Today’s blacklisted American: YouTube shuts down conservative channel during its annual conference
No free speech for conservatives on YouTube!
Blacklists are back and YouTube’s got ’em! The American Conservative Union (ACU) was banned by YouTube this week, a ban that coincided precisely with the ACU’s annual convention, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), thus preventing it from airing content from the event.
The ACU, which hosts the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), received “a strike” on their account from YouTube on July 9, preventing them from uploading new content for a week. This includes ACU’s CPAC 2021 Part 2 in Dallas, Texas, and Trump’s CPAC speech scheduled for Sunday, the organization said in a statement.
In addition, YouTube unilaterally deleted a CPAC video featuring Trump’s announcement of a lawsuit against big tech companies like Google and YouTube for their censorship of conservative speakers. As the Google company routinely does when it blackballs conservative content it does not like, it vaguely claimed there was “‘medical misinformation” about COVID-19 during Trump’s speech, without specifying the exact statements that gave offense.
The old ACLU motto, when that organization believed in free speech, was “the answer to bad speech is more speech.” Thus, rather than censor anyone from saying anything that YouTube doesn’t like or disagrees with, the platform could highlight alternative statements by others. That would still be unethical and biased, but at least it would not be engaging in censorship and thuggery.
Nah. Companies like Google and YouTube aren’t into free speech and open debate. They are for oppression and rule without opposition. They are afraid of open debate, because probably they know they would lose the debate quite badly in such circumstances. Instead, their answer to anyone who says anything they don’t like is to move to silence them.
All this provides more reason to stop using Google as your search engine. It takes literally ten seconds to make any one of several more secure search engines your default, such as DuckDuckGo, MyPrivateSearch, or Qwant. People should also get off Gmail and find another email service.
The goal in all this is not so much to put these oppressive companies out of business, but to create viable competitors. Competition always helps the little guy, and makes the big guy have second thoughts about doing evil, as it might come back to bite them.
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Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
Your support is even more essential to me because I not only keep this site free from advertisements, I do not use the corrupt social media companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook to promote my work. I depend wholly on the direct support of my readers.
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No free speech for conservatives on YouTube!
Blacklists are back and YouTube’s got ’em! The American Conservative Union (ACU) was banned by YouTube this week, a ban that coincided precisely with the ACU’s annual convention, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), thus preventing it from airing content from the event.
The ACU, which hosts the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), received “a strike” on their account from YouTube on July 9, preventing them from uploading new content for a week. This includes ACU’s CPAC 2021 Part 2 in Dallas, Texas, and Trump’s CPAC speech scheduled for Sunday, the organization said in a statement.
In addition, YouTube unilaterally deleted a CPAC video featuring Trump’s announcement of a lawsuit against big tech companies like Google and YouTube for their censorship of conservative speakers. As the Google company routinely does when it blackballs conservative content it does not like, it vaguely claimed there was “‘medical misinformation” about COVID-19 during Trump’s speech, without specifying the exact statements that gave offense.
The old ACLU motto, when that organization believed in free speech, was “the answer to bad speech is more speech.” Thus, rather than censor anyone from saying anything that YouTube doesn’t like or disagrees with, the platform could highlight alternative statements by others. That would still be unethical and biased, but at least it would not be engaging in censorship and thuggery.
Nah. Companies like Google and YouTube aren’t into free speech and open debate. They are for oppression and rule without opposition. They are afraid of open debate, because probably they know they would lose the debate quite badly in such circumstances. Instead, their answer to anyone who says anything they don’t like is to move to silence them.
All this provides more reason to stop using Google as your search engine. It takes literally ten seconds to make any one of several more secure search engines your default, such as DuckDuckGo, MyPrivateSearch, or Qwant. People should also get off Gmail and find another email service.
The goal in all this is not so much to put these oppressive companies out of business, but to create viable competitors. Competition always helps the little guy, and makes the big guy have second thoughts about doing evil, as it might come back to bite them.
I must unfortunately ask you for your financial support because I do not depend on ads and rely entirely on the generosity of readers to keep Behind the Black running. You can either make a one time donation for whatever amount you wish, or you sign up for a monthly subscription ranging from $2 to $15 through Paypal or $3 to $50 through Patreon.
Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
Your support is even more essential to me because I not only keep this site free from advertisements, I do not use the corrupt social media companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook to promote my work. I depend wholly on the direct support of my readers.
You can provide that support to Behind The Black with a contribution via Patreon or PayPal. To use Patreon, go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. For PayPal click one of the following buttons:
If Patreon or Paypal don't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
Or you can donate by using Zelle through your bank. You will need to give my name and email address (found at the bottom of the "About" page). The best part of this electronic option is that no fees will be deducted! What you donate will be what I receive.
Free speech has always been a red herring. At least the lolbertarians at Samizdata finally said the quiet part out loud:
“Free speech was, after all, built on the right to blaspheme.”
I de-Googled years ago after some incident that I no longer even recall (might have been prop 8 related – or that could be why I got rid of Netscape). The exception: I have two gmail accounts. They’re both very old and well known (to people who know me). Changing them would be painful, but I’m about to move, so that seems like a good reason to start a new email address – even if I don’t immediately decommission the old ones.
Anyone have a suggestion for an alternative? Work uses Office360, so outlook.com is a known-to-me option, but is Microsoft really any better than Google?