YouTube Nuked Two Videos Of A Senate Hearing On COVID Treatments | The Federalist

Sen. Ron Johnson said YouTube, which is owned by Google, removed two videos from a Senate hearing about COVID-19 treatments from its platform on Wednesday.

“Social media censorship just ratcheted up to a new level. Google's YouTube removed two videos of doctors testifying under oath at my US Senate hearing on early treatment of COVID,” the Wisconsin Republican wrote on Twitter. “Another body blow to freedom of speech and expression. Very sad and scary. Where does this end?”

Apparently, the “doctors” at Google know more about practicing medicine than heroic doctors who have the courage and compassion to actually treat COVID patients and save lives.

— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) January 28, 2021

In the screenshot Johnson posted on Twitter, one of the videos featuring Dr. Pierre Kory, a professor of medicine at St. Luke's Aurora Medical Center in Milwaukee, is listed as “removed” for “inappropriate content.” Kory, who testified during the Dec. 8, 2020 hearing on the effectiveness of the “anti-parasite, anti-viral drug, anti-inflammatory agent called ivermectin” as a COVID treatment, was one of the six medical professionals asked to speak in front of Congress as witnesses.

“Apparently, the ‘doctors' at Google know more about practicing medicine than heroic doctors who have the courage and compassion to actually treat COVID patients and save lives,” Johnson continued.

YouTube told The Federalist that the video was “removed for violating our COVID-19 misinformation policy.”

The removal of the videos is just the latest in the alarming trend of Big Tech giants using their power to censor or silence information they do not agree with or like. Earlier this month, YouTube announced a ban on all videos shedding light on voter fraud in the United States' most recent presidential election. Initially, the video platform removed only videos declaring widespread voter fraud, but now, the enforcement of the updated policy will include removing and issuing a strike on the channel of the user who posted the content. Strikes on YouTube prevent users from uploading, sharing, and live-streaming on their channels for a minimum of a week and can even result in a full ban.

“Now that the election results have been certified, and due to the extraordinary events that transpired yesterday, videos uploaded on or after today (January 7) that violate this policy will both be removed and a strike will be applied to the channel,” the Big Tech company's statement said. “As strikes can impact a channel's standing, including the ability to upload … we recommend that you be familiar with the policy when publishing relevant content on YouTube.”