Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is calling on Google-owned YouTube to publicly explain why they have censored over 300 of President Donald Trump’s political ads.
“Online platforms wield tremendous power in swaying public opinion to the right or left, and with that power comes much responsibility,” the Senator said in a letter to the Tennessee Star.
“As the 2020 election heats up, YouTube has a responsibility to the American people to be open and transparent about its real reasons for taking down what it considers ‘problematic’ campaign ads and why. The American people deserve an answer. YouTube has a duty to answer.”
YouTube’s censorship of more than 300 of the Trump campaign’s ads was revealed in a 60 Minutes segment earlier this week.
Via CBS News:
60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl asked Wojcicki, “Have you taken down any of President Trump’s ads at all?” YouTube’s CEO responded, “There are ads of President Trump that were not approved to run on Google or YouTube.” When pressed for an example, Wojcicki added, “Well, they’re available in our transparency report.”
From the transparency report, CBS learned that more than 300 of President Trump’s ads had been taken down, mostly over the summer.
The Republican party and the Trump campaign have condemned Google’s recent rule-changes around political ads, calling them a “blatant attempt to suppress voter information.”
The Democrats, meanwhile, are pressuring Facebook to follow the lead of Google and censor more political ads. In a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, DNC CEO Seema Nanda complained that “Current Facebook policy allows politicians to place demonstrable lies in front of voters via paid ads.”
Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and the left-wing media have all campaigned for Facebook to censor Trump ads on the grounds of “misinformation.”
While Facebook hasn’t caved in yet, it appears Google and YouTube have.
Are you an insider at Google, Facebook, Twitter or any other tech company who wants to confidentially reveal wrongdoing or political bias at your company? Reach out to Allum Bokhari at his secure email address allumbokhari@protonmail.com.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News.
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