If you’ve ever visited Steven Crowder’s Youtube channel before, you’ve probably stumbled across some of his rebuttal videos. In them, he uses comedy and facts to challenge claims made by politicians or media members.
One outlet that’s been the subject of several of his videos is Vox. Why? Because it’s a flaming pile of garbage that routinely makes false or misleading claims in their “explainer” videos.
That’s apparently got Carlos Maza, a particularly grating host at Vox, up in arms. He’s accusing Crowder of “bullying” him and is working directly with Youtube to get him banned from the platform.
https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1134267702078562310?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1134267702078562310&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fpolicy%2Ftechnology%2Ftechnology%2F446470-youtube-investigating-conservative-commentator-steven-crowder
Spoiler: It’s absolutely about trying to get conservative voices silenced.
Vox is trying to ban my channel https://t.co/pb1Mb6e8Hk
— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) May 31, 2019
Maza’s campaign includes trying to start a drive to flag Crowder’s videos. He also claims that he’s getting direct messages from Youtube to discuss taking action based on his “concerns.”
The irony here is that what set Maza off was a rebuttal video to his claims that Fox News was a propaganda outlet. So it seems he can dish it out but can’t take it. This dude sounds pretty sensitive.
Here’s a tip, and it’s the same way I feel about people like Talia Lavin (who savages conservatives with smears and then whines that she gets criticized).
If you don’t want pushback, criticism, or to be made fun of, then get out of the public eye. You may have a right to trash others falsely with silly explainer videos, but you don’t have a right to do so while demanding a protective bubble be maintained around you. In this country, we are allowed to dissent and Maza doesn’t seem to understand that. If he doesn’t want to be rebutted or laughed at, then he’s welcome to go find another job.
What’s more concerning here is that Youtube appears to be playing along with Maza.
Thanks so much for outlining all of this–we’re looking into it further. Sending you a DM now.
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) May 31, 2019
Crowder has routinely been wrongly flagged or copyright claimed on Youtube, only to win each and every case he engages in. Despite that, Youtube has never DMed him personally to work out an issue. That Youtube is jumping to “investigate” Crowder based on the word of some clown from Vox isn’t a good sign and shows the clear double standards at play.
Has Crowder made some off-color remarks about Maza? Sure, but again, it’s a freaking comedy show. Maza, for his part, has never had an issue with bad language and personal attacks in his videos. It’s pretty hypocritical for him to now cry about it being done back to him.
At some point conservatives are going to have to wake up and decide if they want to be subservient to the tech giants or if they are ready to put up a fight. These companies have the right to curate speech. They don’t have the right to do so while avoiding all liability for the speech on their platforms.
This is why I didn’t rush to make fun of Devin Nunes for his lawsuit against Twitter. Someone needs to get this stuff in court so these companies are forced to chose one path or the other. They can’t keep straddling the fence in a middle ground that doesn’t actually exist. If they want to be publishers, then they should bare the full brunt of liability that comes with that.
I have a feeling that when push comes to shove, they’ll chose the profit that comes from being an open platform over pandering to Vox.
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