Can We Start With the Horrible ”An Inconvenient Truth”?

Climate scientist asks YouTube to censor climate "misinformation" (reclaimthenet.org)

Honestly, I am kidding. I don’t believe in censorship, not even of garbage like Al Gore’s ridiculous fact free propaganda piece.

And in this case, the call for censorship is even more ridiculous. “Scientist” above, should have been in scare quotes. It’s from another fact free “climatologist”, Michael “Piltdown” Mann.

Prof. Michael Mann, the director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, tweeted: “Hey @Youtube. It’s good you’re taking down COVID denial videos. Now it’s time for you to remove climate denial videos. They pose an even greater threat to humanity in the long term.”

Michael Mann, you’ll remembered was heavily involved in the email climategate scandal, where he was shown to be deeply involved in falsifying and twisting evidence to “hide the decline” in global warming. Amazingly, he still has a job. Of course, it is at Penn State, and they don’t have a problem with liars and cheats and corruption there.

He wants YouTube to censor those who dare to point out what a fraud he is. So, I understand the call, even if I find it laughable.

I’m consistent in my calls for Freedom of Speech, though. I wouldn’t even ask YouTube to censor idiots like Mann.

You Cannot Mock the King

YouTube censors Dr. Fauci satire song video (reclaimthenet.org)

YouTube censored and demonetized a song criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci. The platform claimed that the song violated its policy on medical misinformation.

The song, called “Sad Little Man” by Five Times August, accuses Fauci of lying. It references experiments performed on beagles that the Fauci-led National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was accused of funding.

The song also says people worship Dr. Fauci, accepting everything he says.

The video of the song contains animated images of Fauci in a crown, clown shoes, and at some point with devil’s horns.

It’s satire. It’s not supposed to be an information source.

The Left has no sense of humor whatsoever.

Once Again, These Accidents Always Seem to Go In the Same Direction

YouTube didn't say why it temporarily disabled Novara Media's channel (reclaimthenet.org)

YouTube suspended then restored the channel of Novara Media, a UK-based left-leaning news outlet. According to the outlet, the channel was suspended without explanation and it had not received a warning.

“We play an important public service role and regularly feature interviews with politicians, human rights campaigners, scientists and campaigners from around the world,” Novara said in a statement.

“We are also regulated by IMPRESS in the UK. We call on YouTube to immediately reinstate our account,” it added.

Novara Media is an online-only news outlet that was founded in 2011 as an alternative to left-wing mainstream media outlets. Its YouTube channel, which was restored a few hours after it was removed, has 167,000 subscribers.

So, what did YouTube say when asked about the suspension?

You guessed it. “We goofed. Sorry about that.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for YouTube said: “Novara Media’s channel was briefly removed after it was flagged, but upon review, it was then immediately reinstated.

“We work quickly to review all flagged content, but with millions of hours of video uploaded on YouTube every day, on occasion we make the wrong call.”

Occasionally they make the wrong call. And always against the Right. Amazing streak of coincidences there. It’s almost as if it was on purpose.

Almost.

Let’s Censor Brandon!

YouTube deletes "Let's Go Brandon" rap track (reclaimthenet.org)

YouTube has deleted the video of Bryson Gray’s increasingly popular track “Let’s Go Brandon,” featuring Tyson James and Chandler Crump.

The Google-owned platform claimed that the video contained medical misinformation.

News of the censorship was announced by Bryson Gray, who describes himself as the “most censored rap artist in America.”

“YouTube has banned ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ song from YouTube due to ‘medical information.’ What medical misinformation is in the song? Whoa,” Gray wrote on Thursday.

It’s a Rap Song. Medical misinformation? Really?

No one could really be this stupid. I don’t believe it.

The China Virus Fatality Rate for Teens and Under Is Something Less Than .001 Percent, or Less Than 1 in 10,000 Cases

YouTube censors Senator Ron Johnson for "misinformation" after he protested vaccinating kids (reclaimthenet.org)

Senators are not allowed to express their opinions on YouTube.

YouTube deleted a video where Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson expressed his disapproval of the pending approval of the COVID vaccines for kids aged 5 to 11. The platform said the video violated its policies on misinformation.

Sen. Johnson made the comments in an interview with Dan O’Donnell. When the reporter posted the video, it was removed by YouTube over violation of misinformation policies.

I’m sorry. Who died and made YouTube the arbiter of truth? No one is even allowed to express their opinions anymore?

What kind of totalitarian regime is this?

Biden’s America, man.

Eventually They’ll Censor Everyone Except the Left-Wing Governments

UK MP David Davis blasts YouTube for censoring his speech against vaccine passports (reclaimthenet.org)

UK Member of Parliament (MP) David Davis has slammed YouTube for its temporary removal of a speech where he spoke out against vaccine passports and discussed the importance of freedom.

The video, which is titled “‘Vaccine passports, a solution looking for a problem’ – David Davis MP,” was a recording of a speech Davis gave at a recent event hosted by civil liberties group Big Brother Watch during the UK Conservative Party Conference 2021.

In the speech, Davis described freedom as “the principal reason that the United Kingdom has had a long and illustrious history.” He also took aim at vaccine passports and described them as something where “there’s no greater current example of this current disregard for our freedom.”

Well, you can’t just have people saying that sort of thing. Someone might hear and see them and get the wrong sorts of ideas.

Fortunately, YouTube put a stop to that right away.

But shortly after the video was uploaded to Big Brother Watch’s YouTube channel, the tech giant took it down.

Freedom of speech. Freedom of ideas. They don’t exist in the internet.

Why Doesn’t YouTube Want You to Know About Rape?

‘This Is Terrifying’: YouTube Suspends Steven Crowder For ‘Hate Speech,’ Covering ‘Transgender Community In An Offensive Manner’ | The Daily Wire

YouTube told The Daily Wire in a statement: “We removed content from and issued a strike to the StevenCrowder channel for violating our hate speech policy, through repeated targeting of the LGBTQ+ community. Hate speech is not allowed on YouTube, and in some cases, we remove content or issue other penalties–such as a strike–when a creator repeatedly targets, insults and abuses a protected group based on attributes such as sexual orientation or gender identity and expression across multiple uploads.”

Crowder responded on Twitter Wednesday: “A hard strike from YouTube and Wow… this is terrifying. We covered SPECIFIC, documented instances of rape. @YouTube says not allowed. All parents should take note. If you believe in the insane notion of biological sex, you will be silenced.”

You can’t handle the truth. They ordered the Code Red.

YouTube Finds Your Lack of Faith ... Disturbing

YouTube partners with United Nations on new policy to strip climate change skeptics of income (reclaimthenet.org)

YouTube owner Google announced a new policy this week, where YouTube creators, publishers, and advertisers will be demonetized for content contradicting “well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change.”

“This includes content referring to climate change as a scam or hoax, claims denying that long-term trends show the global climate is warming and claims denying that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change.”

I really thought that we’d advanced since the middle ages. But apparently not. We clearly need a second Renaissance. Just think of YouTube as the Pope and climate change skeptics as Galileo.

This is not how scientific debate works.  This is not how freedom of speech works. This is how tyranny works.

To YouTube, Right Side Is the Wrong Side and Must Be Silenced

YouTube suspends RSBN the same day a previous ban expired (reclaimthenet.org)

YouTube issued a notice to Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN) on Friday, informing them that their “content was removed due to a violation of our Community Guidelines. Your channel now has 1 strike. You won’t be able to do things like upload, post, or live stream for 1 week.”

The censorship has restricted them from uploading or live streaming during the strike period.

This is not the first occurrence as YouTube has regularly censored RSBN’s feeds since the 2020 presidential election.

On September 30, 90 days after the previous strike against RSBN ended, the network was reinstated after being penalized for violating the selectively enforced “standards” of YouTube. YouTube then issued another strike the day after the previous one ended.

RSBN is moving to Rumble, apparently.

Schiff Won’t Be Happy Until All Public Speech Is Controlled by Democrats

Rep. Adam Schiff says YouTube's ban of vaccine skepticism doesn't go far enough (reclaimthenet.org)

Rep. Adam Schiff praised YouTube’s decision to ban all vaccine skepticism but said it was not the “end of our fight against misinformation.”

On Wednesday afternoon, YouTube announced that it will ban all vaccine skepticism to stop the spread of what it says is misinformation. The ban not only applies to COVID vaccines but also any other vaccines that pharmaceutical companies produce.

You’re not allowed to express an opinion that disagrees with the narrative.

We call that authoritarian.

We call that tyranny.

We definitely do not call it freedom.

You Forgot the Scare Quotes

YouTube clamps down further on vaccine misinformation – Neowin

Some of these claimed new policies contradict direct evidence that I’ve previously blogged about, but whatever. The whole thing stinks.

In a blog post, YouTube said that it’s updating its policies surrounding vaccine misinformation in a bid to tackle vaccine hesitancy while maintaining a degree of freedom on the platform. Content questioning the safety of vaccines, their efficacy, or the ingredients of vaccines will be generally banned from the platform but there will be some exceptions.

To help maintain some freedom of the platform, YouTube will allow content that opens public debate around the scientific process of developing vaccines, content about vaccine policies will be allowed, information about vaccine trials will be allowed and content about historical vaccine successes or failures will be allowed. Furthermore, YouTubers can upload videos about their personal testimonies of taking the vaccine as long as it doesn’t violate other Community Guidelines and as long as the channel doesn’t have a “pattern of promoting vaccine hesitancy”.

I just thought of an interesting way to side-step this. I wonder…

Anyway, this is just another example of a company self-appointing itself as the gatekeeper of “truth”. We can not allow that.

I Guess He’ll Have to Go Back to Looking for Ferris

Writer and actor Ben Stein suspended from YouTube for COVID questions (reclaimthenet.org)

Ben lays it out perfectly.

Noting YouTube’s monopolistic power, he wrote: “YouTube is such an immense communications entity that to be banned from it is to banned from national mass communication. Yes, it’s not part of the government, so the First Amendment does not strictly apply to it. BUT, it is so big that it approximates the government. And to be banned from it is to be banned from national debate on important issues.”

“The reasoning of YouTube — ‘THOU SHALT NOT QUESTION EXPERTS’ — could easily be applied to issues of foreign policy or taxation or the national deficit. The reasoning of YouTube means the end of free speech. It means The End of America.”

I have nothing to add.

Trump v. YouTube

Trump asks judge to force YouTube to reinstate his channel (reclaimthenet.org)

In the ongoing lawsuit against Big Tech platforms, President Trump has filed for a preliminary injunction that would require YouTube to reinstate his account by Monday. The former president filed a lawsuit against the platforms that de-platformed him on the grounds that they did that on behalf of the federal government.

The request states:

“Pursuant to Rule 65 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Plaintiff Donald J. Trump respectfully moves for a preliminary injunction directing, inter alia, Defendant YouTube, LLC, and all persons acting in privity, in concert, or on YouTube’s behalf, to reinstate Plaintiff’s access to Defendant’s social media platform.”

This was filed over a month ago. I don’t see any news since. Rulings on preliminary injunctions usually occur quickly, so I suspect he was not victorious.

YouTube Faces the Music in Australia

Sky News Australia testifies on YouTube censorship (reclaimthenet.org)

The clash between the social media giant and Australia’s broadcaster flared up after YouTube decided to remove 23 Sky videos for COVID misinformation, prompting the channel to remove a further 18 uploads in order to avoid getting permanently banned.

[SKY CEO Paul] Whittaker openly called this latter decision an act of self-censorship, while lambasting YouTube as “not neutral, unaccountable, untransparent, and totalitarian” for its censorship – and on top of that, a foreign entity censoring speech in another country, while Australia’s own media regulator did not think that the deleted videos required any action taken against them.

YouTube doesn’t have the right or more importantly the ability to decide what is “misinformation”. Quite often the people they are censoring are far more knowledgeable on their subjects than anyone at Google or YouTube. YouTube doesn’t know what is misinformation. They just know what information they don’t want you to hear and see.

We Used To Say “It’s Still A Free Country”. I Don’t Think That’s True Anymore

Coronavirus Censorship – PJ Media

YouTube just froze Sen. Rand Paul’s YouTube channel.

That’s just wrong. Small-minded. Counterproductive.

YouTube says Paul violated their COVID-19 misinformation policy when he told an interviewer, “Most of the masks you get over the counter don’t work … virus particles are too small and go right through.”

Paul didn’t make that up.

Properly worn N95 masks are effective, but two peer-reviewed studies suggest that simple masks might not work at all.

Social media is horrible. The social media giants determine what is “true” without your input, and they don’t allow you to say anything that their Truth Squads disagree with. Whatever happened to Freedom of Speech? The right to disagree? Honest debate? Alternative viewpoints.

We don’t allow any of that anymore.

But Donald Trump was the fascist.

YouTube Strikes Again—Are You Sensing a Theme?

YouTube bans Sebastian Gorka's channel for repeated violations of 'presidential election integrity policy' | Washington Examiner

"In accordance with our long standing strikes system, we terminated the channel America First with Sebastian Gorka, for repeated violations of our presidential election integrity policy," Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokesperson, told the Washington Examiner on Sunday. "As we’ve publicly shared, our presidential election integrity policy prohibits content uploaded after last year’s safe harbor deadline that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Any channel that violates this policy will receive a strike and channels that receive three strikes in the same 90-day period are permanently removed from YouTube, as in the case of America First with Sebastian Gorka."

If you were confident in your opinions, you wouldn’t be bothered by the voicing of others. Silencing dissent is not a way to encourage people to believe what you have to say.

YouTube Is on a Censorship Spree

YouTube suspends Indian news outlet that covered workers' protests over lockdowns (reclaimthenet.org)

YouTube has banned the channel of Millat Times, an Indian news website, for posting a video showing workers protesting lockdown in the state of Maharashtra. YouTube said that the video violated its COVID-19 misinformation policy.

On April 9, Millat Times uploaded a video titled “People Continue Protest Against Lockdown, Gherai CM’s House.” The post showed clips of people protesting the newly enforced lockdown in Maharashtra outside the state’s Chief Minister’s residence.

I don’t see how showing protests can possibly be a violation of a misinformation policy. But then, I don’t think they should have a misinformation policy unless they take an extremely narrow view of what constitutes misinformation that must be censored.

Hint: they don’t.

YouTube Is Going After Everyone Now

YouTube demonetizes gun review channel Justin Opinion (reclaimthenet.org)

Justin Opinion, a YouTube channel that reviews guns and related gear, has been told that it’s no longer eligible to monetize its videos because YouTube has deemed them to be “harmful content.”

The channel has been posting to YouTube since 2012 and during that time, it has racked up more than 23 million total views and gained over 84,000 subscribers.

I imagine that was fairly lucrative.

Well, we can’t have that. Not in 2021. YouTube won’t let anyone make any money off guns by using their service.

“From where I sit, it seems extremely arbitrary,” the channel’s host Justin said. “There was no information given that was of any use to me. I have always tried to comply with policies and to the best of my, of my knowledge, I do comply with their policies of YouTube and, but they say ‘harmful content’ is, is the reason.”

Justin added that because his channel is small, there’s nobody he can talk to at YouTube.

“‘We’ve made this arbitrary and vague ruling that drastically affects you, good luck with that,'” Justin said. “So, that is the, that is the hatred that is, that is the YouTube organization towards its ‘partners.'”

I just love Biden’s America, don’t you?

They Come For Everyone Eventually

Progressive news outlet Status Coup is at risk due to YouTube's heavy-handed censorship policies (reclaimthenet.org)

Once again YouTube has taken to making lives of independent creators and media who choose it as their distribution platform quite difficult, by removing content and threatening further restrictive action.

This time the policy of non-transparent removals hit Jordan Chariton, a progressive journalist, and an outlet he helped co-found, Status Coup.

After @YouTube @TeamYouTube has taken down 7-10 REPORTING videos from @StatusCoup of Trump supporters' bogus election fraud claims—which we challenged—they're now warning us we'll get a strike and week ban if more are found.

YouTube is really trying to push us off the platform pic.twitter.com/fXHgsPoRBR

— Jordan (@JordanChariton) April 8, 2021

YouTube must control the narrative. And part of that means that only “reliable sources” that agree with the narrative are allowed to post about it. If you’re a small shop, you can’t even post even if you agree.

If Opinions on Medicine From Medical Experts Violates Your Community Guidelines, You Have a Problem

YouTube censors DeSantis COVID-19 roundtable challenging lockdown consensus – TheBlaze

YouTube has removed a video of a public health roundtable hosted by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) with a panel of scientists and researchers who challenged the effectiveness of COVID-19 lockdowns and masks, claiming the discussion violated its Community Guidelines.

The roundtable, which took place at the state Capitol on March 18 and was streamed and posted to YouTube by WTSP-TV, featured former Trump White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Scott Atlas, epidemiologist Professor Sunetra Gupta, and researchers Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Martin Kulldorff.

The scientists and researchers discussed how public policy measures adopted during the pandemic to mitigate spread of the virus, including quarantining healthy people, shutting businesses down, and mandating mask-wearing, were inspired in part by fear rather than by scientific evidence.

They only want you to hear one side of the story. And they have the power to make sure that’s what happens. Welcome to the USSA.

Biden’s America, folks.

#IToldYouSo