CV NEWS FEED // 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.
In the video CatholicVote uploaded Wednesday evening, DeSantis told a group of college students at an event that they could take off their masks. “You do not have to wear those masks,” he said. “I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything.”
“We’ve got to stop with this COVID theater,” DeSantis added. “So if you wanna wear it, fine, but this is ridiculous.”
“We agree!” CatholicVote wrote in the post on YouTube. “It’s time to end the COVID theater.”
After YouTube removed the video Thursday morning, the platform sent a message to CatholicVote, saying: “Our team has reviewed your content, and, unfortunately, we think it violates our medical misinformation policy.”
“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,” the message explained. “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.”
The message from YouTube went on to provide links to the platform’s guidelines. “Review your content with our policies in mind,” it said. “If after reviewing your content you think we made a mistake, let us know. You can appeal this decision here.”
CatholicVote appealed YouTube’s removal of the video Thursday afternoon. Shortly after, YouTube reinstated the video, and sent a message apologizing for the removal:
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.
“The problem is that we saw the same video remain up at numerous other news sites,” said CatholicVote Communications Director Joshua Mercer. “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.”
“In other words,” Mercer continued:
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 him – 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.
Readers can watch the video upload that YouTube removed by clicking here.