Vox's campaign to deplatform comedian Steven Crowder from YouTube has snowballed into an avalanche of censorship against other creators caught in the crossfire in the war against offensive speech. Critics are calling it the #VoxAdpocalypse. YouTube's actions in response to complaints caused confusion amongst both Crowder's detractors and supporters.
Crowder remarked that Carlos Maza was “being given a free pass as a crappy writer because [he’s] gay,” called him a “lispy, angry sprite.”
Earlier this week, the left-leaning publication Vox went to great lengths to get YouTube to deplatform Crowder. This follows two years of Crowder's responding to Carlos Maza, a journalist and video producer at the diminutive media group.
In a series of videos over two-years, Crowder took aim at Maza’s leftist arguments with rebuttals sometimes interspersed with comedic remarks about Maza’s personality and sexual orientation.
Maza, who goes by @gaywonk on Twitter, took umbrage with the criticism. He distilled Crowder's remarks down into a 90-second video clip showcasing words he found hurtful, leaving out context in order to convince YouTube to ban the right-leaning comic.
Crowder said Maza was “being given a free pass as a crappy writer because [he’s] gay,” calling him a “lispy, angry sprite.”
In addition to demanding Crowder’s ban, Maza spent days on end whipping up outrage about his feelings. He implored LGBTQ supporters to bombard YouTube with complaints, leveraging "pride month" as a political weapon.
Maza's company duly followed suit.
The Vox-owned site The Verge breathlessly covered Maza's outrage, and other publications echoed his complaints.
Newsweek wrote an article titled “Steven Crowder incites homophobic harassment of Vox reporter, YouTube slow to react.”
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Carlos Maza[/caption]
The Google subsidiary's initially refused to suspend Crowder’s channel.
In a series of replies to Maza, YouTube wrote that it had conducted an “in-depth review of the videos flagged to us” and came to a decision.
YouTube wrote:
“As an open platform, it’s crucial for us to allow everyone–from creators to journalists to late-night TV hosts–to express their opinions w/in the scope of our policies. Opinions can be deeply offensive, but if they don’t violate our policies, they’ll remain on our site,”
“Even if a video remains on our site, it doesn’t mean we endorse/support that viewpoint. There are other aspects of the channel that we’re still evaluating– we’ll be in touch with any further updates.”
Vox Media issued a response to the initial decision, which reads (in part):
“The platform and the system now appears to be broken in some ways that we can’t tolerate. By refusing to take a stand on hate speech, they allow the worst of their communities to hide behind cries of “free speech” and “fake news” all while increasingly targeting people with the most offensive and odious harassment….
“YouTube knows this is a problem – it’s developed anti-harassment policies to hold its creators accountable and remove them from the platform when they are in violation. Yet YouTube is not enforcing the policies and are not removing known and identified users who employ hate speech tactics. By tacitly looking the other way, it encourages this behavior and contributes to a society more divided and more radicalized.”
But after more complaints from Maza, echoed by BuzzFeed News and Gizmodo, YouTube capitulated to the demands. The company demonetizing Crowder’s channel and stripped him of revenue.
Now they want YouTube to ban him.
In an interview with CNN, Maza demanded Crowder be totally removed from the platform.
Maza argued that demonetization wasn’t enough, as Crowder can still make money by selling merchandise.
New York Magazine opined YouTube should have demonetized Crowder in the first instance.
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Steven Crowder[/caption]
In yet another confusing response, YouTube demanded Crowder remove links to t-shirts bearing the slogan: “Socialism is for Figs.” Steven Crowder
The censorship doesn’t stop at YouTube.
Shopify, the shirt production company hosting Crowder merchandise saw fit to remove the “Socialism is for Figs” shirt.
Besides Crowder, YouTube acted against numerous other YouTube channels by either suspending or demonetizing them.
Among them was Mr Allsop History, a channel dedicated to teaching history.
Some of the channel’s 15-years of educational materials included propaganda speeches by Nazi leaders. The owner believes YouTube had a problem with them. YouTube shut down the entire channel.
Ford Fischer, a journalist and editor of News2Share, was also hit for documenting activism and extremism.
YouTube deleted two specific videos for hate speech, in which the channel showcased AntiFa activists confronting a Holocaust denier.
Thanks to Vox, YouTube is banning and demonetizing educational channels, real journalists, and anyone challenging "social justice" mantras.
The platform demonetized the rest of his channel and all future videos.
Sinatra Says, a channel dedicated to commentary critical of feminism and the social justice movement was likewise demonetized. The creator's daily videos highlighted everything from the social justice warrior push for a Chick-fil-A ban to commentary on videos critical of male feminists. The channel also hosted criticism of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the media’s glorification of an 11-year-old drag queen.
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Thanks to Vox, YouTube is banning and demonetizing educational channels, real journalists, and anyone challenging "social justice" mantras.
Vox's efforts to deplatform anyone who insults their employees will unlikely stop with Crowder.
The crybullies have tasted blood once again. Now, they’re hungry for more.
Ian Miles Cheong is the managing editor of Human Events
