Sadly I have now been smacked with a “community standards” violation by YouTube, which is to say Google, for my video of Rand Paul’s outstanding challenge to the media to “Do your job” and name the whistleblower.
The video itself did not ever name the whistleblower, but my description did, which apparently violated YouTube’s policy because in some alternate universe the 100 views of my video would put the whistleblower in danger.
What is really infuriating is that (similar to my suspension from Facebook last month) there is no specific information provided about why you are suspended. Here’s what I was told:
“Our Community Guidelines and YouTube Policies are our ground rules for keeping YouTube safe for everyone. Your video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhUlwG3wu_s, was flagged for review. Because the video doesn’t contain enough context for us to determine if it violates our guidelines, your video is now only visible to you (private). However, you can make changes to address this and re-upload it again to the same URL.”
In other words, they don’t like what I posted, and if I can intuit what they don’t like and change it, then they may allow it.
I “intuited” that they didn’t like me naming the whistleblower, so I took his name out of the description and asked that the video be reinstated. So far, no response.
I also went ahead and reposted the video to a new link without naming the whistleblower. That new video is here:
I don’t think it will violate “your” community standards, but I’m waiting to find out about Big Brother, er, I mean Google. In fact, this is a scary echo of Orwell’s “1984,” where the hero works in the Ministry of Truth by disposing of unfortunate facts that violate “community standards.” Anything that doesn’t fit the party line is excised from public knowledge and dumped figuratively down the Memory Hole.
My little video probably wasn’t worth YouTube’s trouble. Like I say, it had only received a little over 100 views and probably would have vanished into obscurity without any help. But there are other videos receiving the same treatment that have a much wider potential role in the public debate. For instance, Gateway Pundit reported that YouTube has blocked a Judicial Watch video posted Friday about the alleged whistleblower.
I’m not sure about you, but I’ve always thought that the basis of our constitutional republic is an informed populace. If we lose the right to talk to each other freely, we are no better than Venezuela — or for that matter Russia. I thought the Democrats were supposed to be interested in protecting us from Russia, not turning us into it.
WHO WE ARE
Frank Miele has spent four decades in the news business and now offers conservative commentary to counter the left-wing bias in the national media. If you enjoy reading these daily essays, I hope you will consider purchasing one of my books. They are available at Amazon in paperback or Kindle editions. My new book — “The Media Matrix: What if everything you know is fake?” — shows that Fake News has been around for years. The “Why We Needed Trump” trilogy tackles the politics of the last two decades: Part 1 is subtitled “Bush’s Global Failure: Half Right.” Part 2 is “Obama’s Fundamental Transformation: Far Left.” Part 3 is “Trump’s American Vision: Just Right.” Also consider subscribing to Heartland Diary on YouTube by clicking here for News Every Conservative Can Use.
I am sick at the fact that George Orwell’s prescient story, “1984,” describes the censorship by a YouTube type of “State Media” which would interfere in showing your point of view. Liberals, and radicalized students in the 1990’s had a Supreme Court ruling (Justice Scalia voted yes) that BURNING THE AMERICAN FLAG was protected by their First Amendment rights. So your viewpoint, which did not involve burning a flag or anything else WAS NOT ALLOWED???? USC-Berkley had protesters arrive at a conservative speaker’s presentation a few years ago. Three bus loads of men, and maybe women, arrived on campus dressed in black and covered in masks. They destroyed a building, set fire to parts of it, scared any student who may have wanted to attend the presentation. All this to “protest” a conservative speaker on campus. Yet your YouTube video was pulled? The world needs more people like you who do not get discouraged with each roadblock. Thank you for your service.
Joe Morrisco
Bedminster, NJ 07921