YouTube removed a video featuring incoming Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The video is of a speech she gave at the 2019 World Congress of Families, where she focused on family values.
The removal of the video sparked outrage among many, considering the video had been on the platform for years and was only censored when Meloni was elected as Italy’s first woman Prime Minister.
In the speech, Meloni outlines why she believes family is important:
“Why is the family an enemy? Why is the family so frightening?
“There is a single answer to all these questions. Because it defines us. Because it is our identity. Because everything that defines us is now an enemy for those who would like us to no longer have an identity and to simply be perfect consumer slaves.
“And so they attack national identity, they attack religious identity, they attack gender identity, they attack family identity.
“I can’t define myself as Italian, Christian, woman, mother. No. I must be citizen x, gender x, parent 1, parent 2. I must be a number.
“Because when I am only a number, when I no longer have an identity or roots, then I will be the perfect slave at the mercy of the financial speculators. The perfect consumer.
“That’s the reason why we inspire so much fear. That’s why this event inspires so much fear. Because we do not want to be numbers. We will defend the value of the human being. Every single human being. Because each of us has a unique genetic code that is unrepeatable. And like it or not, that is sacred. We will defend it. We will defend God, country and family.”
After YouTube was contacted about the censorship of the video, the Big Tech platform restored the video and said that it was censored in error.
“Upon careful review, we determined this video is not violative of our Community Guidelines and have reinstated it,” said a spokesperson for YouTube. “We enforce our policies regardless of the speaker’s political views and when it’s brought to our attention that a video has been mistakenly removed, we review the content and take appropriate action, including restoring the relevant videos or channels – as we have done with this video.”
YouTube did not explain why the video was removed in the first place.
