(LifeSiteNews) – Google-owned YouTube announced Wednesday a new policy against videos that promote vaccine “misinformation.”
“We’ve steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general,” YouTube announced in a blog post, “and we’re now at a point where it’s more important than ever to expand the work we started with COVID-19 to other vaccines.” The Big Tech company boasted that it had removed 130,000 videos in just the past year for violating its “COVID-19 vaccine policies.”
The prohibition applies to “content that falsely alleges that approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects, claims that vaccines do not reduce transmission or contraction of disease, or contains misinformation on the substances contained in vaccines will be removed.”
The censorship will also extend to “content that falsely says that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them,” YouTube said. “Our policies not only cover specific routine immunizations like for measles or Hepatitis B, but also apply to general statements about vaccines.”
YouTube has already brought the hammer down on a number of commentators familiar to LifeSite readers, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Dr. Joseph Mercola and Dr. Sheri Tenpenny.
“The platform is also banning prominent anti-vaccine accounts, including Joseph Mercola’s channel and the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-linked Children’s Health Defense Fund,” tech website The Verge reported on Wednesday.
Mercola responded to the ban in a statement on his website.
“The world is becoming increasingly aware of the rampant corruption in the media and are rising up against tyrannical governments and the pharmaceutical industry that are coordinating this assault on our freedom and civil rights,” Dr. Mercola wrote. “Anyone who asks questions or challenges the hard sell is immediately censored on social media.”
“Independent media platforms that defend freedom of speech and the rights of Americans to speak out against the global tyranny will defeat the censorship extremists,” he said.
It did not take even a full day for YouTube to censor a commentator just for sharing comments made by someone else.
Daily Wire host Michael Knowles announced on his show today that YouTube removed his entire episode from Wednesday because he discussed NBA players who shared why they did not want to get jabbed. The conservative media company had to edit and then reupload the episode without the segment on the basketball players.
He said that he was accused of violating the policy against posting information that claims COVID vaccines are not effective in stopping transmission.
But as Knowles pointed out, Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control has said this before.
“Our vaccines are working exceptionally well,” Walensky told CNN host Wolf Blitzer on August 5. “They continue to work well for Delta, with regard to severe illness and death — they prevent it. But what they can’t do anymore is prevent transmission.”
This is still the position of the CDC, according to a September 15 “Science Brief” that summarizes the latest research and views of the agency. “Infections with the Delta variant in vaccinated persons potentially have reduced transmissibility than infections in unvaccinated persons, although additional studies are needed,” the post said.
PETITION UPDATE (9/27/21) -
United has agreed to put off its threatened COVID vaccine mandate for another 2 weeks, as proceedings came to a screeching halt in federal court last Friday.
Mark Paoletta, a partner at Schaerr Jaffe representing the plaintiffs, was quoted by Breitbart as saying:
"Now everyone can follow the court’s decision to take the time and care needed to carefully consider the legitimate claims our clients have as we seek a solution that allows United to take necessary steps to combat COVID-19 while respecting the civil rights of valuable employees who have sincere religious objections or medical conditions that make them unable to take the vaccine."
While this appears to be a lessening of tensions and possibly a step in the right direction, we must wait till the case resumes on October 15 to see if United will scrap their draconian mandate.
In the meantime, we must continue to apply pressure on United.
So, please continue to SIGN and SHARE this pledge to boycott the airline giant for threatening to impose harsh measures - including forced unpaid leave - in order to coerce employees with religious or medical objections to the vaccine to take the jab.
Thank you for continuing to SIGN and SHARE!
____________________________________________________________
United Airlines is accused of not respecting the religious and medical COVID vaccine exemptions which the company offered to employees who cannot, in good conscience or health, take the vaccine.
2,000 employees of the industry giant are represented in two court cases which have been initiated to stop United from laying-off or indefinitely furloughing workers who have sought COVID vaccine exemptions.
Please SIGN this BOYCOTT of United and send the airline a stong message that you will not support the implementation of these draconian measures.
Many United Airlines employees have sincerely held religious objections to taking the COVID vaccines, while other employees have been told by their doctors not to take the vaccine due to health concerns.
The religious and medical rights of these employees must be respected, and, will hopefully be vindicated by the courts.
But, airlines are for-profit businesses, and apart from the legal incentives, there must also be financial incentives for them to respect their employees' religious and medical rights, and, indeed, the same rights of all Americans.
And, that's why we are calling for a boycott.
The CEO of United Airlines, Scott Kirby, and HR Manager, Kate Gebo, need to understand that the American public will not support businesses who force their employees or customers to violate their religious beliefs or their doctors' recommendations.
Of course, this is totally unnecessary.
United could simply make reasonable accommodations for their employees who are claiming either a religious or medical exemption.
But, until United adopts that policy, we are asking you to consider boycotting the "unfriendly skies" and find another airline for your travel needs. By doing so, you will meaningfully stand shoulder-to-shoulder with these aggrieved United employees.
Thank you for SIGNING and SHARING this petition to boycott United Airlines over the company's failure to respect religious and medical COVID vaccine exemptions for its employees.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Pilots seek restraining order against United Airlines’ ‘unlawful, life-threatening, vaccine-mandate’' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pilots-seek-restraining-order-against-united-airlines-unlawful-life-threatening-vaccine-mandate/
'United Airlines will put employees with religious, medical COVID vaccine exemptions on unpaid leave' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/739949/
**Photo Credit: EQRoy / Shutterstock.com
Liberal law prof.: this is ‘corporate censorship’
A liberal law professor analyzed the situation and said that YouTube is being pushed to censor content that the federal government cannot legally silence on its own. The U.S. Surgeon General previously released a guide on how to stop “the urgent threat of health misinformation.”
“YouTube continued the expansion of corporate censorship on the Internet with the encouragement of leading Democratic leaders,” George Washington University law Professor Jonathan Turley wrote.
He gave several examples of U.S. Senators urging tech companies to silence conservative and contrarian views.
“This is the face of censorship. As demanded, the companies are now sanitizing their sites to remove opposing views on these subjects,” Turley argued. “Rather than offer a free forum for the full debate on such issues, anti-free speech advocates have again prevailed in silencing those with opposing views.”