Staff Reports
Social media giant YouTube has faced backlash from prominent figures Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Jordan Peterson after deleting a video of Kennedy’s interview on Peterson’s podcast. Kennedy, a Democrat presidential candidate, spoke about how chemicals in water may be impacting sexual dysphoria. However, YouTube removed the video, citing violation of the platform’s general vaccine information policy.
YouTube Removes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Interview With Jordan Peterson: Campaign Faces Internet Censorship Battle https://t.co/vstAxFlfdt
— RedState (@RedState) June 20, 2023
Kennedy’s campaign team denies any connection between the interview and vaccines and has emphasized that Kennedy believes in safety testing for all vaccines. Despite this, there are published research reports with serious safety issues with vaccines in general. Google explains that their “Community Guidelines” apply equally to all creators and outline specific policies that prohibit content that alleges that vaccines cause chronic side effects, outside of rare side effects that are recognized by health authorities.
What do you think … Should social media platforms censor presidential candidates? My conversation with @JordanBPeterson was deleted by @YouTube. Luckily you can watch it here on @Twitter (thank you @elonmusk). #Kennedy24https://t.co/PJFKWH6zmd
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 18, 2023
Now @YouTube has taken upon itself to actively interfere with a presidential election campaign @RobertKennedyJr https://t.co/XmgOYTl3NN
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) June 18, 2023
Although it remains unclear what statements in the interview violated the guidelines, Kennedy is leading the battle against internet censorship and recently faced a ban from Instagram. YouTube’s power to promote or censor information may influence voters, which was evident during the 2020 election when social media platforms prevented the Hunter Biden laptop story from gaining traction and circulating. The internet censorship battle has heated up as Joe Rogan has offered to have Kennedy debate vaccine researcher Peter Hotez and offered $100,000 to Hotez’s choice of charity.
