‘It’s Bizarre’: Dr. Drew Says YouTube Censored Account for Virus Talk

February 17th, 2021 12:06 PM

YouTube has reportedly censored another medical doctor for the cardinal sin of discussing COVID-19.

Dr. Drew Pinsky, known primarily as Dr. Drew, said that he was censored on YouTube, which has made him just the latest victim in YouTube’s rampage against “medical misinformation.”   

“Last week, YouTube struck down my video with another physician. Youtube is presumably allowing non-medical professionals to dictate the accuracy of medical information, which violates their own policy and CDA 230. Do you trust a 23yr old computer coder with your life?” Pinsky asked in a tweet Monday.

Dr. Drew railed against YouTube’s censorship of his channel in an interview on The Rubin Report. “I was in some sort of one week deplatforming. I was actually— and threatening with permanent deplatforming for absolutely reasons I cannot determine,” he said. “I was sent a list of policies that are not to be violated, and they were nowhere near anything I was talking about. The only thing that came close, that I could imagine is, I had COVID, and I was discussing the status, as measured, of my immunity, and somehow, discussing immunity is touchy for [YouTube].”

Pinsky expressed his frustration that “non-medical professionals are determining what is appropriate for physician conversation in the public sphere, which is anathema. It’s bizarre, and there’s so many things wrong with that, I can’t even begin to talk about it.”

YouTube’s Help Center explained that content about COVID-19 that does not meet its guidelines “will continue to have Limited or no ads on that content.” The platform will not monetize “Content that misinforms users about health matters related to COVID-19. This includes content that encourages non-medical tests or exams for COVID-19, or false/unsubstantiated claims about the cause, promotion of dangerous remedies or cures, origin or spread of COVID-19 that contradict scientific consensus.”

A YouTube spokesperson said that Dr. Drew's channel "has not been demonitized" in a comment to TechWatch. 

YouTube has also gone so far as to censor Senate testimony from a doctor about a potential treatment (Ivermectin) for the virus earlier this month. The video platform also bragged in January that it had removed over 500,000 videos about the virus.  

 


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