Conservative podcast host Steven Crowder was hit with a two-week ban on YouTube over a video he posted concerning the fatal shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, a Columbus teen who was engaged in an attempted stabbing of another black girl when police took action.
The video, which has since been removed from YouTube, can be listened to via podcast. Crowder and others argue on the show that the shooting was justified, as some experts have agreed.
YouTube is claiming that the content violated their harassment, threats, and cyberbullying policy. The Big Tech company hit Crowder with a second so-called “hard strike,” effectively banning the conservative from posting content to the YouTube channel for two weeks.
Here’s YouTube’s policy:
YouTube Creators share their opinions on a wide range of different topics. However, there’s a line between passionate debate and malicious harassment. Content containing targeted harassment including, but not limited to, stalking, threats, bullying, and intimidation is not allowed on YouTube.
When YouTube was asked by Crowder’s legal team what specifically violated their policy from the video, the company responded:
In particular, this video violated the aspect of the policy that prohibits “content reveling in or mocking the death or serious injury of an identifiable individual.” Accordingly, the video has been removed and a strike has been applied to the Steven Crowder channel. This constitutes the second active strike on the Steven Crowder channel and, as a result, uploads are now suspended for two weeks.
After listening to the content, it remains unclear what was considered “mocking.” At one point in the video, Crowder speculates that Bryant, though a minor, weighed about 230 pounds, emphasizing his position that the fatal shot from the Columbus officer was justified, not mocking Bryant.
Crowder’s site defended the show:
The video they’re referring to didn’t revel in the death or serious injury of an identifiable individual. It seems YouTube is unhappy the studio crew agreed the shooting of a teenager trying to stab another was justified. White, black, hispanic, or identifying as a transgender alien, if you’re trying to stab someone else and get shot by an officer, sorry, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
For the relatively mild content in the video, even the benign mention of weight, to trigger a “hard strike” from YouTube seems entirely inconsistent with the company’s application of their policies.
Crowder argued this online, posting a video compilation of folks on the Left engaging in what most would consider “harassment.” Yet, these accounts are still allowed on YouTube and have not faced any form of censorship.
“Why no live show today, you ask? Ah. Well YouTube hit our channel with a second hard strike, saying we violated their harassment guidelines,” Crowder posted via Twitter. “Which is interesting when you consider all the harassment YouTube allows if it comes from the left…”
WATCH:
Why no live show today, you ask? Ah. Well YouTube hit our channel with a second hard strike, saying we violated their harassment guidelines. Which is interesting when you consider all the harassment YouTube allows if it comes from the left… pic.twitter.com/VDAEM2tP3m
— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) May 12, 2021
Crowder’s site told viewers that they’re still going to put on live shows.
“We’ve said this for years, YouTube is after us, they don’t seem to like our exercising of free speech,” the site said. “Do you need any more evidence?”