Following leaked evidence of Google employees appearing to promote censorship of conservative figures, YouTube has claimed to have “no political bias,” to which Prager University replied, “see you in court!”
A recent report from investigative journalism group Project Veritas claims that leaked internal Google documents shows a Google employee and a member of a Google “transparency-and-ethics” group calling conservative and libertarian commentators such as Dennis Prager, Ben Shapiro, and Jordan Peterson, “Nazis.” The email was sent as part of internal communications between the Google “transparency-and-ethics” group and suggests that content published by PragerU, Jordan Peterson, and Ben Shapiro should be removed from the “suggestion feature.”
Now, YouTube is attempting to deal with the backlash from these leaked emails. The company’s official press and media relations Twitter account, @YouTubeInsider, posted a tweet claiming that the company holds all creators to the same standard:
We've had a lot of questions today…clarifying, we apply our policies fairly and without political bias. All creators are held to the same standard.
— YouTubeInsider (@YouTubeInsider) June 26, 2019
Many conservatives pointed out that YouTube’s tweet was “ratio’d,” Twitter slang for tweets where there are many more replies than retweets or likes, indicating the tweet is controversial or rejected by users.
The ratio on YouTube’s official response and CNN’s @brianstelter ridiculous assertions to @Project_Veritas makes the Soviet Union’s Pravda look honest. pic.twitter.com/Y269AuJjnE
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) June 26, 2019
PragerU, which has previously sued YouTube in the past for discriminatory practices, replied to YouTube in a tweet which can be seen below:
We will see you in court! https://t.co/1BXpZUq4MU
— PragerU (@prageru) June 26, 2019
Prager U has appealed the courts decision in that suit, and a hearing has been set for August in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Breitbart News will follow all updates in this case.
Breitbart News reached out to PragerU for further comment on the recent developments at Google and YouTube. A representative for PragerU replied:
The recent developments and leaks from Google insiders make it even more clear that they are intentionally targeting PragerU, simply because we are conservative. This is why we sued Google and YouTube and we look forward to using this new evidence when we meet in court in late August.
Google is a bully and continues to lie about being a neutral public platform while deliberately targeting conservatives. They need to be held accountable and we will continue to fight back both in the courtroom and in the court of public opinion. It’s disturbing that the entire mainstream media has completely ignored the issue of Big Tech censorship against conservatives. It’s clear the media doesn’t care about free speech and they only care about pushing their left wing agenda.
Read more about the recent controversies surrounding Google at Breitbart Tech here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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