I’m sure you’ve stumbled upon the worst new viral social media account, which also happens to be the official handle for the US Dept. of Homeland Security—a combination deranged meme dump and propaganda machine entirely devoted to making our homeland less secure for a significant portion of our population. On top of it all, it’s the product of the Trump Administration, which means that this multi-sensory assault also carelessly drags itself through a litigious minefield, with its most recent post leading to yet another cease-and-desist letter from an artist whose music is used without permission.
Black Rebel Motor Cycle Club are the latest band to be added to this extensive list after the official US Homeland Security Instagram account used their cover of Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”—seemingly recorded last year for the Netflix miniseries A Man in Full, based on Tom Wolfe’s novel—in a propagandistic Reel for the Boarder Patrol (Cash certainly would’ve appeared on this list, too). “It’s obvious that you don’t respect Copyright Law and Artist Rights any more than you respect Habeas Corpus and Due Process rights, not to mention the separation of Church and State per the US Constitution,” the band posted on their own IG account in response to the video, a Bible-thumping and very stupid jingoist call to arms that equally egregiously rips off all of the worst modern movie trailers.
Find their full statement in the post below.
