YouTube mistakenly censored a video of Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio calling Hamas terrorists “savages,” citing the comment as a violation of the platform’s “hate speech policy,” according to Florida’s Voice, which posted the video.
YouTube took down the video because it “incites hatred against individuals or groups based on their protected group status,” according to the platform’s message to Florida’s Voice. Rubio asserted that it seems like the platform has come to the conclusion that people should not label “Hamas terrorists who burned babies & raped girls” as “savages,” according to his post in response. (RELATED: YouTube Censors Presidential Candidate RFK Jr Interview With Jordan Peterson)
“These guys are ideological psychopaths, and they’re savages,” Rubio stated in the video that YouTube censored before later reinstating it on Friday. “And they would if they could – not just kill every Jew they can get their hands on – they would kill Americans in the process.”
Hamas has killed more than 1,300 Israeli men, women and children, according to The Times of Israel.
Apparently @YouTube @Google has decided that calling Hamas terrorists who burned babies & raped girls “savages” is dehumanizing “hate speech” https://t.co/bjoZveYOR4
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 13, 2023
The content may have included “dehumanization, using slurs and stereotypes, inferiority claims,” according to YouTube’s message.
“We’re a news company trying to tell the news and they’re preventing us from doing that. This censorship is alarming to me because it seems political in nature,” Florida’s Voice CEO told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “In this instance, I worry about the kind of message it sends to our Jewish community. Is YouTube telling us they don’t care about the babies being burned alive, the hundreds being murdered and raped in Israel? YouTube has become so obsessed with cutting down on free speech in the name of the Democrats it has led them down a road where they’re protecting terrorists. Oh the irony.”
“Upon review, we determined the video in question is not violative of our Community Guidelines and have reinstated it,” YouTube Spokesperson Jack Malon told the DCNF.
Malon added that YouTube did not censor Fox Business’s upload of the same Rubio interview.
YouTube recently blocked comedian Russell Brand from earning advertising money on his videos after several women accused him of sexual assault in September.
The platform expanded its “medical misinformation” censorship policies in August, according to a blog post.
“This reuploaded version was removed by mistake,” Malon asserted.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include comment from YouTube.
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