Ben Stein, an economist, writer, and actor, has been suspended from YouTube over health “misinformation.” Stein’s channel, “The World According to Ben Stein,” was suspended for a week.
In the most recent episode, Stein talked about coronavirus vaccines. He questioned their efficacy, considering that fully vaccinated people are still getting sick. However, he said he would get a booster shot if his doctor advised it.
“I got in bed with my wife of some 53 years to watch old DVDs of Perry Mason. The phone rang. It was Judah Friedman to tell me that he had just been notified by ‘YouTube’ that they would not be showing the ‘show’ we did last night and further that we were banned from YouTube for a week,” Stein wrote.
“Our crime? That we had questioned the Covid vaccine and gone against the prevailing wisdom of the experts on Covid in our area and nationally. That was enough to get us banned on YouTube for a week.”
Noting YouTube’s monopolistic power, he wrote: “YouTube is such an immense communications entity that to be banned from it is to banned from national mass communication. Yes, it’s not part of the government, so the First Amendment does not strictly apply to it. BUT, it is so big that it approximates the government. And to be banned from it is to be banned from national debate on important issues.”
“The reasoning of YouTube — ‘THOU SHALT NOT QUESTION EXPERTS’ — could easily be applied to issues of foreign policy or taxation or the national deficit. The reasoning of YouTube means the end of free speech. It means The End of America.”
