EXCLUSIVE — American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp slammed YouTube on Thursday, calling the company “liars” after the website took down video content from half of the organization’s semiannual Conservative Political Action Conference. He also said the ACU is “officially revoking” its “somewhat laissez-faire” approach to Big Tech, now opting for a “nuclear option” to regulate companies like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
“We are aggressively going to be for the nuclear option on these companies. They are of no goodwill. They are not acting fairly. They lie about their policies,” Schlapp told the Washington Examiner.
The “only way” to stop these companies “is when they fear our ability to regulate them and our ability to pass legislation and our ability to sue them,” he said. “And so we are now for all those options.”
Schlapp added that they support “the policies that would be most destructive of their companies — I think we’re for those.”
This comes after YouTube removed all footage of speakers from two days out of the four-day conference. The list of speakers censored includes two people rumored to be running for president, 17 current and former members of Congress, and a sitting governor, among others, according to Schlapp.
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YouTube Policy Communications Manager Ivy Choi told the Washington Examiner, “We removed content from the CPAC channel for violating our election integrity policy,” though Schlapp contends that many speakers did not focus on the election.
“Our policies apply to everyone, regardless of the uploader’s political views, and while we do allow content that provides additional context such as countervailing views, the content we removed from this channel was footage that did not provide sufficient context.”
Asked about using other platforms, the chairman said, “It forces all of us to have to find alternative methods. I mean, several of the members put it up on Rumble. We work with Rumble.”
Schlapp also delivered a message to Twitter and Facebook, saying, “If they think that we’re going to back down from what we say because of their fascist policies, they can take to the bank that we are going to double down on exposing the fact that they are basically corrupt institutions trying to destroy the ability of people who love this country from speaking about politics.”
He added that he has been on the phone with many lawmakers this week, heavily encouraging policies to regulate Big Tech overreach.
Former President Donald Trump, Sens. Bill Hagerty, John Kennedy, Rick Scott, James Lankford, and former Sen. David Perdue, as well as Reps. Ronny Jackson, Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mark Green, Lauren Boebert, Darrell Issa, Mike Kelly, Matt Gaetz, Jody Hice, and Rep. Kat Cammack, and former Reps. Devin Nunes and Bob Beauprez, were among those whose speeches and panels were removed from the CPAC YouTube channel. Others who were featured in removed content include former U.S. ambassadors, former Cabinet-level secretaries, multiple members of the media, leaders from overseas, and several activists.
Schlapp explained that the organization didn’t notice that content had been removed until a few days ago. “These fascists don’t even like alert you to what they’re doing. We were alerted that we had a strike on President Trump’s speech, but, you know, it was over the course of days that we realized so much more of the content had been taken down,” he said.
He further blasted the action as “obnoxious, un-American, disgraceful” but “not surprising,” adding that he believes the content was removed because many of the speakers criticized Big Tech and “wokeism” — and YouTube didn’t like it.
Schlapp then questioned “why take down Lou Holtz and I talking on the stage about how sports [are] good for the country?”
“Why take down half a dozen ambassadors who are talking about why we need to be strong on China?” he continued.
He further asked how “ambassadors who were talking about foreign policy” or those “talking about antisemitism and the need to combat it” violated the site’s policies.
“How does that have anything to do with the election?” he said. “How did standing up for the right to life of unborn children have any impact on the election?”
Schlapp accused YouTube of not watching the content it censored, adding that many of the guests’ speeches were not focused on the election.
When it comes to the upcoming CPAC conference in Texas, the chairman said they would be creative digitally in terms of making sure all of their content is accessible.
Arizona GOP Rep. Andy Biggs told the Washington Examiner that “Big Tech censors continue the jihad against conservative Americans.”
“Censoring free speech is dictatorial and violates freedoms enshrined in our Constitution. Civil discourse is necessary for our society to progress and solve problems,” he added, concluding by calling on his colleagues to “hold YouTube more accountable for their unjust and arbitrary practices.”
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The representative tweeted Thursday that “@YouTube recently removed all Saturday and Sunday @CPAC speeches. This is over half of the entire conference” and included a list of individuals whose speeches had been removed.
IMPORTANT THREAD: @YouTube recently removed all Saturday and Sunday @CPAC speeches.
This is over half of the entire conference.
Below are the names of the individuals who were censored by @YouTube: pic.twitter.com/N2qmwty5hb
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) March 24, 2022
“The only notice we got from YouTube was that our videos were ‘flagged’ for ‘misinformation.’ No additional details were provided. We appealed and recently learned that all of our appeals have been ‘rejected.’ This is unacceptable,” he said in a subsequent tweet.
