UPDATE: A YouTube spokesperson provided NewsBusters with the following statement after the removal:
“We removed content from the CPAC channel for violating our election integrity policy, which prohibits content that advances false claims that widespread fraud changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, such as claiming that the election was rigged. Our policies apply to everyone, regardless of the uploader’s political views, and while we do allow content that provides additional context such as countervailing views, the content we removed from this channel was footage that did not provide sufficient context.”
YouTube removed hours of speeches from Congressional members that were live-streamed at last month’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
The Federalist reported that the platform, which is owned by Google, removed videos from speakers like former President Donald Trump that discussed Big Tech’s alleged meddling in the 2020 election. Speeches from Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) were also reportedly removed.
Biggs said there was no notice of the removal.
"The only notice we got from YouTube was that our videos were 'flagged' for 'misinformation,'" Biggs said in a Twitter post. "No additional details were provided. We appealed and recently learned that all of our appeals have been 'rejected.'"
Boebert also responded to the removal on Twitter.
"Youtube's censorship has become COMPLETELY out of hand," she tweeted. "Two entire days of CPAC were just ripped off the website - including my speech."
CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp slammed the decision and said the organization’s channel received a “strike.” YouTube strikes can result in suspensions or permanent bans if they reach a high enough threshold.
“Regardless of your personal beliefs and those of your senior leadership (not to mention your absolute liberal bias), there remain very serious questions about the way the 2020 election was conducted. Removing our content does not erase those questions, no matter how hard you try. Indeed, it is telling you offer no evidence that would demonstrate any falsity in the content you censored,” Schlapp wrote in a letter to Google according to Breitbart.
CPAC's YouTube channel had nearly 43,000 followers at the time of the removal.
Rachel Bovard–a board advisor for MRC Free Speech America and the senior tech columnist at The Federalist whose segment with the publication’s co-founder Sean Davis and Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) was also removed–told the publication that the removal was part of a pattern of censorship:
“In a matter of weeks, Big Tech platforms have banned speech identifying biological men as men, removed video of a sitting U.S. senator criticizing them, banned a news service for streaming a speech from former President Trump, and changed policy to allow calls for assassinations, as long as they’re against Russians. These companies represent the biggest speech platforms in the world, and are actively seeking to change free speech culture in America along overt ideological lines. They aren’t scared of their users, and they aren’t scared of Congress. They cannot be shamed. It’s time for Congress to act aggressively.”
“In America, the people rule. Not the tech tyrants. The time for our self-government to act is growing more urgent by the day,” she added.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your local representative 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 using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
