YouTube Removed RNC Podcast with Trump for So-Called 'Misinformation': Report
Autumn Johnson April 3rd, 2022
YouTube once again removed content that involved former President Donald Trump.
The Washington Times reported that the platform removed the Republican National Committee’s podcast with Trump for so-called election “misinformation.” McDaniel hosted an interview with Trump for the RNC’s “Real America” podcast where the former president claimed that the 2020 election was “rigged.”
YouTube claimed the podcast violated the platform’s “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 video we removed from this channel did not provide sufficient context,” Ivy Choi, a spokeswoman for YouTube, said
RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel told the publication the move was another instance of “Big Tech’s chilling approach to censoring conservative opinion.”
“Silicon Valley oligarchs care more about advancing their political agenda and de-platforming their opponents than they do about free speech,” she said. “This blatant censorship should concern every American: if they can silence a former President, they can silence any citizen who they view as stepping out of line.”
Social media alternative CloutHub slammed YouTube’s action.
“Tech giants claim that they want to protect free speech -- but their actions prove the opposite. Big Tech is beyond redemption! #ThinkSpeakFreely,” the platform said.
Newsbusters reported just last month that YouTube removed content from the 2022 Conservative Political Action Committee’s conference. The platform removed videos that contained comments from Trump that discussed Big Tech’s alleged meddling as well as speeches from Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO).
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. "No additional details were provided. We appealed and recently learned that all of our appeals have been 'rejected.'"