Tag: youtube

YouTube Censors Reporting On Leaked Trans Shooter Manifesto

YouTube has removed reporting by Steven Crowder on the pages of the withheld manifesto of the Nashville mass shooter that he managed to obtain, claiming that they “think it violates” their policy on “violent criminal organizations”.

Whatever that means is anyone’s guess. Crowder shared the development with a screenshot from his YouTube account, commenting “Investigative journalism is now considered a ‘criminal organization’”.

YouTube further told Crowder that “Content that glorifies violent criminal organization or incites violence is not allowed on YouTube.”

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Revealed: UK Intelligence Officials Are Behind The Censorship Of Russell Brand

Allegations of sexual impropriety and abuse by comedian and podcaster Russell Brand by the British media prompted YouTube to demonetize the star’s popular channel on September 20.

The Grayzone can now reveal that YouTube’s financial censorship of Brand is the result of an effort waged by a former British government minister who was responsible for London’s crackdown on dissent during the Covid-19 pandemic. Her husband has also participated in that campaign of state repression as deputy commander of 77th Brigade, the British Army’s psychological warfare division.

YouTube justified its demonetization of Brand on the grounds that he violated its “creator responsibility policy.” This marks the first time a content creator has been financially punished by the company for reasons other than the videos published on the site. A spokesperson has claimed, “if a creator’s off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action.”

The allegations against Brand date from betwee 2006 and ’13, and have yet to be proven in court. There is no indication the charges are being investigated by law enforcement in Britain or the US, where the offenses allegedly occurred. Brand has vehemently denied accusations of abuse and rape.

Brand’s videos analyzing political developments and topics such as the Covid-19 pandemic, corporate media propaganda and the Ukraine proxy war have earned him an audience of millions, making him one of the world’s most influential alternative media personalities. For this, he appears to have been marked as a threat to the narratives spun out by Washington and London.

New developments suggest YouTube’s censorship of Brand was driven by direct British government decree. On September 19, the social media companies TikTok and Rumble received a pair of almost identical letters dispatched from Caroline Dinenage, the head of the UK parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Dinenage informed the companies she was “concerned that [Brand] may be able to profit from his content” published on both platforms.

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YouTube suspends Russell Brand from making money off the streaming site after sex assault claims

YouTube said Tuesday that Russell Brand will no longer make money from the video streaming site after several women made allegations of sexual assault against the comedian-turned-influencer.

YouTube said monetization of Brand’s account, which has 6.6 million subscribers, has been suspended “following serious allegations against the creator.”

“This decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by Russell Brand,” the Google-owned video service said.

The suspension means Brand won’t be able to earn money from the ads that run within and alongside YouTube videos, which have titles including “What REALLY Started the Hawaii Fires?” and “Covid Tsar Admits Lockdowns Were NEVER About Science.”

Other channels associated with Brand’s main YouTube page include Awakening With Russell, which has 426,000 subscribers, Football Is Nice, which has some 20,000 subscribers, and Stay Free With Russell Brand, which has 22,200 subscribers.

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YouTuber Guilty For Selling ‘Metal Cards’ That DoJ Says Are “Machine Gun Conversion Devices” 

A Wisconsin gun dealer whose YouTube channel has 180,000 subscribers was convicted of “conspiring to transfer unregistered machine gun conversion devices” that were nothing more than metal bottle openers etched with patterns called “lightning links” that, when milled, can convert a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle into an automatic machine gun. 

Gun dealer Matthew Hoover, who operated the CRS Firearms channel, was found “guilty of conspiring to transfer unregistered machine gun conversion devices that they referred to as “Auto Key Cards,”” the Department of Justice wrote in a press release. He was convicted of four counts of transferring unregistered machine gun conversion devices and faces 45 years in jail. 

Also facing severe jail time is Kristopher Justinboyer Ervin. The DoJ said he was convicted “of seven counts of transferring unregistered machine gun conversion devices, three counts of possessing unregistered machine gun conversion devices, and one count of structuring cash transactions to avoid currency transaction reporting requirements.”

Ervin faces a maximum penalty of 110 years in federal prison. Sentencing for the two is scheduled for July 31. 

Hoover and Ervin sold lightning links, etched into metal cards, which he referred to as “Auto Key Cards,” from around $40 for one version to more than $180. Hoover touted the cards on his YouTube channel. 

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YouTube CEO: Our monetization policies are oriented towards making advertisers feel “safe,” “comfortable”

New YouTube CEO Neal Mohan discussed how advertisers are the focus of its monetization policies during an interview with tech and travel creator iJustine and said the intention of monetization policy changes is to make advertisers feel “safe” and “more comfortable.”

Mohan discussed “putting yourself in the shoes of the advertisers” and said, “you have to make it so that it feels to the advertiser not just safe but relatively clear in terms of where their advertising is going to run.”

He continued: “They don’t want to inadvertently damage their brand in any particular way and so our policies are really oriented towards that when I say…one of the best ways to increase creator monetization is to make advertisers more comfortable with the content and that is the goal of our policy changes.”

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Fitness YouTuber ‘Leo and Longevity’ Found Dead, Bloodied in Thailand at 34

Laith Abdallah Algaz, more commonly known as Leo Rex of the YouTube channel Leo and Longevity, was found dead in his apartment in Pattaya, Thailand.

The Colorado native and social media influencer promoted his unique blend of diet, exercise, mental conditioning, bodybuilding and nicotine to help people extend and live their best life.

His YouTube channel passed the 100,000 subscriber milestone last February and now boasts more than 123,000 subscribers. HITC news described the content on his channel as “typically…non-conventional” and focused on how people could “improve their mental and physical well-being.”

According to the Daily Mail, Charles Anthony alerted authorities on Jan 30 of a possible problem after multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact his friend Leo Rex.

As of Feb 1, authorities had not disclosed a cause of death, but officials have noted that Rex’s apartment was “unusually messy” and that the YouTuber appeared to have “multiple facial injuries.”

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YouTube censors and punishes Project Veritas over undercover Pfizer video

YouTube has deleted an undercover video by Project Veritas that showed a Pfizer director of research and development make comments about an idea he calls “directed evolution.”

YouTube has also punished the entire Project Veritas by issuing a “strike.”

“YouTube has taken down our Pfizer DirectedEvolution bombshell. It had 800K views,” O’Keefe announced on Twitter. “Pfizer is scrambling today per sources inside.”

“Project Veritas channel has been given a ‘strike’ and ability to upload ANY new videos is ‘restricted’ for a week with threats of future ‘permanent removal’ Project Veritas announced.

The subject of the video, Jordan Trishton Walker, Pfizer’s director of research and development strategic operations, was later approached by O’Keefe and his team in a New York restaurant and asked about the comments he made in the undercover video.

The later video showed the Pfizer employee becoming angry after being confronted by O’Keefe.

“You work for Pfizer,” O’Keefe said to Walker in the video. “My question for you is, why does Pfizer wanna hide from the public the fact that they’re mutating the COVID viruses?”

O’Keefe was referring to an undercover video, that YouTube has now deleted, where Walker said, “One of the things we’re exploring is like, why don’t we just mutate it [the COVID virus] ourselves so we could create — preemptively develop new vaccines, right?”

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Google, YouTube spend MILLIONS to launch Global Fact Check Fund

On Tuesday, Google and YouTube announced that they will be providing a $13.2 million grant to the nonprofit Poynter Institute’s International Fact Checking Network with the goal of launching a new “Global Fact Check Fund,” set to launch in early 2023.

The move, which marks the companies’ largest fact-checking grant to date, comes as they continue to ramp up their fight against “misinformation” online.

According to Google and YouTube, the grant will “support [the Poynter Institute’s] network of 135 fact-checking organizations from 65 countries covering over 80 languages.”

The companies justified their decision by noting that “helping people to identify misinformation is a global challenge.”

“The Global Fact Check Fund,” they explained, “will help fact-checkers to scale existing operations or launch new ones that elevate information, uplift credible sources and reduce the harm of mis- and disinformation around the globe.”

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YouTube Punishes Journalist for Factual Video Showing Democrats AND Republicans Make Election Fraud Claims

In September, video journalist Matt Orfalea made two videos for TK News that highlighted election denial in the past two presidential elections.

The first video, Memory Holed: “The Election Was Hacked,” was a montage of Democrat politicians and commentators saying that the 2016 election was illegitimate, hacked, or rigged.

The second video, Memory Holed, Part II: The “Rigged” Election, compares the statements made by Republicans after Donald Trump lost and those made by Democrats after he won in 2016.

For instance, when Trump was asked if he’d concede, he said “I have to see.” Orfalea showed Hillary Clinton saying, “No, I would not,” when asked the same question after she lost.

Matt Taibi at TK News highlighted the statements that were made the video:

“This video after all is packed with clips of people like Karine Jean-Pierre saying the 2016 election was ‘stolen,’ Joe Biden saying ‘I absolutely agree’ Trump is an ‘illegitimate president,’ Kamala Harris saying ‘you’re absolutely right’ Trump didn’t really win in 2016, and even Jimmy Carter saying ‘Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016.’ Old pal Keith Olbermann proclaimed the public wouldn’t stand for this ‘bloodless coup’ called voting, Chris Hayes said Trump ‘cheated,’ and a conga line of officials from Adam Schiff to Elizabeth Warren insisted foreigners had ‘hacked our elections.’”

Initially, YouTube demonetized both videos, then reversed the decision. However, on Friday, Orfalea announced that the second video had been removed. YouTube also gave his channel a strike which is a more serious YouTube punishment as getting strikes eventually results in a channel being permanently removed.

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YouTube: Users will have to commit to WHO-approved practices to be labeled as “reliable” in algorithm

In an attempt to limit “health misinformation,” YouTube announced it will certify medical professionals as “reliable” and “authoritative” sources of information.

In a blog post on the platform’s website, its global head of YouTube Health Dr. Garth Graham said: “YouTube Health has been working on additional ways to help doctors, nurses, mental health professionals and healthcare information providers to bring high quality health information into the spaces that people visit throughout their day – like their favorite video-sharing app.”

To apply to be labeled as reliable, users have to submit their license and adhere to the “best practices” for sharing health information set by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS), and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM).

YouTube gives “authoritative” sources a boost in the algorithm and non-authoritative sources are suppressed.

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