YouTube Deletes Video About Tech Insider Blowing Whistle on Pinterest's Censoring Bible Verses, Pro-Lifers: Report
YouTube, the largest video-sharing platform on the internet, has waged another attack in its war against free expression.
Last week, independent journalist Tim Pool posted a video detailing a Project Veritas report that Pinterest has been censoring the pro-life organization Live Action and marking Bible verses as “sensitive” content, according to TheBlaze.
On Friday, however, Pool’s video was removed by YouTube without warning or explanation.
“Youtube has removed my video on Censorship at Pinterest without notifying me or explaining what happened. I have no opportunity to appeal,” Pool wrote on Twitter.
This is the video in question.
There is no notification on my youtube channelhttps://t.co/7ulfHKLFYd
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) June 14, 2019
Pool claims that he’s not even able to appeal the removal of the video — a standard process for unpublished and removed content. He has also reached out to YouTube’s active Twitter team, but they had yet to respond by Monday afternoon.
(In a Breitbart post published Friday, Pool acknowledged that YouTube had contacted him via email after all. However, Breitbart reported, Pool “says the email was hidden away in the ‘social’ tab of his gmail account as opposed to his primary inbox.”)
The original Project Veritas report shows internal documents from Pinterest, which clearly shows employees designated Live Action as blacklisted, including pro-life group in the same category of pornographic websites.
In the wake of the report’s publication, Live Action was “permanently suspended” from the photo-sharing social network.
Pinterest told Fortune in an article published last week that “misinformation related to conspiracies and anti-vaccination advice” were the reason the pro-life organization was shut down. But Live Action thinks there’s something more at work.
In a June 11 statement, according to the Catholic News Agency, Live Action founder Lila Rose commented on the controversy, saying:
“Pinterest has targeted Live Action, I believe, because our message is so effective at educating millions about the humanity of the preborn child and the injustice of abortion.
“Pinterest users deserve to know the truth and our messages deserve to be treated fairly. If Planned Parenthood can promote their message on Pinterest, then Live Action should be able to as well.”
The “Sensitive Terms List,” which works similarly to the blacklist, was also leaked to Project Veritas. They include keywords such as “Bible verses” and “Christian Easter.”
This is a growing problem online — and there’s not much that can be done except for pro-life groups to spend tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars on creating viable competitors to these platforms.
And that’s no easy task, to say the least.
These social media giants have gotten away with the murder of free speech time and time again and when they’re called out, they make vague rationalizations and wait for the negative media attention to run its course. They wield unprecedented amounts of power and they’re well aware of it.
Americans must continue the fight for alternatives to Silicon Valley and support conservatives (or non-partisan developers) who build platforms in order to compete with liberal, big-tech companies.
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