Big tech is continuing to blacklist Donald Trump - even blocking content of the former president posted by users who are not associated with him.
Video of Trump’s recent Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) speech was taken down by YouTube on Thursday after the video platform said it violated their “misinformation” guidelines. The video, posted by Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN), had garnered nearly 4 million views prior to its removal.
RBSN’s Twitter account reported the news.
NEW: RSBN has been suspended from YouTube for two weeks because of the Trump #CPAC2021 speech, which violated their guidelines on election misinformation.
— RSBN 🇺🇸 (@RSBNetwork) March 4, 2021
The video was approaching 4 million views. They have also removed it from their platform.
RBSN says they were told the video would not have been removed if they had provided contrasting viewpoints to Trump’s election fraud claims, but said they refused to do so.
“It’s worth noting that according to YouTube’s terms, our video of Trump’s CPAC speech would have been allowed to stay up had we provided 'countervailing viewpoints,'" RBSN said."Essentially we would have had to go on air and say everything Trump just said about election fraud is not true."
"We won’t censor President Trump or push back against things he says that, quite frankly, we agree with," the group added.
YouTube, which is owned by Google, said in a statement that the video's removal is consistent with their guidelines.
“We enforce our Community Guidelines consistently, regardless of speaker or political leaning. In accordance with our established presidential election integrity policy, which prohibits content uploaded after the safe harbor deadline claiming widespread fraud changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, we removed this video from Right Side Broadcasting Network," the platform said.
Meanwhile, Trump himself continues to be banned from the site. On Thursday, during an event hosted by the Atlantic Council, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said that Trump’s suspended YouTube account will be restored when the “risk of violence” decreases.
“YouTube will rely on a mix of indicators to assess the level of violence, including statements by government officials, the readiness level of law enforcement and any violent rhetoric YouTube may observe on its own platform," she said, according to CNN.
Wojcicki added they won't lift Trump’s ban this week due to reported threats against the U.S. Capitol, saying, "It's pretty clear right now, that there is still an elevated risk of violence."