Earlier today, American Principles Project (APP) was notified that its YouTube channel had been reinstated after being suspended Monday morning. However, several videos were removed from the account featuring APP staff appearing on the War Room: Pandemic podcast. According to correspondence from YouTube, these videos violated the platform’s policy against “reuploading content from a previously terminated channel.”
APP President Terry Schilling released the following statement responding to the development:
“Although we are pleased that American Principles Project’s YouTube account has been reinstated for the moment, the actions which YouTube has taken over the last couple days have exposed some disturbing problems with how it moderates its platform.
“Firstly, it is totally unacceptable that YouTube would suspend an organization’s longstanding account, one which had previously not been flagged for any issue, without any prior warning and without any immediate and specific explanation as to why. This complete lack of transparency around actions which severely restrict an organization’s ability to reach supporters is, at the very least, highly unethical and unfair.
“Second, YouTube’s rationale for the action—APP’s promotion of appearances by staff on the War Room: Pandemic podcast—is completely inadequate. By all accounts, YouTube did not remove our videos because of anything specific in those videos. They stated, rather, that our posting of a clip from War Room itself constituted a violation of their ‘Community Guidelines.’ This is absurd. Enforcing a blanket censorship of an extremely popular conservative show, regardless of the content of any particular clip from that show, is an affront to values which underpin the First Amendment. These actions are, in a word, un-American.
“YouTube, like its parent company Google, is an immensely powerful platform with the ability to significantly influence the national public discourse. That they are wielding this power in such an arbitrary and obscure way should frighten every American who cares about the continued existence of our free society. In light of this episode, we urge Congress even more strongly to address Big Tech censorship through any and all means at its disposal.”
