Garrett Soldano, a Republican primary candidate in the race to be Michigan’s next governor, has been permanently blacklisted from Google-owned YouTube, according to reports.
Soldano says his account was banned for his outspoken positions on coronavirus. Michigan, under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), became infamous in the first year of the pandemic for its draconian lockdown policies.
Garrett Soldano Michigan primary candidate (Garrett Soldano)
Via Newsweek:
A Republican Michigan gubernatorial hopeful says he’s been permanently banned from YouTube. Critics believe it is because he spread misinformation around the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Detroit News reported that Garrett Soldano, a chiropractor from Kalamazoo County, received an email from YouTube early on Monday saying that his channel included “severe or repeated violations” of the company’s community guidelines.
YouTube didn’t identify which specific policies the anti-lockdown activist had broken, but the guidelines prohibit content “that contradicts local health authorities’ or the World Health Organization’s medical information about COVID-19.”
YouTube, the web’s leading video host, has repeatedly banned or censored sitting elected officials for speaking out on coronavirus. Last month, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a licensed medical doctor, received a one-week suspension from the platform after discussing U.S. funding of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese lab that is increasingly believed to be the source of the coronavirus pandemic.
YouTube previously censored a video of the Kentucky senator speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
Republican Senator from Kentucky Rand Paul points during the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs/Rules and Administration hearing to examine the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol on Capitol Hill on March 3, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by SHAWN THEW / POOL / AFP) (Photo by SHAWN THEW/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The Google-owned platform also censored Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), taking down a video of a roundtable discussion with DeSantis and the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration. In response, DeSantis opened an official account on Rumble, a free speech-friendly video host used by many conservatives.
Breitbart News has reached out to Google for comment.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.
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