“Trust the science” has been the mantra of Big Tech during this entire pandemic. And Big Tech has adhered to this belief by eliminating any dissenting opinion about the best way to manage the spread of COVID on many of their platforms.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a doctor, was the victim of this information suppression in August, when YouTube suspended him after claiming he posted misleading videos about wearing masks. Despite backing up his claims with research, YouTube insisted he was wrong and his message was a danger to society. Except now, the science has vindicated Sen. Paul.
Back in August 2021, the online video sharing and social media platform suspended Sen. Paul for a week and removed one of his posted videos. The video detailed how cloth masks don’t prevent infection. It was labeled as misinformation by the powers that be at the company. They claimed Paul had violated the website’s policies on COVID-19 misinformation.
“We removed content from Senator Paul’s channel for including claims that masks are ineffective in preventing the contraction or transmission of COVID-19, in accordance with our COVID-19 medical misinformation policies,” YouTube said in August. “We apply our policies consistently across the platform, regardless of speaker or political views.”
In Paul’s now-banned video, he disputed the efficacy of masks.
“Most of the masks you get over the counter don’t work,” Paul said during his presentation. “They don’t prevent infection.”
But YouTube was wrong, and Paul was right. The CDC announced this week that cloth masks are largely ineffective in preventing the spread of COVID-19.
This goes to show how problematic Big Tech has become in this country. It is not science but a group of agenda-driven decision-makers who are controlling what the public can and cannot see from our elected leaders. YouTube’s tyrannical, arrogant aggression prohibited people from their constitutional rights. They restricted factual information solely because it did not align with what they believed to be true. Such actions are typically the work of totalitarianism, not a country with the cherished liberties of free speech and freedom of the press.
It also highlights the monumental problem with the cultlike behavior of those who feign allegiance to science. They don’t seem to know the inconsistencies and unreliability that scientific inquiry entails. Moreover, they refuse to accept any scientific findings that challenge their ideological preconceptions.
Paul was vilified for his claims by many Democrats, experts, pundits, left-wingers, and social media trolls whom I doubt will ever apologize or admit they were wrong. They made ludicrous claims, including that Paul wanted to see people die.
Will YouTube apologize to Sen. Paul? Will they reinstate his videos? Or will they insist on continuing their Stalin impression and restricting what the public can and cannot see, predicated on their ideologically flawed belief system?
As Big Tech issues dire warnings of “our democracy” being under attack, keep in mind that organizations like YouTube, which can simply blot out the truth through selective enforcement of their rules, represent at least as much of a threat as unruly protesters at the Capitol.
