Kentucky Senator Rand Paul reportedly blasted YouTube for censoring his speech on COVID-19 last week.
Breitbart reported that Paul was suspended for a week from YouTube for speaking on the status of the coronavirus in the United States during an interview with Newsmax. Breitbart said this is actually the second time the Big Tech has censored Paul's account. The first time involved his commentary on the whistleblower on former President Donald Trump's withholding of military aid for Ukraine in 2020.
"They are now banning all my speech, including speech that is given on the Senate floor. YouTube now thinks they are smart enough and godly enough that they can oversee speech, even constitutionally protected speech," Paul said in his interview with the Washington Examineer.
YouTube informed Paul that he violated the platform's community guidelines on COVID-19 as the reason for his suspension. The Big Tech company has not given further comments on the matter.
As per Paul, YouTube has a right to ban members considering they are a private company but pointed out that what they are doing is already contrary to free speech since they are operating as "an arm of the government without any repercussions or push back" by acting as an "arbitrator of truth." He stressed that it would be good to use alternatives to their services to curtail their wrongdoings.
"It is really anti-free speech, anti-progress of science, which involves skepticism and argumentation to arrive at the truth. YouTube and Google, though, have become an entity so huge that they think they are the arbitrator of truth," Paul stated.
"My hope is that maybe through competition, we'll prove them to be wrong in their way," he added in Facebook on Tuesday.
The 8-minute video, which is also available in Paul's Rumble account, was removed from YouTube because he reiterated his stand on the virus coming from the Wuhan Institute of Virology through the gain-of-function research grant of the United States National Institutes of Health. Paul also repeated what he said against White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci and his involvement with the coronavirus pandemic.
"We need to question whether we should be funding gain-of-function, making super viruses in the United States as well. It's supposed to go through a special committee, but Dr. Fauci and others provide exemptions to all of these people and they have their hands in it," Paul highlighted in the said video.
"And remember this, Dr. Fauci has said, for years, publicly, that gain-of-function research is worth it," he stressed, "even if there were a pandemic he would say it was worth it. He was acknowledging as early as 2012 that a pandemic could occur from this research."
Paul also mentioned what Fauci said on using cloth masks as an alternative to using medical masks. He pointed out that this is "deadly misinformation" especially for people who follow it and suggest it to others to use as well.
"Saying cloth masks work, when they don't, actually risks lives, as someone may choose to care for a loved one with COVID while only wearing a cloth mask. This is not only bad advice but also potentially deadly misinformation,"
Paul has also uploaded a video in YouTube condemning the Big Tech company for the censorship but it, too, was removed. In that video, he raised his concerns on the mask mandates being imposed in the country. Paul, however, has not uploaded that video in his Rumble account as of this time.
In line with his opposition on the mask mandates, as well as, the lockdowns, Paul urged Americans on Sunday that it is "time" to "resist" all the "anti-Science" directives of President Joe Biden's Administration and "choose freedom" instead.
"We are at a moment of truth and a crossroads. Will we allow these people to use fear and propaganda to do further harm to our society, economy, and children? Or will we stand together and say, absolutely not. Not this time. I choose freedom," Paul said in Twitter highlighting what he said in the video that accompanied the post.
