After CatholicVote shared a video of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis calling masks “COVID theater,” YouTube removed the upload, stating it violated “community standards.” But the same video was posted by people and organizations who used it to attack DeSantis over his position, and in those cases, it was allowed to stay up on the platform.
In the midst of ever-changing standards for how the powers-that-be deal with COVID, the standard for what is (and conversely, what is not) “misinformation” is also constantly in flux. And both liberal media and Big Tech platforms weaponize the “misinformation” label to drive their own agenda. The CatholicVote episode is a great case in point.
In the video that CatholicVote uploaded to YouTube Wednesday, DeSantis can be seen telling a group of college students appearing with him at an event that their masks were unnecessary, saying, “You do not have to wear those masks. I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything and we’ve got to stop with this COVID theater.” Then he added, “So if you want to wear it, fine. But this is ridiculous.”
The Big Tech masters wasted no time in removing the video. As CatholicVote reported:
Shortly after CatholicVote uploaded a video of Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-FL, criticizing the use of masks as “COVID theater,” YouTube removed the upload, stating it violated “community standards.” After CatholicVote appealed the decision, the Big Tech platform backed down and reinstated the video.
The video — which was uploaded on Wednesday — was taken down Thursday and YouTube informed CatholicVote of the action in a message, stating, “Our team has reviewed your content, and, unfortunately, we think it violates our medical misinformation policy.” The message went on to say, “YouTube does not allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts local health authorities’ or the World Health Organization (WHO) medical information about COVID-19.” But in their benevolence, the nice folks over at YouTube wanted CatholicVote to know that there would be no penalty — this time. The message continued, “Because it’s the first time, this is just a warning. If it happens again, your channel will get a strike and you won’t be able to do things like upload, post, or live stream for 1 week.”
CatholicVote appealed YouTube’s decision Thursday afternoon, and YouTube reinstated the video.
Along with the reinstatement, the benevolent masters at YouTube sent an apology, saying:
Hello CatholicVote,
We have reviewed your appeal for the following content:
Video: Desantis: Please Take Off Your Masks
After taking another look, we can confirm that your content does not violate our Community Guidelines. Thanks for your patience while we reviewed this appeal. Our goal is to make sure content doesn’t violate our Community Guidelines so that YouTube can be a safe place for all — and sometimes we make mistakes trying to get it right. We’re sorry for any frustration our mistake caused you, and we appreciate you letting us know.
So far, this is par for the course; YouTube removed a video because they didn’t like it, they claimed it violated their blurry “Community Guidlines” that exist so that “YouTube can be a safe place for all,” and when they got called on it, they simply copped to “Oops. We made an honest mistake. Sorry for the trouble.”
This is standard. Since YouTube’s “Community Standards” are deliberately nebulous, they can be applied (or misapplied) any way the masters choose. It is up to the user to fight the machine. Kudos to CatholicVote for taking the time and effort. Few do. Even fewer win.
But besides all that, there are two other troubling points about all this. First, the video stating that masks are unnecessary was posted Wednesday. That is one day after Joe Biden stated in his State of the Union address, “Americans can remove their masks, return to work, stay in the classroom and move forward safely.” This writer does not think he takes any liberties by translating Biden’s statement to mean the same thing as “You do not have to wear those masks.”
So, at the time that YouTube removed CatholicVote’s video for spreading “misinformation,” by saying “You do not have to wear those masks,” that statement was already the official “truth.” The man who sits in the Oval Office had just said it the previous night on live television. And that State of the Union address — including the statement, “Americans can remove their masks, return to work, stay in the classroom and move forward safely” — had been live-streamed on YouTube and uploaded by nearly every media outlet.
And that brings up the second troubling point in all of this. Not only did YouTube not remove Biden’s State of the Union for being “misinformation” when he said masks are not necessary, but even the DeSantis video was allowed to be shared by others without it being removed. It appears the intent matters much more than the content. Those who — like CatholicVote — shared the DeSantis video because they agree with DeSantis are guilty of spreading “misinformation,” while those who shared it to criticize DeSantis are fine.
As CatholicVote Communications Director Joshua Mercer stated, “The problem is that we saw the same video remain up at numerous other news sites.” Mercer went on to say, “Only they shared the video to trash DeSantis, framing his comments as somehow dangerous or cruel.” YouTube didn’t remove those copies of the same video, Mercer pointed out. “But they removed ours. Why? My guess is because we wrote in the post that we agreed with him.”
And while Mercer refers to his assertion as a “guess,” it certainly fits the pattern of YouTube’s behavior in similar situations. Mercer went on to say:
YouTube did not make a blanket decision to remove the video everywhere on its platform — which itself would be problematic. Instead, they removed it from our page because we agree with [DeSantis] — while they left it up on numerous YouTube pages where it was used to attack a conservative politician.
It should now be obvious to everyone that Big Tech has no interest in providing a fair platform for free speech, but instead is trying to manipulate public opinion to their own agenda. Americans should be very worried that trillion dollar companies are placing their thumbs on the scale in our elections.
Mercer makes a good point about Big Tech “placing their thumbs on the scale in our elections.” YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and others are forevermore being caught tinkering with the scales where anything remotely political is concerned. And while this is not exactly like Facebook’s Zuckerberg violating election bribery laws to the tune of $9 million in Wisconsin, it is made of the same stuff. Big Tech’s censorship and political manipulation is always designed to benefit liberals and hurt conservatives.
