YouTube Deletes Trump Speech, Temporarily Bans ACU Account

The American Conservative Union’s YouTube account was prohibited from posting content for one week after the organization posted a video of former President Trump announcing a class action lawsuit against numerous big tech platforms. The video was uploaded on July 9th, and the ban came just before the organization’s flagship event, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The conference took place July 9th-11th in Dallas, Texas, and included former President Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Ben Carson, and Candace Owens, among others.

In a statement, ACU chairman Matt Schlapp said, “it is clear that YouTube censored CPAC because we stood with former President Donald Trump on his lawsuit against big tech.” Schlapp went on to say, “this is yet another example of big tech censoring content with which they disagree in order to promote the political positions they favor.” YouTube cited its “medical misinformation” policy as the reason for removing the speech. They also issued a channel strike and implemented a week-long ban on the ACU channel. The temporary ban prevented the organization from streaming their event, including another speech from former President Trump.

The ACU believes the video was removed because of a reference Trump made to a study that suggested hydroxychloroquine was “effective in combating the virus.” The study was conducted by the Smith Center for Infectious Diseases and Urban Health and Saint Barnabas Medical Center. Trump cited it as an example of doctors and/or medical groups that have been prohibited from discussing alternative therapeutics in the battle against covid-19. The ACU went on to say, “clearly, Google’s political biases heavily influence YouTube’s definition of ‘misinformation’ and that the political beliefs of Google executives take priority over the free speech rights of Google users.”

Despite the heavy censorship, Trump still enjoys a great deal of support, according to a CPAC straw poll. The former President won 70% of ballots cast in the hypothetical CPAC primary election, up from the 55% he won in a similar poll from February. Governor Ron DeSantis came in a distant second place with 21%, while all other hypothetical candidates failed to garner more than 1% of the vote. However, when Trump was not on the ballot, DeSantis collected 68% of the vote.

The results of the straw poll and Trump’s speech were highly anticipated events of the CPAC weekend in Dallas. Other highlights included an unwelcome appearance by the often-censored personality Nick Fuentes and a spat over sponsorship and censorship involving fox nation and recent project veritas whistle-blower Ivory Hecker.

 

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