In this episode of Domestics Translating Podcast, we will be talking about the word, the word and the word. The word, the word and are two of the most important words in Sri Lankan Tamil Mythology.
00:08:33.000Before I dive into anything here, and because I genuinely worry that this stream and content could be taken down, I ask that everyone watching right now please tweet, Facebook, Instagram, post this wherever you can.
00:08:46.000Include the hashtags YouTube 2020 Election Blacklist and Crowder Exposes YouTube.
00:08:51.000I know that's self-serving but we want to make sure that people know where to go to find this stream.
00:08:55.000We are live streaming to the Blaze TV right now in case the feed gets cut and I want you to know that I expressly give permission for anyone out there to screen record and pirate this stream in the event that it's banned and this content removed.
00:09:09.000So, it's going to take a little bit to sort of unpack, but let me state on the outset that I and the team here at Lottery with Crowder have uncovered what I believe to be undeniable proof of Google and YouTube's current meddling in the United States presidential election.
00:09:32.000I want to be clear so there can be no misrepresentation regarding the information I'm going to present.
00:09:37.000Again, please tweet, Facebook, get this trending.
00:09:39.000What I'm about to show you is, what I'm about to discuss, it's not a left or right issue, we've heard that so much it's become a cliche, but it really does affect anyone who believes in fair and honest elections, okay?
00:09:49.000Let me work backwards, understanding that I am going to get to photographic and videographic what I believe to be Irrefutable evidence of altering the fundamental landscape of the election.
00:10:03.000Many of you remember the Vox Adpocalypse, okay?
00:10:05.000That was a time in which this program was a target of a selectively edited smear campaign from the company Vox, and it should be noted in which the parent company, NBCUniversal, Comcast, they have at least a 34% ownership stake.
00:10:19.000The event actually, the controversy, went all the way up to the top of YouTube with Susan Wojcicki herself even commenting on the story publicly.
00:10:27.000It should be noted publicly stating that we had not violated any guidelines.
00:10:32.000So while we were found to be in no violation of YouTube official policies or guidelines, in order to appease the leftist torch mob, we were completely demonetized on this channel, meaning that we would no longer be able to sustain a living on the platform.
00:10:45.000Now, it should be noted that behind the scenes during the Vox Apocalypse, my half-Asian lawyer Bill Richman, who will be here in a second to speak about this more with me, him and I received a phone call from YouTube representatives.
00:10:57.000who refused to give their name or any additional information outside of a pre-written statement.
00:11:03.000We were told that they had extensively reviewed our channel in full, and that the violations with the channel, or the, I guess, not necessarily violations, but what it was that we had done which warranted demonetization, let's go, there's no official term for it, that the detailed follow-up would be sent in an email so that we could attempt to rectify the situation and remonetize ourselves.
00:12:21.000Demonetization is never what really bothered me.
00:12:24.000So let's get closer to the issue that we're about to discuss here.
00:12:28.000It was a canary in a coal mine, if you will.
00:12:29.000I've openly said many times I would gladly take demonetization for the rest of this program's lifespan if it guaranteed that the organic reach and the search algorithms were corrected and they were transparent.
00:12:42.000Because, and this is central to what I'm about to release here, while money in politics is important and it's an issue, more impactful and more valuable, I would argue, in 2019 is information.
00:12:54.000I would argue that we've reached a point where big money in politics doesn't wield nearly as much influence as the mechanisms of information or informational delivery in 2019.
00:13:04.000It's how Donald Trump was elected despite being opposed by many huge Republican donors.
00:13:11.000And it's how many fake stories run by traditional media have been exposed.
00:13:16.000At the same time that demonetization was occurring with us, all of a sudden our organic reach and traffic on YouTube was decreasing.
00:13:25.000Specifically, more specifically, the gaining of new subscribers on a daily basis.
00:13:29.000Everyone here, we did a complete overhaul.
00:13:43.000So are the overall interactions on videos.
00:13:45.000All the most valued metrics for video algorithms, according to YouTube's own statements.
00:13:51.000What we noticed was a drastically reduced reach in search and organic traffic, despite having really created the kind of content that we always had and the kind of content that YouTube said they always wanted.
00:14:02.000I don't know if you guys can hear, I'm a little parched.
00:14:06.000Going up against the biggest company in the history of ever makes me a little nervous.
00:14:11.000I don't really get starstruck, but this one has me sweating.
00:14:16.000Not quite sweating blood like Jesus and Gethsemane, but, you know, Gethsemane?
00:14:20.000Is that what we were talking about yesterday?
00:14:31.000So you understand how it is, really, that a late-night host in a comic was able to stumble across some information that will be shared in this broadcast.
00:14:39.000It is only because of all this tomfoolery, if you want to call it that, if I may, on YouTube, that we had begun digging into the potential reasons for it, and we were watching everything like a hawk.
00:14:51.000We were continually running effectively comparative studies, analytics, testing for controls on a daily basis behind the scenes because of all that transpired.
00:15:00.000So I want to note, it's at this time where we discovered some very odd, I guess some peculiarities we can say, in simply trying to find one of my own change my mind videos, an employee here Realizing that it was likely faster than combing through the archives himself, our own video channel, because it's not necessarily the most robust platform for that on YouTube.
00:15:19.000He just ran a YouTube search, Steven Crowder changed my mind.
00:15:42.000But a lot of you accused us of lying or doctoring photos because our content was showing up as normal in your search results, which didn't make a lot of sense to us.
00:15:52.000Noticing a trend, then, on a hunch, my wonderful, brilliant, and terrifying researcher, Reg, he ran some controlled experiments, if I may, using different VPNs.
00:16:03.000And that's when the puzzle pieces started coming together.
00:16:06.000The blacklisting of this channel and its content on search was occurring in the United States exclusively.
00:16:16.000That means that if someone searched Steven Crowder Changed My Mind in Argentina or any other country, the appropriate content showed up.
00:16:21.000If someone typed the exact same search in the United States, nothing.
00:16:27.000Now we found, or we were sent proof of this, many of these examples from countries all across the world.
00:16:35.000And it was concerning for several reasons.
00:16:37.000Not only because it provided a direct answer as to why the organic reach had plummeted, but more importantly, this is the number one conservative-leaning channel of all time on YouTube.
00:16:47.000One with a vast majority of our fans being in the United States.
00:16:53.000And one that has hosted not just a few, but many national presidential candidates as well as political figureheads.
00:17:00.000This week, I think we have Rand Paul on the show.
00:17:25.000And if they were doing this, by the way, to the largest, we were thinking the largest conservative presence on the platform, YouTube, despite in their own words having found, they found no violations of policies on our part, what could this mean for the political landscape of America?
00:17:38.000More specifically, the 2020 elections, okay?
00:17:41.000I expressed these concerns in a cell phone video, a flippant cell phone video.
00:17:46.000Making sure to communicate that at the time, I didn't have any evidence available to me of this occurring to anyone else, but I encouraged everyone out there to send in your own test results.
00:17:57.000And I also expressed my concern in potential election engineering.
00:18:01.000So this is several months removed from the Vox Adpocalypse, a cell phone video.
00:18:05.000After this, for the first time since the Vox Adpocalypse, I was immediately contacted by YouTube.
00:18:11.000And this time, not by faceless, nameless people reading a statement, but representatives in positions of power who were looking to try and ameliorate the situation.
00:18:25.000Why did everyone refuse to talk to us when we were at the center of this national scandal that the CEO of your company had to address publicly?
00:18:34.000When our livelihoods were on the line, why did we receive complete radio silence?
00:18:40.000And now because of a throwaway cell phone video?
00:18:43.000Direct contacts to the higher-ups and assistants with our channel?
00:18:48.000Seemed really odd, but wanting to act in good faith, we opened communications while we were still conducting more research experiments behind the scenes.
00:18:57.000And yet the excuse that we often hear, and that you'll often hear from YouTube, is that all of these results are based on algorithms.
00:19:12.000Obviously that didn't add up in our case, when people couldn't find our content exclusively in the United States.
00:19:17.000So after the initial call, The contacts at YouTube were kind enough to switch the status of our channel to show the, I believe it's called the Prominent User Interface, if I'm not mistaken.
00:19:29.000And that includes a channel card, which identifies our channel, and a link to the subscribe at the top, along with our videos and suggested links column.
00:19:36.000And we were notified that not everyone had gotten this, including some other prominent channels.
00:19:44.000One, for the first time, someone at YouTube was actually paying attention, and more importantly, two, that ultimately there was a person, or is a person, at YouTube who can make these kinds of calls, or at the very least can correct and guide them, as was the case with our channel.
00:20:05.000Finally, this brings us to some evidence that we just stumbled upon as it relates to the current DNC primary election.
00:20:14.000So many of you have probably guessed where this is going.
00:20:18.000But let me start this with Tulsi Gabbard already has a pending lawsuit with Google slash YouTube Alphabet for what she perceives as unfair treatment.
00:20:30.000Now I want to let Tulsi Gabbard explain the case in her own words first.
00:20:35.000I know that you had some problems that you are contesting.
00:20:38.000Google did not treat you fairly after the last debate.
00:20:43.000Look, in the first debate, I was on the first night and I was the most searched candidate of that event.
00:20:49.000Unfortunately, Google chose to arbitrarily block our Google Ads account for several hours at the time that was most critical for our campaign.
00:20:58.000I'm suing Google for taking that action.
00:21:00.000They've provided no valid explanation for why that was done.
00:21:02.000There was no wrongdoing or problem on our part, not because of me, but because of this
00:21:07.000monopoly, this power that these big tech monopolies have to simply shut out people arbitrarily.
00:21:14.000This is a threat to our freedom of speech.
00:21:16.000And it's an important thing for us all to stand united in calling out and to protect,
00:21:22.000because whether you're a Democrat or Republican or on the left or on the right, for a big
00:21:27.000tech monopoly to have this power, this affects all of us.
00:21:33.000And let me be clear, I don't really agree with Tulsi Gabbard on a whole lot.
00:21:37.000I wouldn't vote for her if she were the candidate for president.
00:21:41.000But I can still tell right from wrong.
00:21:43.000Her lawsuit, let me be clear about this in case you didn't fully grasp it, it centers around her being blocked out from Google AdSense accounts.
00:21:49.000Now what that is, is an advertising arm run by Google and YouTube allowing you both to create and pay to promote ads or videos as well as receive ads on your channel.
00:22:22.000I was approached by YouTube to do this.
00:22:23.000We don't run as many ads, of course, as NBCUniversal or Disney, Viacom, Vice, but we do what we can.
00:22:30.000Now, many of the ad campaigns that we've run here on YouTube through Google AdSense were actually engineered by YouTube employees themselves.
00:22:38.000Again, who reached out to me and taught me how to create these ads and encouraged me to spend more money on these YouTube advertising campaigns.
00:22:46.000But at some point, they decided that these campaigns, the ones they initially created, were now a violation of policy and began locking them out.
00:22:57.000Not only that, But even though I was told the exact opposite, I had clearly been blacklisted from promoting any of my videos on the platform here.
00:23:05.000So again, I ran some tests behind the scenes, and I tried to pick the most vanilla milquetoast examples I could find of my videos, and I attempted to promote them as ads on the platform.
00:23:15.000Like this long-form conversation I think is one with Climate Change original Greenpeace member Patrick Moore.
00:23:21.000And then of course all the civil, productive, change-my-mind segments.
00:23:30.000Again, even though YouTube had helped design campaigns around these exact pieces of content and collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising those same videos years before.
00:23:42.000So, I say this because I want you to know I'm well aware of the screw jobs that can occur with AdSense without any answer.
00:23:51.000Most importantly, this establishes a record with Tulsi Gabbard of Google YouTube altering the rules for a specific window of time when Tulsi Gabbard was trending or was widely searched due to a bump in the debates.
00:24:23.000On Friday, Hillary Clinton Rodham, in case you're thinking of someone else. Hillary
00:24:29.000Rodham Clinton claimed that Tulsi Gabbard, well she claimed that there were people who were Russian
00:24:34.000assets and then it was confirmed that it was Tulsi Gabbard, right? Confirmed that she was talking
00:24:38.000about Tulsi Gabbard, accusing her of being a Russian asset, and Tulsi's response had her trending
00:24:44.000number one on Twitter, I think it was It was last Friday.
00:24:49.000That's when we were looking into this.
00:24:50.000Okay, so she was the number one trend.
00:24:51.000Actually, I think, like, number one through four, because one might have been Tulsi, another might have been Russian Asset, another might have been Gabbard.
00:24:57.000The point is, she was the belle of the ball, with many verified checkmarks, by the way, and pundits running with the story, fighting over whether she was a Russian plant.
00:25:07.000So, during this time, we decided to, again, while Tulsi Gabbard was in the spotlight, run some comparative searches on YouTube.
00:25:16.000When we set our VPN, so I want to be clear, this is the crescendo.
00:25:22.000Share it, pirate this in case it gets removed.
00:25:23.000When we set our VPN to a non-United States country and we searched for Tulsi Gabbard, her channel and the videos from her channel all showed up first.
00:25:35.000Yet again, when we switched our searches to the United States, however, nothing.
00:25:42.000Exclusively in the United States, the country in which she is currently running for president, you would receive no results from Tulsi Gabbard's channel or her videos until scrolling past the first page.
00:25:54.000Here's a video screen recording, just in case people try to say that we've doctored it.
00:25:58.000By the way, these video screen recordings will be available as clips on YouTube should you want to use them for articles.
00:26:05.000So, that Friday, you search, she's trending one on Twitter, all of a sudden, boom, valve is pinched, you can't find her, exclusively in the United States, you can if you're in Germany, you can if you're in Spain.
00:26:17.000By Sunday, once the trend of Hillary Clinton's character assassination had subsided, the results for the U.S.
00:26:23.000and other countries were magically switched back to being identical.
00:26:30.000Now, it's worth noting that her channel is right now, as far as I know it, omitted from both sets of results.
00:26:36.000So everyone out there, take some screenshots, do some VPN experiments.
00:26:39.000I assume they're going to be fixing this once this video is out, and I assume that someone there is watching this right now, so they may not necessarily be consistent.
00:26:46.000You don't always have the same result twice.
00:26:50.000Even though, by the way, they're the same, her channel is not as prominent as it was before.
00:27:02.000Especially when you consider... Let's think about this for a second.
00:27:04.000Again, we stumbled across this accidentally.
00:27:07.000I don't know if anyone else has proof that there is someone who flips a switch on YouTube to make your channel a part of the Preferred Channels Network, whatever the hell it's called.
00:27:16.000We only found out because of the Vox Adpocalypse.
00:27:19.000And then we only found out because I flippantly mentioned that this reeks of election meddling.
00:27:24.000All of a sudden a phone call and someone says we remedy that scenario.
00:27:27.000That means that if someone can flip that switch, and it's not entirely algorithmic, or it's almost as though the algorithms are determined by a human being initially, it's not iRobot, that means that same person can flip off the switch for someone like Tulsi Gabbard.
00:27:43.000All of this is hair-raisingly scary, and if you're interested in a fair election, whether for the presidency or just for the Democratic candidate for the presidency, this should raise some major red flags.
00:27:56.000The influence that big tech has, and their willingness to manipulate information in the face of what should be a Democratic election, regardless of whether it's happening to someone I support or not, Is terrifying.
00:28:08.000So let me address some arguments, by the way, that I know will be presented.
00:28:12.000And I hope that you are being skeptical of this.
00:28:14.000I encourage you to be, and I encourage you to run your own tests.
00:28:17.000YouTube and Google will inevitably claim one of three things, or several.
00:28:22.000Because this is what we've run into, this is always what they claim publicly.
00:28:37.000YouTube may try to pass this off as an accident, a result of a poor, lower-level employee with bad judgment claiming that this was an oversight and that the individual didn't make the proper corrections and they have since addressed the issue.
00:28:49.000We've been in direct contact with decision-makers at YouTube who are aware of these problems and have been trying to do damage control to fix the problems.
00:28:56.000It would stand to reason that the status of a current presidential candidate who is actively suing YouTube would be under the same kind of close watch from the world's biggest information and technology company, and that she wouldn't be someone pawned off on some patsy for the higher-ups.
00:29:14.000This is another argument they'll use, and this is most important.
00:29:15.000YouTube in the past has consistently argued that their algorithms, policies, that they are the results... Well, they argue that it's a result of algorithms.
00:29:25.000But they do argue, let me be clear here, that the algorithms of policies, the results that you find, are often geographically dependent.
00:29:33.000It's something that many of you have been told.
00:29:34.000And that's because it's geographically dependent because it's designed to best serve viewing audiences with the most appropriate content for their search.
00:29:43.000I've heard his argument made a whole lot, and I expect it to be made now.
00:29:47.000If that's the case, I would implore YouTube, please, because I know someone there is watching, could you please explain to me, your shareholders, and in all likelihood a congressional hearing, why you believe it most appropriate in serving your audience to block the content of a United States presidential candidate exclusively in the country in which she is running.
00:30:19.000In the same way, how does it serve the audience searching for Stephen Crider Changed My Mind to not show them what it is that they are searching for?
00:30:27.000I'm sure shareholders and people who want to understand how these algorithms and big tech work, they would love to know why it's in their best interest for users to not find the content they signed on for and are actively searching.
00:30:40.000How does allowing Tulsi Gabbard's channel and videos to show up Everywhere around the world, except for the United States, best serve your audience.
00:30:49.000YouTube, you are in the information business.
00:30:51.000And I want to clarify this, when we say big tech, no, it's the information business right now.
00:30:56.000From a business perspective, YouTube, how does it make sense to preclude your users from finding the content they are searching for specifically and passionately?
00:31:08.000The only answer I can come up with In the face of mounting evidence, is that it's not even profit-driven, but to an extent, ideological.
00:31:17.000And finally, to the detractors, who I know will say, well, Tulsi's not a serious candidate.
00:31:23.000In the grand scheme, it doesn't really matter.
00:31:34.000Well, actually, it's the biggest conservative channel in the history of the world's largest media platform because of you, and we are so grateful.
00:33:52.000YouTube has 2 billion monthly active users and is used by 73% of United States adults.
00:34:00.000Google has a 90.46% share of the market as it relates to searches conducted online worldwide.
00:34:12.000It is far greater than the influence of every television network combined in the era of JFK or Nixon.
00:34:21.000Make no mistake, this is the most powerful information company on the face of the earth today and likely to have ever existed.
00:34:30.000And they've repeatedly shown an inability and unwillingness to invite, to engage, and sometimes they ultimately just block people from even having a seat at the table.
00:34:40.000We often hear folks say, and this has become a catchphrase, like I said earlier, but in this instance, I think this is accurate.
00:34:48.000This is a fundamental issue that relates to the state of our republic.
00:34:51.000And I would hope that everyone, from the Young Turks, to their subsidiaries, to Seth Meyers, to John Oliver, to folks in the Yang Gang, even the Tulsi Gabbard followers themselves, who I know have been asking questions if she's been getting a raw deal.
00:35:05.000I would ask all of you, with whom I have very little in common, To see the gravity of this situation and, in this instance, come together to demand answers and transparency from the world's largest information company as it relates to free and fair elections.
00:35:22.000I will await YouTube's answers with bated breath.
00:35:25.000Sorry it wasn't all that funny because I had to make sure that I got this out and that I didn't say anything that held me legally liable.
00:35:31.000That's why my half-Asian lawyer, Bill Richman, is here.
00:36:13.000If we get this info to you now, it's going to go public, and someone else is going to try to run with it, and they might not get the story right.
00:36:21.000So, yes, it's been a very stressful few days, but half-Asian lawyer Bill Richman, your thoughts?
00:36:28.000So I think that people don't necessarily, if you kind of sum everything up, you've given them a lot of information in order to be clear and to be detailed.
00:36:34.000And to really boil it down, Tulsi already publicly knows and has been publicly fighting since July when she filed her lawsuit against Google and YouTube to say that they had been screwing with her on the Google ad side.
00:36:46.000And knowing that the ads are the way that in this market, in this current economy, in our current tech world, how we communicate to voters Whether you're on the left or the right, whether you're Republican or you're Democrat, and she already knows about that.
00:36:58.000And that's the same thing that we've had to deal with in terms of our own ads being removed and unable to actually do the kinds of things that every other platform is able to do with no clarity on the violations.
00:37:09.000So what the other parallels we had here and again that's what kind of led to where we are now is being able to see that not only is it ads and ads her ads are ads but it's also search for her and search for us and that's the most incredible part about this is you know we looked at it and we were very skeptical you know to say hey How could this be true?
00:37:41.000It's actually mentioned in the amended complaint filed by Tulsi Gabbard in her lawsuit against Google, is that algorithms are written by people.
00:37:49.000They are written with an intended result.
00:37:51.000They see the results, and their job is to monitor the results.
00:37:54.000So if anyone's out there thinking, well, you know, with all eyes on them, surely they didn't intend to screw with Tulsi's campaign, to screw with her ability to rise in the polls, to screw with her ability to communicate to people on both sides of the aisle about her candidacy for the Democratic primary ticket.
00:38:12.000One still has to put the blame back on these companies for not taking the action that they could.
00:38:17.000It would be kind of going back to that first case that we dealt with together with Facebook.
00:38:20.000Remember it wasn't you know up at the top they were saying well we had no idea that there was this group of contractors who were supervised by employees that had a written policy that included a blacklist and you happen to be on it and you know but it was an accident right well clearly in the years that that's happened that excuse no longer makes For people who don't know, that was when, was it Engadget or Gizmodo?
00:38:41.000That's how Half-Asian Lawyer Bill Richmond and I initially met, was there was a list of people on Facebook to throttle, to make sure that their, really I think this was a list to make sure that their content wasn't trending.
00:38:54.000And it was like Breitbart, Drudge Report, some conservative organizations, and yours truly, for some reason, going, well, this is really bizarre.
00:39:01.000And I reached out to half-Asian lawyer Bill Richman.
00:39:02.000The thing is, at that point, they didn't argue it at all.
00:39:05.000They just argued that, well, these were some rogue employees who did it, and we've corrected the problem.
00:39:10.000And at that point, no one was really looking for it, right?
00:39:14.000It was actually a friend who was a groomsman at my wedding who introduced me to half-Asian Bill.
00:39:18.000And a wonderful friendship blossomed from there.
00:39:20.000That being said, that can't be the case here because this is a current presidential candidate who is already suing the company.
00:39:28.000They wouldn't be able to say, well, we had no idea.
00:39:30.000We passed her off to some low-level employee.
00:39:32.000If that's the case, then you're far too inept to be the single biggest information delivery company in the history of mankind and there needs to be some more oversight.
00:39:40.000Well, and I think the other question there is that when we saw the Facebook situation, remember, there were inquiries from the Senate, from Congress, representatives were reaching out, there was many statements that Facebook had to make to explain and to try and give some information, and they were able to get away with not having to say too much about exactly what had happened at that time, but had to really open the kimono, if you will.
00:40:01.000And here, there's really no other answer that YouTube can give other than to say, We've got to look at all the files and you've got to get a congressional hearing I mean these are the kinds of things where regardless of the validity on the legal aspects of Tulsi's lawsuit I know she's had to switch from different claims and actually just a week ago Google and YouTube filed a lawsuit They filed a motion to dismiss her entire claim now.
00:40:23.000They don't want to provide any information.
00:40:24.000They don't want to provide any data They don't want to provide any explanations even just on that issue so for them being blocked on her being blocked by the way She doesn't know about this Tulsi Gabbard this This is very new information.
00:40:37.000No one, as far as I know, has talked about this or revealed this information.
00:40:41.000While she was trending last week, being accused of being a Russian asset, you search anywhere not in the United States, Tulsi Gabbard's content shows up, search in the United States, ghosted.
00:40:51.000And if you just want to draw the parallels there, on the Friday that we
00:40:54.000discovered this, on the Friday that she was trending because of
00:40:58.000Hillary calling her a Russian-backed groomed asset, that was the day
00:41:02.000that YouTube filed its motion to dismiss her claims. So if you're
00:41:06.000asking as a consumer, you know, just like companies may try and use the
00:41:10.000law to be able to skirt and be able to use the current legal system to get away
00:41:14.000from answering questions, what they can't get away from are the customers.
00:41:17.000What they can't get away from are the viewers and the creators who want to know, regardless of political ideology, if I'm not the favored person, am I going to be treated differently?
00:41:30.000There may be a lot of people who enjoy Hulsey Gabbard's frankness, who enjoy her service to this country, but have very differing views on her politically.
00:41:38.000And I think that's most of us on this show.
00:41:41.000But that doesn't mean that we're again in that classic line, we may not agree with what you're saying, but we'll fight for your right to say it.
00:41:47.000And what's clear now is that YouTube is not interested in fighting for your right to say it if you happen to be a disfavored Democratic candidate.
00:41:54.000And I think where we can also all find some common ground, we can all, you know, hold hands and sing Dahu Dorhe around the Christmas tree and agreeing that Tulsi Gabbard is fine.
00:42:44.000It's just weird to me that she's seen as a Russian asset because of slightly conservative views, really libertarian views, in that she's a non-interventionist and she thinks she shouldn't be able to have an abortion after seven months.
00:43:07.000We can see the physical search results and how they get modified and we can certainly extrapolate from that the impact on not being able to have a voice when you are the most Trending topic on Twitter in a very fast news cycle surrounding a Democratic primary we can see all of that But what we can't see is the motivation or the mistakes that were made and those are the answers that the people of the United States
00:43:31.000Again, the people who don't get to see Tulsi Gabbard or Steven Crowder's show when searching in results, those are the answers that need to be given.
00:43:39.000Full disclosure, we have spoken with YouTube in recent times, but those conversations are to be kept confidential, and we at no point discussed this with them, Tulsi Gabbard, or anything like this.
00:44:43.000So there's a power there that can be exercised.
00:44:45.000And if there are any aspects in which you want to see the kind of coming together like you saw with Ted Cruz and AOC on some topics, these are the kind of topics because Every side has these questions.
00:44:57.000Well, and I want to be clear, we haven't been available before, but both myself and half-Asian lawyer Bill Richmond will make ourselves available if you need us to.
00:45:10.000Well, I want to make sure that you guys understand, to anyone who might be watching, again, we've hosted politicians here on this show, senators, congressmen, people who ran for, people who've run for president, who might be running for president, There is no one out there who has had the same kinds of conversations, relationships, or the overall plethora of evidence that we have as it relates to YouTube, because we've had to deal with it on the AdSense side, we've had to deal with it on the organic search side, we've had to deal with it on the demonetization side, and because of this we have been aggregating so much research over the last several decades.
00:45:39.000We want to be clear, this is not us going, oh, it's censorship!
00:45:41.000That's not what we're talking about here.
00:45:43.000We are talking about Dishonesty and misleading business practices.
00:45:46.000As it relates to our case, as it relates to Tulsi Gabbard right now and this new evidence, and we are going to be searching for more.
00:45:52.000We encourage you to search for more and send it all to us.
00:45:55.000It is very disconcerting to see the amount of power that can be exerted over, if you want to call it, just the election.
00:46:01.000But I think this goes far beyond the election.
00:46:03.000It goes to a shifting cultural political landscape, really.
00:46:07.000Let's get rid of the top conservative channels that exist.
00:46:10.000And then, let's get rid of the moderate Democratic candidates.
00:46:13.000I'm not saying this is exactly what's happening, but I am saying that, undeniably, you look at—it is so odd, and there is no answer for why our content would show up in countries not called the United States, and why a United States—I always forget, Tulsa Gabbard, Congresswoman?
00:46:55.000Then it's the idea that you want to most appropriately serve content to people who are serving.
00:46:59.000Well, how are you most appropriately serving the audience by not showing them the results from a sitting representative right now running for the United States presidency exclusively in the United States?
00:47:28.000We've been talking about this for a long time, our interactions with YouTube, and Our legal issues and run-ins that we've tried to play long ball and be as transparent as possible as be as minimal as possible as as compromising as possible when appropriate but right now if there is something happening tipping the scales of the election and this is so odd we stumbled across it's it's the specific example that you out there thought
00:49:01.000He is the candidate that the people wanted, and the people who voted for him loved him.
00:49:06.000Even though I disagree with Democrats, Liberals, on almost everything in 2019, not back to JFK, but today, I still want you to be able to have the candidate that you have selected through a process that should remain untainted.
00:49:19.000I want it to be an honest win, not a cheat.
00:49:22.000You know, I think one of the questions that we were looking at, and that I know you've been kind of doing some research on, if you can recall the numbers, Yes.
00:49:30.000I think Reg can probably get that to me.
00:50:25.000And comparing the circumstances there and how, oh, conveniently she's back up on Sunday while everyone else is...
00:50:32.000Watching football or a church. Yeah, well, especially actually even right now. We're top 10 trending. I believe
00:50:37.000in the in the United States You can't buy that that's good
00:50:41.000I mean, I guess you can I guess Samsung has but they spend a ton of money and it doesn't last very long and then
00:50:45.000They're then their phones explode. But um The point is this kind of overall publicity, right? It's
00:50:51.000something that people can't necessarily buy I think it was, I'm pretty confident in saying it was $3,500 in ads, Russian Facebook ads.
00:50:59.000How much do you think, let's do this, how much do you think Russia would pay?
00:51:04.000If they could guarantee that a candidate who they saw as the greatest threat, let's just say for an example, I'm not saying Tulsa Gabbard is the greatest threat, no people are going to say plant, just stop.
00:51:18.000If someone wanted to stack the deck of the election, right?
00:51:24.000How much do you think they would be willing to pay to guarantee that the most threatening candidate was not turning up in any organic search algorithms?
00:51:34.000I'm not talking about just shutting Tulsi Gabbard out.
00:51:47.000How much would you think that these people would pay to ensure that, let's say, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, whoever it is, doesn't show up when you search for them?
00:52:21.000But if search in United States, can you guarantee me that their channel will not show up for at least one or two page because we have numbers that show people do not search beyond first page?
00:52:34.000And if YouTube said, we guarantee you that Donald Trump, or we guarantee you that Tulsi Gabbard will not show up, I will pay, insert, how many millions that you want here?
00:53:08.000It's amazing to me that they don't... Can they legally, with Tulsi Gabbard, would they legally be able to dismiss it and just not provide any answers as to why she was blocked out from advertising?
00:53:16.000I mean, there's a judge who's going to look at all the arguments, make the decisions.
00:53:19.000Tulsi's team hasn't even had the opportunity to file the response.
00:53:23.000I mean, the motion was just filed on Friday.
00:53:25.000Again, the day that her search results were blocked.
00:53:28.000in the United States while she was trending number one in the United States.
00:53:31.000But ultimately the core of the arguments are there and frankly any ability to not get the
00:53:38.000answers from the lawsuit is an indictment of our current statutory system that would allow a
00:53:43.000company like YouTube or allow a company like Facebook to be able to say, hey we're just a
00:53:48.000platform. People just send messages, they post what they're going to post, we don't edit those
00:53:54.000We're not a broadcasting studio subject to other restrictions.
00:53:57.000And what's clear here is that their action that they're taking, separate and apart from the more egregious sin of interfering with the election with a specific candidate, is the issue of whether or not they are on one side or the other of that publisher-platform divide.
00:54:11.000And what everyone continues to ask, and what they continue to get pressed on but don't give clear answers, is which is it?
00:54:17.000I almost don't think, I mean this is me, and I'm not a lawyer, but the fact that Google and YouTube host debates themselves seems to me that that would enter the equation.
00:54:25.000That they're no longer just a neutral platform where people tend to go to watch debate streams when it's actually hosted by Google YouTube and people are sending in questions from Google YouTube.
00:54:34.000That's why Tulsi was going to protest the last debate because she was saying she thought she was treated unfairly by Google.
00:54:40.000That's got to open the door to some higher standard.
00:54:42.000I think all of those different factors go into play, because it's a pretty complex analysis to decide, are you on one side of the divide or the other?
00:54:49.000But when you add all of this up together, it creates a scenario that's hard to deny.
00:54:54.000When you're determining what ads are going to be placed, when you're determining what people can say, whether they're advertising a business or not or it's political ads, if you're changing what people can find and how easy it is for them to subscribe or get notifications, if you're making it difficult for people to be able to find you in search results or to find you in suggested feeds, I think by definition, somewhere along there, you cross the line into being an editor.
00:55:17.000And when you've edited the content and you become an editor of content, the whole landscape shifts.
00:55:22.000And that's not even to get into the idea of the paid partnership program and monetization, where YouTube applies different rules as far as, and I would imagine the same applies in running ads, where they say, well, not everyone has a right to post on YouTube, but not everyone has a right to be a partner, to be paid.
00:55:36.000And at that point, it seems like you're venturing well into the realm of publisher because you are determining who can and who can't make money off of YouTube, which is fine.
00:56:04.000Or the idea that the algorithms best serve the audience.
00:56:06.000You tell me how you best serve the audience by not serving Americans
00:56:09.000information regarding a current American running for president
00:56:12.000who's also a current United States representative.
00:56:14.000Look for those three arguments and immediately dismiss them and ask for another answer.
00:56:18.000And please run your own searches, not just Tulsi Gabbard, not just Stephen Crider, change my mind, but other presidential candidates, political topics.
00:56:25.000The only way that this gets out, the only way that this gets corrected is, of course, legally.
00:56:29.000And like we said, we will make ourselves available for any hearings or cross-examinations or whatever legal terms Bill knows.
00:56:35.000I was going to say, for those who are skeptical, and I know this is going to get out further than just our normal kind of right-leaning or conservative groups, this will hit all the different types of groups in America.
00:56:46.000In case you're just not concerned about a conservative or a not liberal enough candidate being restricted on YouTube, and maybe you think that's okay.
00:56:54.000I would ask you to go back and look at the different lawsuits, complaints that were made against YouTube and Google and Facebook for complying with the restriction of LGBT content, of other left-leaning content in countries like Saudi Arabia or China or Russia or other countries like that.
00:57:12.000The power that they have is acknowledged.
00:57:15.000They've acknowledged using the power, and now we have evidence that they're using it to interfere with an election.
00:57:21.000Yeah, and I would say, and I was about to go, and I felt like I was on a roll, but I think that's such a good point, and even though I know it's really easy for a lot of people out there to demonize us because, you know, we have a shirt that says socialism's for figs, and you say we don't really care, no love lost if we're gone from the channel.
00:57:34.000For big tech companies who talk about their philanthropy and talk about being able to affect positive change on a global scale, Right.
00:57:42.000And so it's easy to hate us because you think, well, we make jokes.
00:57:45.000Therefore it must be, if there's a racially charged joke, it must mean that someone is racist.
00:57:49.000Or if we're conservative, it must mean that we're a Nazi, right?
00:57:52.000Think about what this means overall for not just LGBTQ, but people in other countries who are still fighting for their civil rights, who are still fighting for their rights to
00:58:01.000access information freely, if you have the biggest tech monopolies, tripopolies, if
00:58:06.000that's a word, working with governments to enforce their policy or to dictate what
00:58:11.000governments are installed. And I would also ask, what possible altruistic argument could be presented
00:58:33.000But how do you say, you know what, morally we're justified in making sure that people who are searching for Tulsi Gabbard don't find her in the United States.
00:58:44.000I just don't see a moral case, even if we disagree on everything.
00:58:47.000And I don't see a moral case because I don't see it as a moral decision to ever silence voices of dissent simply because you can, even though it's unethical and it's what you claim to not do.
00:59:00.000But I don't see how anyone, even from a leftist worldview at this point, could look at this scenario and say, yeah, that's the right thing to do because I don't like her.
00:59:08.000There's nothing good about this here, folks.
00:59:46.000The reason we do Devil's Advocate on this show and the reason we do Change My Mind is because I firmly believe if you cannot argue your ideological opponent's position, you have no business holding your own.
01:00:01.000I cannot make the case for why any of this is justifiable, and not happening to me, but happening to other people right now, most notably Tulsi Gabbard.
01:00:12.000If someone can make that case, I would love to hear it.
01:00:14.000We'll keep you abreast as it relates to our channel specifically and our content.
01:00:19.000There likely won't be a show tomorrow.
01:00:21.000I think we have Rand Paul on the program live on Thursday.