YouTube now “Sharia-compliant,” bans any videos critical of Islamic immigration
07/26/2018 / By Isabelle Z.
YouTube has taken another step in its quest to silence conservative voices on its platform by removing four videos posted by InfoWars that were critical of mass immigration and Islamic terrorism.
Rather than hitting the videos with an age restriction, the platform decided to issue a copyright strike, which means that InfoWars will now be unable to post live broadcasts on its main channel. Should they receive future strikes, the channel will be banned entirely.
The reason stated by YouTube for banning some of the videos was that they were a violation of YouTube’s policy on “violent or graphic content.” This is not unlike a French law that saw Marine Le Pen charged with “distribution of violent images” for posting pictures of ISIS victims, according to InfoWars’ Paul Joseph Watson. Interestingly, the strikes go against YouTube’s policy, which allows the posting of graphic content in a “news, documentary, scientific or artistic context” provided it isn’t gratuitous.
Earlier this week, YouTube terminated the channel of the prominent independent news channel SGT Report, and there have been countless similar incidents of censorship on their part.
This spring, the Daily Caller reported that YouTube had enlisted the help of some very questionable groups in policing the content on its platform. For example, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) – which has been under fire for calling legitimate conservative organizations “hate groups” – is somehow allowed to decide which videos deserve a YouTube ban.
The group is one of more than 100 NGOs and government agencies that have been chosen for YouTube’s “Trusted Flaggers Program,” sources told the Daily Caller. Apparently, it doesn’t matter to YouTube that the group has been directly linked to past violence against conservatives, such as when a gunman who opened fire at the Family Research Center six years ago said he did so because the SPLC called them a hate group.
Of course, it’s not hard to find videos on YouTube that violate their policies. However, because their message is liberal, YouTube isn’t in any hurry to crack down on them. They only seem to exercise that right when the message is one that they don’t agree with.
People moving away from YouTube in droves in favor of free speech alternatives
It’s clear that people are becoming increasingly fed up with YouTube’s censorship. Our right to free speech includes criticism of immigration and many of the other topics that seem to draw the ire of the censors at the Google-owned video platform.
It’s no surprise, then, that the new free speech video platform REAL.video has been quickly gaining a large audience. On Sunday, Mike Adams reported that the site, which already has 3,000 videos live in the system with more being added every day, racked up to 600,000 viewed minutes of videos in just seven days.
On REAL.video, you’ll find lots of topics that YouTube doesn’t want people to hear about. For example, the Bible, off-grid living, cannabis and CBD oil, religion, meditation, and health freedom are all fair game.
REAL.video is committed to freedom of expression, and no videos have been banned yet on account of their content. In fact, Adams was inspired to start the platform when the entire Health Ranger video channel and its 1,700 videos about natural medicine and current events were banned by YouTube. Although they were ultimately reinstated without explanation – albeit with 100,000 subscribers mysteriously gone – YouTube’s credibility may never be restored.
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Tagged Under: Censorship, First Amendment, free speech, Google, InfoWars, Liberty, Real Video, Sharia Law, Social media, Southern Poverty Law Center, tech giants, YouTube
