YouTube Blacklists Ron Paul Institute

The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, the organization set up by former Republican presidential candidate and congressman Dr. Ron Paul, has been blacklisted by Google-owned YouTube. After this article was published, Google reinstated the institute’s account, blaming a “mistake” for baning it.

Normally, YouTube uses a three-strikes system to terminate channels. Channels that accumulate three strikes for rule-violating content within a 90-day period will be removed from the platform permanently. However, Dr. Paul says that YouTube gave no warning, and that there were no strikes on the channel prior to its termination.

After the publication of this story, YouTube reinstated the account, blaming a “mistake.”

Heard back from our team that this was a mistake and your channel has been reinstated. Thanks for being patient while we sorted this out – we'll be reaching out via email shortly in case you have any questions.

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) September 30, 2021

Very shocked that @YouTube has completely removed the Channel of my Ron Paul Institute: no warning, no strikes, no evidence. Only explanation was "severe or repeated violations of our community guidelines." Channel is rarely used. The appeal was automatically rejected. Help? pic.twitter.com/CuvGAe1bVf

— Ron Paul (@RonPaul) September 30, 2021

“Very shocked that YouTube has completely removed the Channel of my Ron Paul Institute: no warning, no strikes, no evidence,” said Pau. “Only explanation was ‘severe or repeated violations of our community guidelines.’ Channel is rarely used. The appeal was automatically rejected.”

A separate YouTube channel associated with Paul, the Ron Paul Liberty Report, was censored by YouTube earlier this year. At the time, YouTube accused Paul — a licensed medical doctor with a medical doctorate from Duke University — of “medical misinformation.”

In the episode, Paul criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci over his flip-flopping on the efficacy of masks in combating the Chinese coronavirus. The episode is still available on Soundcloud and other platforms.

In 2017, YouTube categorized a number of the former congressman’s videos, in particular, videos featuring Julian Assange and criticizing U.S. policy towards Afghanistan, as “not suitable for advertisers,” resulting in the videos being stripped of ad revenue.

The censorship of the Ron Paul Institute comes just a day after YouTube announced that it would shut down all “anti-vaccine” content. It is unclear if this is the reason for the channel’s termination, as YouTube has apparently not explained its reasoning to the Institute.

Update — After this story was published, a Google spokesperson supplied the company’s response in the form of a tweet indicating that the Ron Paul Institute’s account was banned by mistake and was reinstated to the platform.

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.