Glenn Greenwald, journalist and co-founder of The Intercept, blasted YouTube for suspending Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul over his video “disputing” the “efficacy” of “cloth masks,” and warned “we’re now at the point” almost “no dissent is allowed.”
“Amazing: Google’s YouTube suspended @RandPaul — a US Senator and a medical doctor — for disputing the efficacy of cloth masks,” Greenwald tweeted Wednesday in a lengthy Twitter thread. (RELATED: Rand Paul Calls On Citizens To ‘Resist’ Mask Mandates And Lockdowns)
Amazing: Google’s YouTube suspended @RandPaul — a US Senator and a medical doctor — for disputing the efficacy of cloth masks.
JUST LAST WEEK: Biden’s former COVID adviser, the epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, told @camanpour exactly the same thing.https://t.co/QUfjY1Ae6U
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 11, 2021
“JUST LAST WEEK: Biden’s former COVID adviser, the epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, told @camanpour exactly the same thing,” he added.
“Here’s what DR. Osterholm, not just an epidemiologist but the Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and Biden’s own former COVID adviser, said on PBS. Read this: you can’t say this on YouTube.” (RELATED: ‘If They Can Do It To Me, They Can Do It To You’: Trump Publishes Op-Ed Doubling Down On His Criticism Of Big Tech)
Here’s what DR. Osterholm, not just an epidemiologist but the Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and Biden’s own former COVID adviser, said on PBS. Read this: you can’t say this on YouTube:https://t.co/zUqx18B2uQ pic.twitter.com/oNNSwBX9D8
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 11, 2021
Greenwald’s post highlighted remarks from Osterholm’s appearance on PBS in which he stated “we’ve all done a disservice to the public” because face cloth coverings “actually only have very limited impact in reducing the amount of virus” a person inhales in or exhales out. (RELATED: Glenn Greenwald Blasts Brian Stelter Over CNN’s Low Ratings)
Greenwald included Osterholm’s comments on “CNN saying exactly the same thing that @RandPaul just got suspended from YouTube for saying,” and asked “Why can [you] say this on CNN or PBS but not YouTube????”
Here’s Dr. Osterholm on CNN saying exactly the same thing that @RandPaul just got suspended from YouTube for saying: that cloth masks, as opposed to N95s, provide very, very little protection. Why can yo say this on CNN or PBS but not YouTube????pic.twitter.com/gHJodnERL7
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 11, 2021
The journalist talked about how many warned this kind of censorship would happen “when people like Alex Jones and Milo started getting de-personed from the internet” and “most cheered.”
“In 4 short years, we’re now at the point where almost no dissent is allowed,” Greenwald explained, as he noted people cheering Paul’s suspension are completely “authoritarian.” “There was always an authoritarian strain in US liberalism. But it become the dominant strain — the defining strain — when they got convinced during the [President Donald] Trump years that they were on the front lines fighting a fascist takeover, and now believe their adversaries are criminals.”
There was always an authoritarian strain in US liberalism. But it become the dominant strain — the defining strain — when they got convinced during the Trump years that they were on the front lines fighting a fascist takeover, and now believe their adversaries are criminals.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 11, 2021
“There’s one key point overlooked in discussions of Big Tech censorship,” he added. “Even if you want to reject the view adopted by the House Antitrust Committee that these are monopolies, their censorship is *not* purely ‘private company’ decisions. They’re coerced by Dems to censor.”
Over the last year, Congressional Dems — at least 3 times — have summoned the CEOs of Google, Facebook and Twitter and *explicitly threatened that they’d be punished with laws and regulations if they don’t censor more. That makes it quasi-state action.https://t.co/KBMZpFiSzL
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 11, 2021
Paul was suspended for seven days from the streaming site for allegedly violating YouTube’s “misinformation” rules after he claimed in a clip that “cloth masks don’t work” and most store-bought masks “don’t prevent infection.”
“I think this kind of censorship is very dangerous, incredibly anti-free speech, and truly anti-progress of science, which involves skepticism and argumentation to arrive at the truth,” Paul shared in a press release.
