Digital Censorship: The New Book Burnings!
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On Sunday February 15th, I was standing at a table inside a church, waiting to donate blood for the first time in my life. I was pretty excited considering I’m the only person in my family that doesn’t know their blood type. As I was waiting, I was scrolling through my phone, getting rid of the junk email and saw something I had never seen before regarding my Youtube channel.
According to Youtube, one of my videos had to be DELETED from their site because I was engaging in “deceptive practices” regarding the 2020 Election. The video in question talks about Trump’s Acquittal and an article from Time Magazine which puts forth the claim that there was a liberal conspiracy to ensure Donald Trump wouldn’t get re-elected.
That’s right, I literally read an article and broke it down about 2(ish) weeks ago and Youtube flagged me for “deceptive practices”. I thought this was absolutely ludicrous. Shouldn’t they go after Time Magazine for the article…I mean they shouldn’t but I was reading their article. Plus the article essentially lays out how the a AFL-CIO advisor came up with the plan to bolster votes for the Democratic Party through targeted ads. Similar to how Cambridge Analytica did in 2016 for Trump.
So in my appeal I explained all that to Youtube. But within 12 hours they rejected my appeal and decided they’re going keep the video deleted from my channel. They gave me a warning and said the next one would be a strike, which would prevent me from livestream and upload content for a full week.
The following day on Tuesday, I was at my side gig of taking care of the Golden Girl. She decided she needs a nap at 6pm. She’s 85 and has dementia, so hey, you’ve earned it. Go take a nap. Once she did, I was looking through my Youtube videos getting ready to update my website, and I notice another strike on my channel. Two strikes in 48 hours!
Struck me as odd. Pardon the pun there.
The video in question, titled “PROOF America Is NOT A Democracy”, addresses how America is actually a corporate oligarchy, which it is.Politicians are bought and sold, elections are bought and sold and with Citizens United in place, America has solidified its place in being the next oligarchy.
Nowhere in that video do I claim that Biden isn’t the President or tell people the wrong election date or closed polls early. Do I look like the Republican Party here? Did I morph into an anthropomorphic elephant? Do I look like the Democratic Party here? Did I morph into an anthropomorphic Hilary Clinton? You guys have to tell me if I have.
I merely question whether we should be calling something a Democracy when the evidence would suggest it is not. And deleting a video that questions the nature of currency being involved in elections just proves that we don’t live in a Democracy. A Democracy doesn’t squash the voices of dissent.
The Founders of this country (as troubling as they were) encouraged dissent. Well a few of them did. Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin did. Madison wanted this country to be huge so we could dissent and be organized at the same time and Hamilton just wanted a king. And that was something else I point out. The structure of American politics just compartmentalizes oligarchies within the parties and the three branches of the government.
I explained this in my appeal and within 45 minutes it’s rejected. I felt like this was a targeted attack. Like did Youtube even read my appeal? Unlikely algorithms seem to have the literacy of a kindergartener. The speed at which these strikes were coming and how quickly the appeals were rejected made me wary that Youtube was about try something truly nefarious in terms of censorship.
I contacted a few of my friends who I know are also lefty Youtube commentators to let them and keep an eye out for this kind of shenanigans. Lee Camp, a good friend, mentor and someone I often open for, put a tweet which sounded the alarms of the highest levels of censorship. Graham Elwood just called them “Motherfuckers” and I agree with him.
And just the other morning (February 25th), Consortium News’ live video addressing the voter suppression of Black Voters was taken down for the same reason! The video was an interview with investigative journalist Greg Palast who was on the ground in Georgia where 200,000 voters were purged out of the roll for things like changing their address.
Even before all this, at the end of last year, an Academic Conference on Digital Censorship was completely taken down without notice by Youtube. The entire channel literally disappeared overnight and when asked, Youtube shrugged their shoulders and put up one of their videos.
More recently, Comedian Randy Credico’s video was deleted on erroneous charges of being dangerous for kids. Why? Because he read a passage on his podcast from the youth version Edward Snowden’s book, “Permanent Record”. Youtube claimed his materials were harmful to children despite the fact this channel is not and never was a channel intended on being for the youth. Again the video here was deleted.
Youtube basically looked at his video and said “You shan’t be teaching the youth about the truth about the intelligence community! I strike thee with all the might of the internet itself!” Also can I just make a note that so called intelligence agencies practice counter intelligence, meaning the opposite of intelligence. They’re basically saying what they do is dumb so can we stop normalizing their bullshit?
And now our friends over at Hard Lens Media have also been silenced by Youtube! Hard Lens Media, like Consortium News & Randy Credico, are a bigger channel than mine but address similar issues as well as local Chicago politics! But mere mention of REAL existing corruption in the election process and videos are getting deleted. This is nothing more than an effort to hide how broken this election system in this so called “democracy” is.
This level of Digital Censorship, where videos about truth of how election fraud does occur or anything the establishment Democrats don’t want the public to know about disappear, is basically the new form of book burning. This is thought police shit. It’s authoritarian. It’s dystopia.
Youtube’s algorithms are unaware of the content of these videos, but rather go off titles, descriptions and metadata. The algorithms aren’t programed with a conscience to determine whether a valid argument is made or not. Much like most of America, Youtube Algorithms are basing their decisions on headlines and not really reading the whole article.
And when you appeal, it’s running it through the same filter so the results are the same. It’s filling a water ballon and you discover there’s a hole it and then you dump out the water and refill the same balloon and are shocked that it’s still leaking.
My thought is that their plan was go after smaller creators, and give them these strikes to get the channel deleted. Or at the absolute least, discourage them from speaking out against election fraud of any kind or any anti-establishment topics. Then aim for some of the bigger ones. They might leave a few lefty progressive channels on there but it’ll primarily become a site for corporate media to drone on about how great the Democrats (or Republicans, but really there’s very little difference there) are or how Russia and China want to eat your freedom.
Till next Tuesday night, I can’t upload or stream on my channel. These videos are a way that I’m earning an income. My channel has been censored time and time again and every time it starts to grow, Youtube tampers with it and slows it growth. It’s time deviate away from Youtube. It’s time to start divesting from these tech oligarchs who are modern day book burners.
Start signing up for alternative social media and video platforms that encourage critical thought and let you determine whether you want to pay attention to a creator or not. Go make an account on Minds, Rokfin, Mastadon, Odysee and any other alternative site. Sign up for your favorite creator, comedian, musician, journalist’s email lists and keep in them there.
On these current corporate media platforms, you eventually won’t hear any other perspective other than “Democrat good, Republican bad” or “Republican good, Democrat bad” or “All hail the CIA”. Deleting videos that make valid arguments and points against a system built on inequality, proves that inequality. And it proves my statement that America is not (and never really was) a Democracy. Till then this authoritarian dystopia will continue to grow.
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About The Author
Krish Mohan
Krish Mohan is a socially conscious, Indian standup comedian and writer who regularly tours the country. He performs at small theaters, bars, comedy clubs, colleges, DIY and house venues. With his quirky attitude, charming personality, and intelligent humor, Krish captivates and engages audiences of all backgrounds, tackling hot button topics like race, religion, war, immigration, while adding an optimistic, philosophical & sociological twist!