on Instagram via a post on Twitter, writing, “Hello, it has been eight months since Shaun King launched a ‘private clothing line’ that sold $165 hoodies. There hasn’t been an update since October. The entire Instagram has been deleted, and the last existing comments were people saying they still hadn’t gotten their orders.”
King told Newsweek that he had been overwhelmed with orders, writing, “We had nearly 3,500 orders and shipped EVERY order,” his email read. “All of them. Some 2-3 times. Out of those 3,500 orders, about 150 people moved or had shipping problems. For those 150 people, we resent the orders or processed refunds.
King continued, “We just emailed our entire customer base to ask ANY customer that might have fallen through the cracks to email us,” the email continued. “2 people replied saying they wanted exchanges or refunds for orders they had trouble with. Out of those 3,500, we also had 75-100 customers who had errors in their email addresses or phone numbers that may be hard for us to reach.”
In 2021, King was accused by the mother of Tamir Rice, Samaria, of being a white man pretending to be Black. Rice told Ebony in 2021, “As a white man acting Black, you are an imposter that can not be trusted. My son was 12 years old, and… DOJ needs to reopen his case, period. Tamir’s human rights were violated. Why would you so ever make it about you? You are a selfish, self-centered person, and God will deal with you, white man.”
The skepticism surrounding King has not gone away; many have questioned the legitimacy of his work around his supposed work to free Palestinian hostages.