YouTube received criticism from a U.S. congresswoman after it reportedly removed a video of a news conference that discussed a legal challenge to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “vaccine passports.”
In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis said the Big Tech giant blocked her 45-minute news conference announcing a lawsuit against Mayor de Blasio.
Malliotakis said that while she believes the vaccine is safe, a mandate is “clear government overreach.”
"[I]t's absolutely ridiculous that the government is mandating these small business owners, who by the way are short-staffed because of problems created by [the] government...to be the vaccine police,” she said.
"We will not accept this kind of government control and intervention in our lives. [The] [g]overnment's job is to tell the community, tell our constituents, why the vaccine is important, why it's effective, show the science, show the facts, and let individual Americans make the decision with their doctor on what's in the best interests of themselves and their families," she added.
In the op-ed, she said YouTube never explained its decision to remove the conference, citing its “medical misinformation policy.” She stated that she appealed the decision twice, and after YouTube reviewed the appeal, the video was reinstated.
She also pointed out the hypocrisy that while violent tyrants have a platform, a former U.S. president was suspended because of the nature of his tweets:
“Behind the platforms, the people deciding what is 'misinformation' and a violation of 'community guidelines' are doing so in a subjective manner. Social-media giants suspended the U.S. president while continuing to provide a megaphone to tyrants like Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Venezuela’s Nicolas Máduro and Cuba’s Miguel Díaz-Canel.
“Big Tech seems focused on acting as an extension of big government, quashing content from those who oppose their liberal ideology. President Biden has criticized social-media platforms, notably Facebook , for allowing the spread of “misinformation.” Press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration is ‘in regular touch with social media platforms” to flag problematic posts.’”
Twitter has also recently faced criticism for its decision to suspend prominent conservatives on its platform.
Conservative commentators Erick Erickson and Allie Beth Stuckey were both suspended from Twitter after they said that transgender Olympian Laurel Hubbard was “still a man.”
Liz Harrington, Trump’s chief spokeswoman, was also suspended after she alleged that voter fraud kept Trump from winning the 2020 election.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact YouTube at 650-253-0000 and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
