YouTube has once again deleted a video showing Courtney Ann Taylor speaking out against the mask wearing mandate imposed on children in schools in the US state of Georgia.
This time, the viral video recorded during a school board meeting got taken down from the YouTube channel of Grabien, Tom Elliot’s distributed news prep service.
Elliot revealed in a thread on Twitter that YouTube censored the video for a violation of community guidelines and medical misinformation rules.
However, Elliot, who unsuccessfully appealed the decision, believes not only that parents should have the right to voice their opinion on whether their children wear masks – but that Taylor’s comments did not actually violate YouTube’s policy quoted in the removal notice.
YouTube insists that its coronavirus-related moderation and censorship is based on the position of health authorities, most notably the WHO, yet not even this organization recommends that children must wear masks.
Elliot links to the WHO website where the topic of children and masks is discussed, with the UN agency concluding that there is no scientifically-based reason to make children wear masks.
Even though this is the argument Elliot used in his appeal, YouTube remained steadfast in its intention to prevent users from seeing the video, insisting that it does violate the medical misinformation policy, and justifying this as the need to be “a safe place for all.”
For those wondering what Taylor said and how it might be interpreted as spreading Covid misinformation, he provided a link to the Grabien website that has the video, uploaded on another platform, and a transcript.
Taylor is heard urging the school board to end the mandatory wearing of masks by children as unjustified, considering not only the availability of vaccines for adults, but also the fact that the virus does not affect young children. Taylor then shares that her 6-year-old had asked her to tell the school that she doesn’t want to wear a mask any longer.
Previously, YouTube deleted the same video uploaded by journalist Kyle Becker, but left it on large corporate channels like CBS and Fox, once again affirming the trend of catering to this type of users over independent creators.
