YouTube removed Rand Paul’s video that claimed cloth masks didn’t prevent infection from Tuesday. The YouTube suspension was made after YouTube found out that Rand Paul had violated COVID-19 misinformation policies.
YouTube has taken Paul’s video down for violating its rules regarding misleading content. This is the second time YouTube has done so this month.
“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 a statement. “We apply our policies consistently across the platform, regardless of speaker or political views.”
In the three-minute video Paul disputed the effectiveness of masks, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and medical experts around the world have recommended to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Paul, an eye surgeon said that most of the over-the-counter masks don’t work. They don’t prevent infection.
Paul will not be able to upload new videos to YouTube during the seven-day suspension.
Paul called YouTube’s decision a “badge of honor” in a Tweet. In a statement issued by his office he acknowledged that the company has the right to police its own platform.
“As a libertarian-leaning Senator, I think private companies have the right to ban me if they want to, so in this case I’ll just channel that frustration into ensuring the public knows YouTube is acting as an arm of government and censoring their users for contradicting the government,” he said.
Last week YouTube removed a video Paul posted of an interview in which he also disputed whether masks work to prevent infection. Additional violations of YouTube’s policies could result in a two-week suspension followed by a permanent ban.
Twitter took similar action this week against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, suspending the Georgia Republican for a week after she tweeted, falsely, that the “vaccines are failing & do not reduce the spread of the virus & neither do masks.” It has been widely established that vaccines and masks work against COVID-19.
Greene was also temporarily suspended for 12 hours last month. Twitter claimed that some of Greene’s tweets were in violation of its policy against misinformation spreading during the coronavirus pandemic. These suspensions mean that the account of the person is not visible on Twitter but can’t post anything.
Greene seems to have been disciplined by the strike system Twitter launched March. It uses a combination artificial intelligence and machine-learning to identify misleading content about the coronavirus. A strike earns you a 12-hour account lock. Four strikes will result in a one-week suspension. Five strikes or more can lead to permanent removal from Twitter. YouTube follows a similar procedure.
Greene stated in an email statement that Twitter had “suspended me for speaking truth and tweeting the same things as so many others.” Twitter, she said, “only cares for the left’s radical narrative.”
