These days, censorship on YouTube is not only escalating in intensity but is also broader and more far-reaching than before, covering a range of topics like health, hate speech, misinformation, and politics, including, among other controversies, QAnon.
One common theme that emerges from what the Google-owned giant considers fair, balanced, and necessary moderation is that those on the receiving end of it see evidence of clear bias, particularly against conservative voices.
We obtained the copy of the lawsuit for you here.
A group of YouTube creators convinced that this is happening has decided to sue YouTube for removing their channels as part of what they say was a massive campaign of deplatforming that damaged the right to freedom of information of conservative creators and US voters, mere days before the presidential election.
They are alleging breaches of contract and covenant of good faith and fair dealing, as well as violation of their free speech rights, yet – just like previous lawsuits of this kind, YouTube will likely defend itself using their own First Amendment rights as well as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Seeking an emergency injunction, this legal action was taken by owners of conspiracy channels banned by YouTube on October 15, when the giant carried out its purge of QAnon-associated content.
QAnon followers believe in a conspiracy involving an international pedophile ring, while mainstream media and big social platforms have been reacting to dissemination of this type of content with resolute censoring, deranking, and deplatforming.
Google said that it could not comment on the lawsuit, adding, “our policies are updated regularly to meet new challenges, like harmful conspiracies that have been used to justify real-world violence.”
