Combat Veteran's Awesome War Photo Censored By Instagram: Exclusive

Brad Thomas' Veterans Day tribute didn't last long on Instagram.

Thomas, who has appeared on OutKick's American Joyride, served in the Army Rangers prior to serving in the world's premier Tier One counter-terrorism direct action unit - 1st SFOD-D.

He's a rock solid American with an impressive career serving our great country. One of his most notable career moments was deploying to Somalia in 1993 and fighting in the Battle of Mogadishu. With a city turned loose against Brad and the rest of the American forces, they fought like hell to survive and secure multiple helicopter crash sites. Brad made multiple trips into the city as the fighting raged October 3-4, 1993.

Veterans Day was Monday, and the former Army Ranger wanted to share a photo from Mogadishu to honor all those who served. Instagram had different plans.

Instagram censors decorated combat vet Brad Thomas Veterans Day post. 

Brad posted the photo below to commemorate Veterans Day and shine a light on the events that unfolded in Somalia more than three decades ago. The picture features Brad more than 30 years ago holding an AK-47 without a magazine in it.

In an exclusive statement to OutKick, Brad said he'd actually never even seen the photo prior to being given it a few days ago. It should have made the perfect Veterans Day tribute. There couldn't have been a better day for the photo to be shared, but it didn't stay up long. 

Brad Thomas' Veterans Day post was censored by Instagram. (Credit: Brad Thomas)

Shortly after the post was shared to his more than 20,000 followers, Brad says he received a notification that the post was going to be a problem.

The former Ranger and Tier One operator told OutKick the following about what happened:

"So the picture I originally posted… a buddy from Mogadishu sent it to me a few days ago. He sent it out of the blue, I didn’t know it existed, and I’d never seen it before. I thought it would make the perfect Veterans Day post as I could explain how the photo came to be and the situation surrounding when it was taken. It’s rare when a photo from a deployment or combat zone shows up, 31 years later, and the person in the photo has never seen it before. I wrote a nice caption and posted it and for the next several minutes, I checked the post to make sure it was functioning and was concerned because I’m holding a captured weapon. After a few minutes, I opened IG again and in my feed was this warning: the post goes against our community guidelines and will be restricted… can jeopardize your standing on IG, may result in your account being restricted etc. It infuriated me that a completely innocent, wartime photo would be an issue… especially considering the amount of nudity and violence that’s all over IG."

OutKick originally reached out to Instagram on Monday and after an exchange of multiple messages, a META official - Instagram's parent company - admitted a mistake had been made and had also been corrected.

"This person should not have received this notification; there are no restrictions on his ability to post the photo," a spokesperson for META told OutKick in an exclusive comment obtained Tuesday.

While the initial post came down prior to META admitting its mistake, Thomas did later share a censored version of the photo with the gun blocked out, and it was allowed to stay up on his story. That would seem to indicate the unloaded AK-47 was the issue with the photo when it was initially flagged by Instagram.

"Here's the one that got blocked. I've redacted the scary part," the former Ranger and Tier One SMU operator captioned the post.

Thomas - who founded the rock band Silence & Light - also shared a follow-up Veterans Day post featuring him in his combat gear but without a weapon. The post's caption echoes his statement to OutKick about the kind of content that flows on Instagram without any concerns.

That photo remains up without any issues since being shared Monday.

It's worth noting that while Thomas' vanilla photo of him holding an AK-47 was censored, there are plenty of other gun videos and photos available on Instagram.

Furthermore, Instagram even allows threatening content to remain up and visible. The video of the woman threatening to murder white men was shared by Libs of TikTok, and remains up and visible for everyone to see.

For the record, it should be up and visible to see because people deserve to know what lunatics are out there. However, it's hard to understand why skimpy bikini pictures, other gun photos/videos, threatening content and such is fine, but Thomas' photo from *ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS MOMENTS OF AMERICAN MILITARY HISTORY* wasn't allowed. Make that make sense.

No veteran or any American should ever be afraid to post historical content just because it features a firearm - if that is indeed the issue. Credit to Brad for not backing down. Definitely give him a follow on Instagram if you're interested in history or his music, and let me know your thoughts on the situation at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.