Footage from the American Conservative Union’s recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event in Texas was removed from YouTube last week, according to the conservative group.
The conservative conference told The Daily Wire that YouTube pulled the video for “misinformation” and gave CPAC a “strike” on September 23 — a sanction prohibiting CPAC from posting for one week, with two more strikes leading to the account’s removal. The CPAC event in Dallas, Texas, which took place from August 4 to 7, featured high-profile conservatives such as former President Donald Trump, Fox News host Sean Hannity, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
“The removal of CPAC Texas is yet another example of YouTube censoring conservative voices,” CPAC Chairman Matt Schlapp told The Daily Wire. “This cannot continue. The Silicon Valley monopolies abuse their control over the flow of information to prop up the Democrat Party. It’s time we rein in Big Tech.”
In recent weeks, YouTube has also banned conservative comedian Steven Crowder for two weeks after he interviewed Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. The company, a subsidiary of Google, amended its policies earlier this year such that users are now permitted to express skepticism about mask wearing.
Last year, YouTube issued a strike against CPAC’s account and banned the group from posting for one week. The video included coverage of a class-action lawsuit against large technology platforms spearheaded by Trump, in which the American Conservative Union is a plaintiff.
“It is clear that YouTube censored CPAC because we stood with former President Donald Trump on his lawsuit against Big Tech,” Schlapp said in a statement at the time. “This is yet another example of Big Tech censoring content with which they disagree in order to promote the political positions they favor.”
YouTube cited “medical misinformation” concerning COVID as the reason for removing the video, according to the American Conservative Union, although the social media company did not specify which remarks constituted misinformation.
Lawmakers have repeatedly debated antitrust and data privacy regulation in recent months. However, proposals such as the Open App Markets Act and the American Innovation and Choice Online Act have so far failed to become law.
Indeed, technology companies have repeatedly suspended or otherwise repressed conservative content. In one example from earlier this year, Libs of TikTok — an account known for reposting videos of leftist activists — was suspended from Instagram because the account or “activity on it” did not follow the platform’s community guidelines.
After satire website The Babylon Bee posted an article that jokingly named Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine, who identifies as a transgender woman, as “Man of the Year,” the publication was locked out of Twitter. According to Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, Elon Musk consulted with The Babylon Bee before purchasing a 9.2% stake in Twitter.
The platform has thus far refused to revoke its decision to lock The Babylon Bee’s account. According to Dillon, the company wrote: “Our support team has determined that a violation did take place, and therefore we will not overturn our decision.”
Likewise, conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey was suspended from Twitter on two separate occasions — once for saying a transgender Olympic weightlifting competitor is “still a man,” and again for denouncing a Fox News segment that highlighted a family who claimed their child was transgender before she could speak.
With respect to the latter incident, Twitter claimed that Stuckey had violated the platform’s “rules against hateful conduct.” Twitter eventually apologized and claimed staff had made an “error.”
