Along with many other major social media companies, YouTube has a long history of claims that it censors conservative users.
As evidenced by the platform’s attitude toward Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., however, it is clear that Republicans are not the only recipients of its heavy-handed content moderation.
He has become a target of his fellow leftists for expressing skepticism about the government’s push for an ever-increasing slate of vaccinations, which he said was the basis for YouTube’s decision to pull a number of his videos related to the topic.
Kennedy is now taking YouTube and its parent company Google to court over their alleged violation of his free speech by serving as a “state actor” and carrying out the agenda of government operatives.
The 27-page complaint was filed on Wednesday and accuses the social media company of engaging in “overt and covert” methods of censoring him.
“Kennedy alleges that Google worked with the federal government to develop and enforce ‘misinformation’ policies to censor the government’s political opponents, including Kennedy, who is running against President Biden in the Democratic primary,” the candidates campaign explained in a statement on the matter. “Such actions violate the First Amendment when, as here, they result from a public-private partnership that relies on government sources.”
This is not the first circumstance in which Kennedy asserts that he has been effectively silenced by Big Tech at the behest of the federal government.
The release of internal documents from X, which was known as Twitter at the time, revealed that government agents pressure the social media platform to remove or throttle content of various types — and Kennedy has asserted that he was among the first to be censored following President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Federal judge orders President Biden to stop censoring his critics including me. The decision mentions me on page 17. Happy Independence Day Everyone!https://t.co/nEE40XSjpC
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) July 4, 2023
He has also taken aim directly at Democratic lawmakers over their behavior before and during his recent congressional testimony.
Ahead of a House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government hearing, dozens of Democrats signed a letter calling for Kennedy’s invitation to be revoked. After he delivered his opening statement, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who co-authored the letter, made a motion to curtail further testimony — but it was voted down by the panel’s GOP majority.
