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Google Won’t Say Why It Suspended Classical Liberal Commentator Amid Latest YouTube Purge

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Rob Shimshock Education Reporter
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Google would not say Thursday why it suspended the YouTube account of a popular classical liberal commentator.

The social media giant locked Carl Benjamin — an anti-political correctness vlogger who boasts over 750,000 subscribers — out of his account, claiming Benjamin’s Google account “looked like it was being used in a way that violated Google’s policies.”

“My YouTube channels had zero strikes,” said Benjamin, who goes by the pseudonym Sargon of Akkad.

“We don’t comment on specific accounts but this looks Google Account related, not [YouTube],” said Andrea Faville, a Google spokeswoman, to The Daily Caller News Foundation. Faville provided a link to a page suggesting that Google accounts could be suspended because users violated Google’s Terms of Service or product-specific policies, two of which pertain to YouTube.

Benjamin appealed his suspension and regained access to his account later Thursday. He posted a video in which he speculated why Google locked him out.

“I think that, in a rather draconian fashion, YouTube [is] applying a rule to my account from an event that happened over a year ago,” said Benjamin. He recounted that another YouTube user had levied four copyright strikes against one of his secondary channels, resulting in that channel’s ban. “At the time, I had no notification that this was going to affect my Google account and it didn’t and I would appeal the strikes if I could get back into my YouTube account.”

But Benjamin described his speculation as “just a working theory.”

“I won’t lie, this was rather alarming,” said the YouTuber.

ALSO WATCH:

The Southern Poverty Law Center confirmed Thursday that it polices YouTube videos. The organization has branded moderate conservative organizations as extreme, an act which triggered a 2012 shooting at the Family Research Center. (RELATED: SPLC Confirms They’re Helping Police Videos On YouTube)

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