Report: YouTube Goes After Ron Paul, Demonetizes Videos Criticizing Afghanistan Policy

YouTube has reportedly demonetized a number of videos from former presidential candidate Ron Paul following an announcement that the company would be censoring the platform to an even greater degree.

In a screenshot posted on Twitter by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, several recent videos from Paul were shown to have reportedly been deemed “not suitable for advertisers” and were subsequently restricted.

YouTube economically censors former presidential candidate @RonPaul for criticizing U.S. foreign policy on Afghanistan and WikiLeaks. pic.twitter.com/AnC88rZkhO

— Assange Defence (@AssangeDefence) August 26, 2017

Assange also claimed that the videos had been demonetized “for criticizing U.S. foreign policy on Afghanistan and WikiLeaks.”

The videos included: “Julian Assange to join us at Ron Paul Institute Conference 2017,” “Senate Declared War On Wikileaks – With Philip Giraldi,” “Pentagon Attacks Extremists At Home… But Finances Them Overseas,” “Trump’s ‘New’ Afghan Strategy: Protect The Empire,” and “Trump’s Afghanistan Strategy: What To Expect. With Jacob Hornberger.”

Google began their mission to “police YouTube like it never has before,” Thursday, according to a report.

“Google will police YouTube like it never has before, adding warnings and disabling advertising on videos that the company determines crosses its new threshold for offensive content,” reported Bloomberg Technology. “Google outlined these moves in June, but the implementation comes as debate about extremism and political speech is front-and-center in the national spotlight — and when tech giants like Google and Facebook Inc. face deeper scrutiny over how they moderate information distributed through their digital services.”

Over the past year, several large and prominent YouTube creators have revealed they no longer make money on videos, following a wave of demonetization crackdowns by the company.

As previously reported, “The list includes popular conservative commentators such as Diamond and Silk and Prager U, but also includes some of the platform’s biggest creators, ranging from comedy and politics to sex education and gaming.”

A popular technique by YouTube is to “age-restrict” videos which aren’t “suitable” for advertisers, resulting in the creator’s inability to make money from advertisements.

Earlier this month, YouTube also declared that if “enough users flag a video as ‘hate speech’ or ‘violent extremism,’ YouTube may impose restrictions on the content even if it breaks none of the platform’s rules,” according to a report.

The company also announced a partnership with the left-wing biased Anti-Defamation League, who previously blamed Trump supporters for the rise of anti-Semitism, added a popular cartoon frog meme to their Hate Symbol Database, and attempted to slander Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon.