YouTube punished Sen. Paul this week after he questioned the benefit of cloth face masks, a punishment the outspoken lawmaker called a “badge of honor” by the “left-wing cretins at Youtube.”
A YouTube spokesman said Sen. Paul received a “first strike” by the website which is part of its “three strikes policy” that leads to an ultimate ban, The New York Post reported.
The popular video-sharing website, which averages five billion clicks daily, is owned by equally-powerful Google, and both are the first- and second-most visited websites on the Internet.
Reacting to Sen. Paul’s ban in a Daily Signal commentary, Jarrett Stepman suggests that YouTube itself was untruthful: YouTube said in a statement it removed the video because Sen. Paul claimed “masks are ineffective,” but the senator technically said the popular cloth masks are ineffective but the professional N95 masks are made to protect you from a virus, Stepman writes.
In the Daily Signal story, Stepman also notes Sen. Paul published a second video that complained YouTube is a private entity but is “acting like an arm of the government” by censoring alternative views that run counter to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
YouTube removed that video, too.
In an interview on the “Washington Watch” radio program, Jon Schweppe of the American Principles Project said the group experienced Facebook’s censorship when an affiliated PAC watched that mega-popular website yank a political ad during the 2020 election. The ad warned voters that a Joe Biden administration would support biological boys competing in all-female sports.
“Of course, as we know,” Schweppe pointed out, “on day one of his administration, Joe Biden signed an executive order that allowed men to participate in women's sports.”
It is past time for lawmakers to rein in the power of Big Tech through antitrust bills in Congress, Schweppe said, a reference to the federal government breaking up the monopolies.
That is a goal some GOP lawmakers have been working toward since 2020, led by Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), but media outlets such as The Denver Gazette report the congressman’s crusade is opposed by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and by Rep. Jim Jordan, the “Freedom Caucus” leader and a hero of grassroots Republicans.
Six antitrust bills passed out of the House Judiciary Committee in June thanks in part to Rep. Buck’s bipartisan help. They are expected to be introduced in the Democrat-led House sometime this year, the Post reported.
