No dissent allowed, only the “opinions” approved by big tech may be disseminated.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a policy discuss with a group of physicians and scientists that are critical of strict lockdowns to fight COVID.
In the roundtable discussion DeSantis and the experts blasted the draconians lockdowns while pointing out the economic costs as well as the suffering of our youths with the schools shut down.
YouTube decided that having opinions that run contrary to the establishment is dangerous and thus they pulled the video, claiming it was “misinformation”.
What’s the “misinformation”? As the Wall Street Journal editorial points out:
“YouTube points to a video passage where Gov. DeSantis asks one panelist, Harvard biostatistician Martin Kulldorff, whether children need to wear masks, and Mr. Kulldorff says no. Dr. Jay Battacharya of Stanford adds that masking for children is “developmentally inappropriate.” Gov. DeSantis notes, accurately, that “if we went back a year, a lot of the experts would say that wearing masks for the general public is not evidence-based.”
A representative for YouTube said in a statement that they pulled it because they have “clear policies around Covid-19 medical misinformation to support the health and safety of our users. We removed AIER’s video because it included content that contradicts the consensus of local and global health authorities regarding the efficacy of masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19.”
You see, you are only allowed to see and hear the opinions that big tech want you to hear.
DeSantis's office says says pulling the video is "another blatant example of Big Tech attempting to silence those who disagree with their woke corporate agenda…YouTube claimed they removed the video because 'it contradicts the consensus of local and global health authorities,' yet this roundtable was led by world-renowned doctors and epidemiologists from Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard, all of whom are eminently qualified to speak on the global health crisis. Good public health policy should include a variety of scientific and technical expertise, and YouTube’s decision to remove this video suppresses productive dialogue of these complex issues."
The Wall Street editorial board writes about the ramification of big tech cancelling opinion they deem “wrong”:
"To hold elected representatives responsible for decisions they make, Americans need to know what those officials and their advisers are saying. That’s an essential democratic principle, and it’s as true for coronavirus response as any other policy challenge. So it’s chilling that Google’s YouTube, through its “medical misinformation policy,” appears to be systematically undermining the ability to access material in the public interest…
…Florida’s lighter-touch approach to Covid-19 is a topic of intense public debate, and this video offers a window into the thinking of the Governor and people who influence him. Even the most committed lockdown and mask hawk should be outraged that YouTube is banishing videos that bear directly on democratic accountability, including taxpayer-funded public hearings.
Consensus liberal opinion holds that concerns about Big Tech political censorship are manufactured. How much longer can that go on? Maybe not as long as Google thinks. The company is courting a backlash that could well result in its regulation as a common carrier, or worse, as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recently suggested."
Glenn Greenwald connects the dots.