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In the last year or so, people to the right of the far left have experienced systematic censorship, been demonetized, persecuted and banned from YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Now they are at it again, in what is nicknamed the great YouTube purge. It seems like YouTube’s old slogan “Broadcast yourself” has been replaced with “Stifle yourself or else…”
The difference between this purge and the previous ones, such as the “Adpocalypse”, where conservative YouTubers were demonetized, is that this time they went after moderate centrists who label themselves as classical liberals.
Recently world famous clinical psychologist and moderate classical liberal Dr. Jordan B. Peterson received a community strike. He was quickly reinstated but, as he points out, it is a chilling event to be placed in the same category as terrorists due to “hate speech.”
Here's some more "explanation" for the censorship: incitement of hatred, terrorist recruitment, incitement of violence, celebration of terrorism. Even to fall briefly and erroneously into such a category is a chilling event…. pic.twitter.com/F00kmIGXLX
— Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) January 2, 2018
Then only a few days ago, the British liberal known as Sargon of Akkad was shut out of YouTube with no warning or explanation. He sports more than 750,000 subscribers.
Simultaneously, popular pundit Paul Joseph Watson explains that InfoWars, to which he is a contributor, is only one community strike away from being permanently banned from YouTube. InfoWars has more than 2 million subscribers.
In the video below, independent journalist Tim Pool explains the purge on his channel, and how he too was targeted.
According to a press statement, YouTube claims the recent spate of bans and strikes was a mistake made by newly hired employees who misapplied the community guidelines. There is no way to verify this claim, but YouTube seems to be hiring disproportionally many social justice warriors and very few conservatives.
The purge does not appear to be entirely ideologically motivated, however. Google, and its subsidiary YouTube, have been receiving much negative press from its dwindling mainstream media competitors such as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
It makes sense for these competitors to try to stain the reputation of YouTube as a platform for hate, but it remains a mystery why the company chooses to erode its credibility by undermining its content creators just to woo its competitors. The bad treatment of their customers is an invitation to new competitors to rise to the challenge. The internet graveyard is full of has-beens such as Napster and MySpace. There is plenty of room for more.
In the short term, conservatives are having a hard time. The left is incapable of mustering rational arguments and therefore must turn to censorship, which certainly works. However, adversity is also making conservatives hardier with improved survival skills. In the long run the outcome may be the emergence of new platforms and an army of new media profiles that win the hearts and minds of an ever-growing audience.
Sargon of Akkad is back on YouTube, and every time the radical leftist mainstream media attack Jordan Peterson, more people learn about him and flock to his videos. The fact that even moderate voices are now being targeted is a sign of desperation and that their stranglehold on the culture is weakening.
