Big Tech Censors American Principles Project (APP) Again
Google bans APP YouTube channel, provides no warning or explanation
Look, I really don’t ask for much. All I wanted was to enjoy my holiday yesterday with my family. I thought maybe I’d grill a bit, take in some playoff baseball, and watch the Ravens beat the Colts. But woke censors at Google who probably don’t even celebrate Columbus Day had a different idea in mind.
On Monday morning, American Principles Project (APP) received an e-mail from Google notifying us that our YouTube channel had been shut down due to “severe or repeated violations” of YouTube’s community guidelines. More than eight years of content — gone. No warning. No explanation. No ability to back-up our videos and move them to a different platform. Just zapped and deleted from the Internet forever.
It’s no surprise that APP would be maliciously targeted by Google. We are not exactly mission aligned. But what was the straw that broke the camel’s back?
Was it our Big Family launch video, which had received tens of thousands of views and was our best performing video on the channel?
Maybe it was because of our effort to expose how Big Pharma and the radical Left are colluding to exploit transgendered people — and especially transgendered children — for profit?
Maybe it was because we oppose teaching critical race theory in schools and have been one of the most powerful and influential voices on the Right encouraging parents to get involved and put pressure on their school boards?
Maybe it was because APP PAC spent nearly $6 million during the 2020 campaign cycle and just announced a six-figure campaign in the Virginia governor’s race to defeat Terry McAuliffe. Did McAuliffe call in a favor with his buddies at Google? Very possible.
But it might be even simpler than that. APP has been a thorn in Big Tech’s side for years now. We’ve helped move the Republican Party to a place where influential Senators and Members of Congress are proudly signing on to Section 230 reform bills and even antitrust bills. Maybe Google thought it would be good strategically to silence APP ahead of some key votes coming up in the House?
This is not the first time APP has been censored by Big Tech. It’s not even the second time or the third time. It certainly won’t be the last. But we should all be concerned that Google feels comfortable blackballing a mainstream conservative political organization from the digital public square. It’s not going to stop with American Principles Project. The censorship, the cheating, the direct attacks on our democracy — all of this is going to keep happening until Republicans decide to make it stop.
UPDATE 12:45PM: We are in an appeals process with Google. We will be sure to update with more once we’ve gotten to some sort of resolution. Our YouTube account is temporarily live, but a number of videos have been completely removed from the channel, and we still haven’t received any sort of specific explanation as to the reason for the initial suspension or for censoring various videos.