The Biden US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tried to compel a Google lobbyist to censor a YouTube video about a monoclonal antibody drug and its potential use to help people fight COVID-19, according to an email reported by author and researcher Alex Berenson.
An email from FDA social media director Brad Kimberly from April 30 was sent to Jan Fowler Antonaros, a lobbyist for Google, asking them to get YouTube, owned by Google, to censor a 3 minute video about the drug leronlimab.
“I just wanted to flag a video that we believe is misleading when it comes to COVID-19,” Kimberly wrote in the email the same day the video was posted.
“Overall, the video is very problematic when it comes to COVID misinformation,” Kimberly continues. “This video should be pulled.”
YouTube is a platform that is supposed to allow people to post videos without the company censoring them because a corrupt government bureaucrat doesn’t like what is being said in a video.
YouTube was asked to pull any videos that mention the use of the drug ivermectin to treat COVID. There was no sane reason for ivermectin videos to be censored like the Soviet Union. I am living proof that ivermectin works when used to treat COVID-19.
Kimberly pointed out to Google that the drug is not yet approved by the FDA, and then mentioned some intellectual property concerns. Berenson made the point that the lack of FDA approval for the drug means “it is effectively unavailable to patients. Thus whatever its potential side effects or lack of effectiveness, it is not actually a risk to anyone.”
Berenson said that Antonaros, the Google lobbyist, wrote back a week later, letting him know that the video had been reviewed and they found that it did not violate YouTube’s guidelines. Berenson said that was “probably because it did not promise that leronlimab would cure COVID, only touted its potential and encouraged the FDA to allow it under an emergency use authorization.”
Ryan Joseph, the man who posted the video, changed the listing of the video to private saying that it was his decision to do so because he didn’t want to get a bunch of negative attention towards the drug because of Berenson’s article.
Google and YouTube should be given credit for deciding against censorship of the video, but the FDA trying to get a social media company to censor free speech is beyond the pale. The federal government does not have the power to censor free speech, but we all know that they have been using the tech tyrants of social media to do it for them. I am always curious of what that quid pro quo consists of.
This isn’t the Biden administration’s first censorship rodeo. White House mouth piece Jen Psaki back in July let it be known that the Biden administration is regularly “flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.” The Biden administration does not believe free speech is a right of every American. What they usually call disinformation is real data that they don’t want the American people to know about.
Psaki then said a few days later that nothing was “off the table” for censorship, as the administration works with the tech tyrants of social media. They are blatantly bragging about it now. It should be against the law to get a private company to do things to American citizens’ rights that they can’t do because it’s illegal. It’s a loophole that our Founding Fathers never thought there would ever be a class of politicians so low, so evil that they would violate the Bill of Rights by proxy.
Rich is a conservative, syndicated opinion writer and owner of MAGA-Chat.com. He writes about politics, culture, liberty, and faith.
Fight tech tyranny. Join Rich on MAGA-Chat.com, where free speech is still free. Join the revolution!