Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says YouTube, Google are a ‘council of censors’ – Creative Loafing Tampa

Screengrab via Fox NewsGov.Ron DeSantisreconnected with a national audience Wednesday, joining Fox and Friends to message against the content curation policies of Google and YouTube again.

The Governor said the tech platforms were anti-science and functioned as a council of censors when they opted to pull down a video of a controversial coronavirus roundtable DeSantis held with doctors earlier this year.

Last week, YouTuberemoved a videoof DeSantisroundtable, which included Drs.Scott Atlas,Jay BhattacharyaandMartin Kulldorff. At issue: medical guidance regarding children and the necessity of masks.

DeSantis, whobrought the doctors backto Tallahassee virtually this week to bemoan the censorship, reprised his objections at length Wednesday.

When you have the ability to debate people and you can marshal facts against certain viewpoints, you do that. When you dont have that, thats when you try to fall back on censorship, DeSantis said.

These are doctors and scientists who have been against the narrative really for the past year, and you know, theyve been right against lockdowns, theyve been right about kids needing to be in school. Obviously, Florida followed a lot of their advice and weve had much more success.

And so if what theyre saying isnt true on science, then show the science that contradicts it, the Governor continued. But Google and YouTube couldnt do that. What Google and YouTube (are) trying to do is serve as a council of censors, where theyre enforcers of the narrative. The narrative is lockdown. The narrative is mask a two year old kid. The narrative is all these different things we kept hearing, and when people counteract that, their instinct is to pull it down.

Very troubling, DeSantis added. Thats not what science is about. Science is always about asking questions, raising concerns, and Google and YouTube are not dedicated to the scientific method.

The Governor said the tech platforms stifled really strong critiques of lockdowns early in the pandemic, censored across all these tech platforms.

They suffocated it at the outset, DeSantis asserted.

The Governor held to that metaphor, adding a bit later that its really hard to just smother those facts and take it down, but thats what theyre doing.

In astatement last week, YouTube spokeswomanElenaHernandezsaid YouTube pulled the video because it included content that contradicts the consensus of local and global health authorities regarding the efficacy of masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says YouTube, Google are a 'council of censors' - Creative Loafing Tampa