Days after being suspended by the social media platform for violating its coronavirus misinformation policy, popular conservative commentator Dan Bongino said YouTube has double standards for conservatives when it comes to content moderation.
YouTube on Friday suspended Bongino from posting content on the platform for one week and demonetized his videos for at least 30 days because he said in a video that masks are “useless” in stopping the spread of the coronavirus.
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The right-leaning TV and radio host told the Washington Examiner that there were no randomized controlled trial studies that proved surgical or cloth masks were effective at reducing the spread of the coronavirus, although he admitted the N95 masks were effective at doing so.
Bongino said YouTube does not apply its content moderation rules consistently or fairly because it only targets the political speech of conservatives, not liberals.
“The left, who told us about the Wuhan lab leak being a conspiracy theory, they never got censored for that,” Bongino told the Washington Examiner in an interview Monday.
“Isn’t it kind of weird that liberals said things that weren’t true without the evidence regarding the lab leak — why aren’t they ever banned?” he added.
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Bongino said liberals, along with Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, two of the nation’s leading experts on infectious diseases, and multiple news organizations all falsely claimed at one point that the possibility of the virus originating in a lab in Wuhan, China, was a conspiracy theory.
The lab leak theory was considered misinformation in 2020, including by the World Health Organization and other respected health authorities. Now, the theory is considered credible, including by the Biden administration, Fauci, and Collins.
YouTube’s COVID-19 medical misinformation policy does not allow any content that spreads misinformation contradicting local health authorities’ or the World Health Organization’s medical guidelines regarding the virus.
“We removed a video for violating our policies on COVID-19 misinformation, specifically for comments that masks are useless, resulting in a first strike on the channel,” a YouTube spokesperson said in an email to the Washington Examiner when asked about Bongino’s suspension.
“We have these policies in place to prevent the risk of real-world harms, and update them as health authority guidance evolves. We apply our policies consistently across YouTube based on the content itself, regardless of the speaker,” they added.
After former President Donald Trump was kicked off most major social media platforms in 2021 following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Bongino went to work creating an alternative for people and organizations that might be vulnerable to censorship by Big Tech companies.
Bongino, 47, a former Secret Service agent and congressional candidate, is a prolific investor in tech startups, particularly ones popular with conservatives, such as social media platform Parler and free speech-focused YouTube alternative Rumble.
Bongino said contrary to what many might expect, he is celebrating YouTube censoring him because it benefits his brand and the businesses he has invested in.
“YouTube shut me down, which by the way I begged them to do, and is now the greatest moment of my life. We’re taking a victory lap,” said Bongino.
“YouTube is making us billions of dollars in the parallel economy at Rumble. We want to celebrate YouTube. I’m really hoping they do more to censor my account,” he added.
Bongino said YouTube has unfairly censored him because it is “anti-science,” claiming that there is no credible scientific evidence that wearing a surgical or cloth mask can protect people from contracting the coronavirus.
“I challenge you or anyone else to find one randomly controlled trial anywhere showing any statistically significant evidence that the masks people most people are wearing actually make a difference,” Bongino said.
Bongino added, however, that science showed evidence that N95 masks and those similar to it are effective at reducing the spread of coronavirus when worn appropriately.
The efficacy of masks was examined during a randomized controlled trial, considered the gold standard in medical research, by researchers from Yale University, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley last year.
The study found that wearing surgical masks did slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Furthermore, the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that mask-wearing does reduce the spread of the virus and can save lives.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The CDC recommended just last week that people wear “the most protective mask you can” in order to stop the spread of the omicron variant.
