The top Democrats on the House Oversight and Judiciary committees are demanding answers from Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg after the main “No Kings” Instagram account was temporarily suspended earlier this month — just as Americans participated in thousands of local rallies across the country.

The account was down for more than an hour on Oct. 17, but organizers claim they were then locked out of accessing the account for several additional hours.

In a joint letter to Zuckerberg obtained first by MS NOW, Reps. Robert Garcia of California and Jamie Raskin of Maryland — the ranking members of the House Oversight and Judiciary committees, respectively — wrote that the “apparent” act of “corporate censorship of political speech raise[s] serious concerns about Meta’s dedication to ensuring free and fair elections.”

They are demanding a briefing from Meta about its “election security efforts” and the No Kings incident no later than Nov. 9.

After the incident, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone apologized for the issues with the Instagram account, explaining that the suspension was “incorrect” and the result of an “automated” enforcement action.

Stone wrote that “when accounts post, share or comment at very high frequencies it can trigger automated systems. That’s what happened with the No Kings IG account in the lead up to today’s day of action.

“Unfortunately, that automated action was clearly taken in error,” Stone said.

But in their letter, the Democrats dismissed that explanation as straining “public credulity” — with the two committee leaders suggesting that the No Kings incident is part of a larger pattern of the social media company playing politics.

“Technical glitches occur,” Garcia and Raskin wrote, “but at Meta they are happening frequently and, curiously, seem to disproportionately impact the political opponents of President Trump and his authoritarian political alliances.”

The duo in particular raised concerns about other recent occurrences involving Meta’s platforms — including accusations that the company “choked off” content favoring Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil’s presidential election while allowing “pro-right-wing ads and deepfakes” favoring Trump’s preferred candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, to continue to spread. Lula’s campaign took Meta to court, accusing the company of using biased algorithms. Meta denied that it was acting with political bias and published a blog post in an effort to explain what happened.

Garcia and Raskin also cite recent reports that Instagram accounts used by Albanian activists and journalists were disabled amid protests there against a hotel project linked to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

(Democrats already have their sights on that hotel venture. In August, MS NOW reported that Raskin and House Judiciary Democrats were expanding their ongoing investigation of Kushner’s business habits to include the project.)

In the letter, Garcia and Raskin also suggest that Zuckerberg and Meta have a financial incentive to appease the White House and the Trump team.

Invoking Zuckerberg and Meta’s various ties to the Trump White House — from the company’s multimillion-dollar donation to the East Wing ballroom project to the CEO’s attendance at the UFC fight on the White House lawn — they write that Meta stands to make “billions of dollars in government contracts and data center incentives from working with the Trump Administration.”

“And you personally stand to benefit greatly from taking actions that win you additional support from President Trump and his Administration,” Garcia and Raskin added.

Contacted about the Democrats’ letter, a Meta spokesperson referred MS NOW to the company’s previous explanation about the No Kings incident.

A cursory search of the Meta spokesperson’s social media feed does indicate that the company’s technical “errors” have not solely affected those on the political left. In the past few years, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and the firearm manufacturer Smith & Wesson, among others, have also experienced issues.

The first No Kings protests were held in June 2025, aimed at denouncing Trump’s actions since he returned to the White House. Additional protest days have been organized in the year-and-a-half since.

The earlier demonstrations, which occurred in cities and communities across the country, are considered some of the largest single-day protests in U.S. history, with millions attending the rallies nationwide.

The most recent event on Oct. 17, which occurred less than three weeks before Election Day, focused on encouraging people to vote early.

This story has been updated to include comment from Meta.

The post Instagram shut down a ‘No Kings’ account. Now Democrats want answers from Mark Zuckerberg. appeared first on MS NOW.

From MS Now.