YouTube and every other platform of any significance did the right thing by refusing content that promoted Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. Now, in perhaps some weird way of showing neutrality (?), YouTube has taken down a video promoted by the Select Committee… containing a Trump lie in order to prove Trump lied. Fascinating.
According to the New York Times:
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot has been trying to draw more eyes to its televised hearings by uploading clips of the proceedings online. But YouTube has removed one of those videos from its platform, saying the committee was advancing election misinformation.
The excerpt, which was uploaded June 14, included recorded testimony from former Attorney General William P. Barr. But the problem for YouTube was that the video also included a clip of former President Donald J. Trump sharing lies about the election on the Fox Business channel.
It would be interesting to meet the person who made this decision. YouTube’s rule is in place in order to keep its platform free from Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. A video proving that Trump lied, one that necessarily includes Trump’s statement (needed to prove it’s a lie) sounds as truthful as any other video out there and certainly of more value than the latest, “Hey everybody, watch this!….” video in which someone does something impressively stupid.
This is a textbook case of technical implementation of a rule utterly violating the spirit and purpose of the rule. YouTube is not limiting the number of people who hear the 2020 lie. They are prohibiting people who need to hear the 2020 truth from seeing it in context.
One hopes this gets fixed… fast. The Committee is posting these videos for people who cannot watch the hearings in real-time and for younger voters. Zoomers think that television is nothing more than a giant user-unfriendly phone, one that sits on a wall while fascinating their ancient Gen X parents. The Zooms will call the Red Cross if they cannot watch what they want when they want, and watch it while holding it in their hand.
The Committee gets it. YouTube, the entity whose future rides on being ubiquitous among the young, apparently doesn’t.
Jason Miciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teen and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He now enjoys life as a single dad of a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves crafting his flower pots, cooking, while also studying scientific philosophy, religion, and non-math principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please feel free to contact for speaking engagements or any concerns.