YouTube has removed Dr. Jordan Peterson’s recent interview with Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from its platform, claiming the conversation was in violation of its “general vaccine misinformation policy.”
The duo — whose dialogue the Google-owned platform determined should not be heard by prospective voters — have been joined by countless critics in denouncing the move.
In the 95-minute interview published on June 5, entitled “Rekindling the Spirit of the Classic Democrat,” Peterson, a clinical psychologist, broached various topics with the presidential candidate, including Kennedy’s candidacy, COVID-19 vaccines, the collapse of the mainstream media, woke ideological capture, the environment, and the possibility of salvaging the Democratic Party.
Some in the liberal media have taken issue in particular with Kennedy’s suggestion that the “soup of toxic chemicals,” including “endocrine disruptors,” that children are allegedly being exposed to may be linked to “a lot of the sexual dysphoria that we’re seeing.”
The Independent highlighted Kennedy’s suggestion that “There’s atrazine throughout our water supply. … Atrazine, by the way, if you in a lab put atrazine in a tank full of frogs, it will chemically castrate and forcefully feminize every frog in there. And 10% of the frogs, the male frogs will turn into fully viable females able to produce viable eggs. If it’s doing that to frogs, it could, there’s a lot of other evidence that it’s doing to human beings as well.”
YouTube said in a statement Monday, “We removed a video from the Jordan Peterson channel for violating YouTube’s general vaccine misinformation policy, which prohibits content that alleges that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities.”
The platform’s vaccine misinformation policy states, “Don’t post content on YouTube if it includes harmful misinformation about currently approved and administered vaccines.”
Discussions of vaccine safety, particularly “content alleging that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities,” along with remarks about the efficacy and ingredients of vaccines are verboten.
For instance, YouTube forbids the suggestion that vaccines can cause cancer or diabetes; do not reduce the risk of contracting illness; “contain substances that are not on the vaccine ingredient list, such as biological matter from fetuses”; and that vaccines can cause chronic side effects such as infertility.
Kennedy, the 69-year-old son of assassinated former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of assassinated former President John F. Kennedy, stressed that this censorship amounts to “blatant interference in the electoral process” and further evidence that YouTube is a “propaganda outlet.” He also thanked Elon Musk, noting that Twitter continues to host the video.
In a Sunday Twitter thread, the Democratic presidential candidate wrote, “Maybe you can help me figure out what ‘misinformation’ was in this interview. … Do you really need Big Tech censors to decide what you would hear? Or would you prefer to be treated as a competent adult who can listen to various viewpoints and come to his or her own conclusions?”
Peterson denounced the “commissars” at YouTube for what he similarly regarded as election interference, adding, “If there were any real journalists left among the legacy media they’d be up in arms about this.”
Extra to chastising the mainstream media for its apparent indifference to the silencing of a presidential candidate by a corporate behemoth, Peterson called out Democrats, stating, “The slippery slope is now headed your way and you richly deserve it.”
It would appear some Democrats are happy to see Biden’s top Democratic opponent silenced.
Bakari Sellers, a CNN commentator and former Democratic state representative in South Carolina, recently told The Hill that Kennedy “is probably the best example of an apple falling from the tree and rolling into a whole other orchard — parroting Putin talking points and so on. He is not John, he is not Robert, and he is more associated with the likes of [podcaster] Joe Rogan and Elon Musk than he is with James Clyburn or Hakeem Jeffries.”
“You can’t let cancers metastasize,” added Sellers.
YouTube’s excision of Kennedy’s interview from its platform is not the first time Silicon Valley has attempted to squelch the speech of Biden’s rival.
In February 2021, Instagram shut down his account, claiming Kennedy repeatedly shared “debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines.” That ban was reversed after Kennedy announced his presidential bid in April.
Last summer, Instagram and its parent company Facebook removed the accounts for Kennedy’s nonprofit, Children’s Health Defense, from their platforms, again claiming they had advanced “misinformation” during the COVID-19 pandemic, reported the New York Times.
Kennedy has invited the American public to “make a video and post it to @YouTube telling them what you think” as it pertains to the platform’s apparent decision to remain a “propaganda outlet” rather than “a modern-day public square.”
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