Rebel News Podcast - Just before the Canadian election, YouTube suspends our Rebel News channel

00:00:00.000 Hello, my rebels. Bit of a crisis.

00:00:03.280 YouTube sent us a letter last night saying they're suspending our entire channel for a week.

00:00:08.820 I'm worried that's not the last of it.

00:00:10.260 I think they're going to try and absolutely delete our page,

00:00:14.240 even though we have 1.45 million subscribers.

00:00:18.640 I actually think they want to get us out of the way before the Canadian election.

00:00:21.680 I'll show you the letter they sent me. I'll show you the video they claim was the problem.

00:00:25.320 I'll explain why that really obviously isn't the real problem.

00:00:29.420 And I'll give you some ideas about what we're going to do about it.

00:00:32.180 That's next. But before I get to that, let me invite you to become a Rebel News Plus subscriber.

00:00:38.460 That's what we call the video version of this podcast.

00:00:42.580 It's a way of supporting us too.

00:00:44.360 We get eight bucks a month from you, which is less than most other streaming services.

00:00:48.960 That's about half the price of Netflix.

00:00:51.160 But of course, we use it to stay independent and strong.

00:00:53.920 It's especially important now that YouTube's coming for us.

00:00:56.560 Anyways, you can do all that at rebelnews.com and just click subscribe.

00:01:00.960 Here's today's podcast. Thanks.

00:01:02.320 Tonight, just weeks before a Canadian election, YouTube suspends our Rebel News channel.

00:01:22.840 It's April 14th and this is the Ezra Levant Show.

00:01:25.520 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:31.320 There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:35.380 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:01:41.260 Last night, I received an email from YouTube.

00:01:50.220 They're suspending our entire channel for a week.

00:01:53.920 But frankly, it's clear that they plan to kill us altogether.

00:01:58.900 Just a few weeks ago, they announced they were demonetizing us,

00:02:02.640 killing off $400,000 a year in revenues from ads and viewer donations called Super Chats.

00:02:09.180 That was step one. This is step two.

00:02:12.440 I fear we'll be gone completely within a few weeks, just deleted like we never existed.

00:02:17.660 That makes me sad. We've spent six years building up our YouTube channel.

00:02:21.320 1.45 million people like us enough to have subscribed to us.

00:02:26.500 Our videos typically get a 98% or 99% likes to dislikes ratio.

00:02:32.820 But because we have the wrong political point of view, we're being deleted.

00:02:38.660 And the reason YouTube gave for suspending us is a video I made back in January, which is weird, isn't it?

00:02:47.260 It's called,

00:02:49.220 If Big Tech Can Silence Trump, They Can Silence Anyone.

00:02:52.860 I'm not even kidding.

00:02:53.960 That was the video they decided to suspend us for.

00:02:57.680 Apparently, that video was fine these past 100 days, but now it's suddenly their excuse for suspending our whole channel.

00:03:06.380 You know, it's funny.

00:03:07.700 Just days after we revealed that the Canadian Armed Forces and the U.S. Navy had hired a defense contractor to spy on us,

00:03:15.220 just after that is when YouTube demonetized us,

00:03:19.000 and now just days after the Montreal police attempted to raid our Airbnb hotel rooms without a search warrant,

00:03:25.140 we suddenly get suspended.

00:03:27.160 I'm sure that's a coincidence.

00:03:28.740 I mean, big tech and big government, they'd never work together to marginalize a political opponent, would they?

00:03:35.440 I mean, that's just conspiracy theory stuff.

00:03:37.740 But you really have to see this video that got us suspended.

00:03:41.480 It's about six minutes long.

00:03:43.220 I'm going to play it for you now.

00:03:45.020 You might remember it.

00:03:46.260 It was excerpted from my longer monologue way back in January.

00:03:52.640 Here it is, the full six-minute clip that YouTube claims is, I don't know, illegal?

00:03:59.020 Look at this post by Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook.

00:04:03.880 The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office

00:04:12.120 to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.

00:04:20.540 Now, that is an opinion, and it could even be an honest or a reasonable opinion.

00:04:27.600 Maybe it's even the majority opinion.

00:04:29.960 But it's not what Donald Trump or his spokesmen have actually said.

00:04:35.360 They've specifically said that Trump will, in fact, accept the final result

00:04:41.200 and assist in the peaceful transition of power.

00:04:45.320 I mean, you don't have to believe him, but that's what Trump says.

00:04:47.740 So, Zuckerberg isn't entitled to his opinions about the future

00:04:53.040 or entitled to his speculation about what's going on in Trump's mind,

00:04:58.280 but those are just speculations.

00:05:00.540 I mean, it's his opinion.

00:05:02.960 But then Zuckerberg said this.

00:05:04.740 His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building

00:05:14.740 has rightly disturbed people in the U.S. and around the world.

00:05:19.160 We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect

00:05:24.280 and likely their intent would be to provoke further violence.

00:05:27.980 But he didn't do that.

00:05:31.440 I mean, that's what he said as a matter of record.

00:05:34.760 I mean, I saw the video.

00:05:36.200 I think we showed it last night.

00:05:37.860 Here's what he said.

00:05:38.840 It's only a minute long.

00:05:39.880 Take a look.

00:05:41.020 I know you're pain.

00:05:42.360 I know you're hurt.

00:05:44.040 We had an election that was stolen from us.

00:05:47.980 It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side.

00:05:53.280 But you have to go home now.

00:05:56.260 We have to have peace.

00:05:57.940 We have to have law and order.

00:05:59.220 We have to respect our great people in law and order.

00:06:03.660 We don't want anybody hurt.

00:06:05.240 It's a very tough period of time.

00:06:07.500 There's never been a time like this where such a thing happened,

00:06:11.740 where they could take it away from all of us, from me, from you, from our country.

00:06:16.560 This was a fraudulent election.

00:06:18.620 But we can't play into the hands of these people.

00:06:24.200 We have to have peace.

00:06:26.240 So go home.

00:06:27.660 We love you.

00:06:28.740 You're very special.

00:06:30.600 You've seen what happens.

00:06:31.920 You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil.

00:06:37.220 I know how you feel.

00:06:39.160 But go home and go home in peace.

00:06:42.080 The thing is, you can't see that video anymore.

00:06:45.920 You can't see what Trump actually said now.

00:06:49.760 You have to take Zuckerberg's word for it, his interpretation of it,

00:06:54.020 because he doesn't actually quote Trump, does he?

00:06:56.220 You can't watch that for yourself on Twitter, where it was also deleted.

00:07:01.400 And Instagram is owned by Zuckerberg, so it's deleted there, too.

00:07:05.540 I mean, it's only an inch away from Google banning searches for the White House website itself.

00:07:10.920 Well, these are your new rulers, by the way.

00:07:15.340 It's not Joe Biden.

00:07:16.280 It's these guys.

00:07:17.920 If they can rule Trump, they can rule you, too.

00:07:21.740 You know, you can still see what Nicolas Maduro, the tyrant of Venezuela, has to say on Twitter.

00:07:28.340 Same thing with the Ayatollahs of Iran, or China's countless government propagandists on Twitter.

00:07:33.700 By the way, you can't even access Twitter in those countries, but Twitter lets those tyrants use their forum to attack America and the West.

00:07:43.720 If mighty Donald Trump, who is still president, who is a billionaire who received close to 70, 80 million votes,

00:07:51.920 if he can be silenced by some nerdy twerp in Silicon Valley, everyone can be.

00:07:56.240 I should tell you that today, we received a warning letter from YouTube that our entire channel is in jeopardy.

00:08:05.060 We could be deleted if we dare to claim that there is widespread fraud in the election.

00:08:12.380 It's just an opinion you can no longer hold.

00:08:16.180 You just can't.

00:08:17.240 They won't let you.

00:08:18.140 The masters of the universe say so.

00:08:20.400 You cannot question their point of view.

00:08:22.600 You cannot claim the moon.

00:08:24.640 You can claim the moon is made of cheese.

00:08:27.360 You can say that.

00:08:28.660 You can claim the earth is flat.

00:08:30.400 They won't shut your channel down for being wrong on that.

00:08:33.460 But you cannot have a political opinion that contradicts your new masters on the stuff they care about.

00:08:41.360 Oh, and the Democrats are not looking for harmony or reconciliation.

00:08:44.300 They are looking for vengeance and blood.

00:08:46.540 They are even talking about impeaching Trump again in his final days just because they can.

00:08:52.600 They love what happened at the Capitol.

00:08:54.920 Now, no one was killed yesterday other than a protester who was shot at point-blank range by someone we don't know who.

00:09:02.360 Three others apparently had health emergencies and died as well.

00:09:06.080 But there was no torching, no arson.

00:09:09.520 It wasn't like the Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots that destroyed entire neighborhoods and killed dozens.

00:09:15.200 The only guns that were used yesterday were by police.

00:09:20.000 Oh, boy, the pictures were spectacular, though.

00:09:23.420 This bizarre guy dressed like a Viking or something.

00:09:27.600 Here he is claiming to be a shaman at a global warming protest a while back.

00:09:34.220 That's unusual for a Trump supporter, I think.

00:09:36.560 And here is his actor-for-hire page.

00:09:41.860 It looks like that Viking Chewbacca character is one of the things he specializes in playing for hire.

00:09:50.260 He's an actor named Jake Angeli.

00:09:53.600 I wonder if he was paid to play a role at the riot yesterday.

00:09:57.380 I don't know.

00:09:58.480 An alternative might be he is an actor who happens to actually be a genuine Trump supporter

00:10:03.780 who dresses like a Chewbacca Viking for real.

00:10:08.660 I don't know.

00:10:09.540 It's hard to say anymore.

00:10:11.420 I wonder if YouTube or Facebook would even let us tell you if we found out that he was a plant or a fake.

00:10:17.800 I think that video holds up pretty well, don't you think?

00:10:20.820 I mean, it's only three months old.

00:10:21.880 Now, YouTube claims that video violates their election-related misinformation policy.

00:10:29.340 Let me read that policy to you in full.

00:10:32.700 Don't post content on YouTube if it fits any of the descriptions noted below.

00:10:37.560 Presidential election integrity.

00:10:40.240 Content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches

00:10:45.460 change the outcome of any past U.S. presidential election.

00:10:48.940 As you just saw, our video didn't do that.

00:10:53.760 It wasn't about election fraud at all.

00:10:55.380 It was about big tech banning Trump from social media.

00:10:58.800 The closest that video comes is showing a short video from Trump telling his protesters,

00:11:05.680 supporters on Capitol Hill to go home.

00:11:08.480 But showing that video can't be the problem.

00:11:10.280 That exact Trump video is currently on dozens of other YouTube news channels, including CNN,

00:11:17.500 just for example.

00:11:18.940 Every news station showed that video.

00:11:21.560 They all still have it up on their YouTube pages.

00:11:24.120 Of course, it's part of the history.

00:11:26.360 It's news.

00:11:27.500 Why is that only a suspension for us?

00:11:29.940 By the way, I don't believe that there was massive voter fraud in the U.S. election.

00:11:35.120 That suggests crime.

00:11:37.640 I believe there were obviously particular cases of voter fraud and crimes.

00:11:41.420 But as to mass fraud, I take Joel Pollack's point of view.

00:11:47.180 The election was indeed unfair, but it was legal.

00:11:51.260 As in many states changed the voting rules in the middle of the campaign, just a few months

00:11:58.020 before Election Day, using the pandemic as an excuse, changing the rules to allow the massive

00:12:03.700 use of mail-in ballots, ballot harvesting, the reduction in stringency for signature matching,

00:12:11.120 all that stuff.

00:12:11.740 But that was not illegal.

00:12:14.200 The rule changes were made within the law, often written by courts, in fact.

00:12:20.960 So it was wrong.

00:12:22.720 It was unfair.

00:12:23.460 It was tilted to one side.

00:12:24.760 Yes, yes, yes.

00:12:25.520 But it wasn't widespread fraud.

00:12:28.200 It was done legally, as Joel's book is titled, Neither Free Nor Fair, but legal, not fraud.

00:12:35.800 So why was that video published in January, deleted last night, and used as the pretense

00:12:40.700 to suspend our entire channel?

00:12:43.600 It surely can't be because we showed a quick clip of Donald Trump, can it?

00:12:46.880 I mean, if every other news channel is showing it too, right?

00:12:50.520 We weren't agreeing or disagreeing with Trump's statements.

00:12:52.840 We were discussing them, or more accurately, discussing how they were being banned.

00:12:59.380 And so we were banned for talking about how Trump was banned.

00:13:02.940 That's pretty ironic, since that was what the clip was about.

00:13:05.800 YouTube is owned by Google, as you may know.

00:13:07.780 It's hard to believe that Google's motto used to be, don't be evil.

00:13:13.360 It's hard to believe that Google was founded by a refugee from the Soviet Union, Sergei Brin.

00:13:19.340 What on earth happened to internet freedom?

00:13:21.920 Remember those days?

00:13:24.440 We have to assume that we're going to be killed off completely by YouTube.

00:13:27.580 And we knew this was coming, so we have a plan B.

00:13:30.920 The main part is to get as many of those 1.45 million YouTube subscribers to let us know where we can find them

00:13:36.440 and how they can find us once we're deleted from YouTube.

00:13:39.920 See, YouTube doesn't tell us who our customers are.

00:13:42.700 We've spent six years and, frankly, millions of dollars in journalism building up a customer base for YouTube,

00:13:50.460 giving YouTube content, bringing people to YouTube, against which YouTube sells ads.

00:13:56.460 But YouTube's just going to vaporize us and keep the customers. 0.85

00:14:00.560 That's big tech for you.

00:14:01.840 It's an oligopoly, just like John D. Rockefeller and the other robber barons, but that's more powerful.

00:14:09.100 So we want as many people as possible to go to our website, rebelnews.com,

00:14:12.600 and just take one minute to give us their name and email address or mobile phone number.

00:14:16.880 That's it.

00:14:17.260 It just takes about 30 seconds to do, just so that when we're deleted on YouTube, we can still reach out to them.

00:14:22.680 If you're watching this video, we probably already know how to contact you since you signed up for Rebel News Plus,

00:14:28.440 our paywall premium shows.

00:14:29.760 We're working with other video platforms, though.

00:14:32.620 We use a Canadian video server called Rumble.

00:14:35.940 We've been working with them for weeks, and actually we have a meeting with their CEO tomorrow.

00:14:40.840 We're on other sites like BitChute and Odyssey.

00:14:44.320 And there's a powerful new rival to YouTube that's going to be launched later this month,

00:14:49.640 and we'll be one of their founder creators.

00:14:52.720 I'm very excited about it.

00:14:54.600 They're being built with an anti-censorship architecture,

00:14:57.800 so they'll hopefully be more immune to cancel culture.

00:15:03.360 YouTube wants us to die.

00:15:05.720 And it's true, they can injure us by cutting us off from our 1.45 million customers.

00:15:12.140 But we had an emergency staff meeting this morning,

00:15:15.400 and we came up with a more detailed plan to survive and grow.

00:15:20.520 You're going to see some changes to our website in the weeks ahead,

00:15:24.080 some changes even to our videos,

00:15:25.800 as we move to make our site easier to use

00:15:28.420 and more focused on capturing the kind of casual viewers that YouTube used to bring to us.

00:15:34.860 YouTube says their suspension of us will be lifted next week,

00:15:37.640 but we're pretty sure they'll come up with an excuse to hit us again and again.

00:15:42.880 And I genuinely think they plan to exterminate us before the Canadian election.

00:15:47.480 They're going to move fast.

00:15:49.620 I mentioned that U.S. defense contractor that was hired by the Canadian Armed Forces

00:15:53.000 to do a cyber forensic analysis of us.

00:15:55.660 Let me say that again.

00:15:56.740 Justin Trudeau took taxpayers' dollars from the defense budget

00:16:00.080 and hired a military contractor in Arkansas to spy on us.

00:16:04.700 I know that sounds too wild to be true.

00:16:06.440 I didn't believe it until I got the access to information documents from the university.

00:16:10.060 Trudeau prepared a smear campaign with these defense contractors,

00:16:15.440 claiming that Rebel News were foreign meddlers in Canada's elections

00:16:19.520 and that we had to be stopped.

00:16:21.960 They had lots of bizarre claims in there designed to discredit us.

00:16:26.740 I'm pretty sure this is just YouTube working with Trudeau

00:16:29.840 to get a shutdown before the election.

00:16:31.940 This crazy defense contractor report on us

00:16:34.900 is the kind of thing that YouTube would probably use as an excuse. 0.90

00:16:37.740 After all, this same military contractor from Arkansas

00:16:40.800 says we were literally the most important YouTube channel in Canada

00:16:45.300 during the last election.

00:16:47.660 YouTube paid this defense contractor to attack us.

00:16:52.400 Are you surprised that YouTube is complying?

00:16:55.540 I mean, we've all seen the storm of headlines lately

00:16:57.980 about the coming wave of internet censorship.

00:17:00.580 Trudeau and his cabinet have clearly called for social media companies

00:17:04.280 to censor what they describe as hurtful political content.

00:17:09.180 And remember, it's literally the second priority

00:17:10.720 Stephen Gilbeau's mandate letter has as heritage minister to censor us.

00:17:15.660 It's hard to believe.

00:17:16.200 Here's a copy of his mandate letter.

00:17:18.140 Create new regulations for social media platforms,

00:17:21.260 starting with a requirement that all platforms remove illegal content,

00:17:24.680 including hate speech, within 24 hours or face significant penalties.

00:17:28.200 This should include other online harms,

00:17:31.580 such as radicalization, incitement of violence,

00:17:33.960 exploitation of children, or creation or distribution of terrorist propaganda.

00:17:38.580 They're going to use that against us, I'll tell you right now.

00:17:41.840 But they'd much rather have YouTube do their dirty work

00:17:44.680 than to be seen to do it themselves.

00:17:46.300 But as God is my witness, we will live on.

00:17:51.380 The fact that YouTube and Trudeau want to silence us

00:17:54.380 just proves to me how important our voice is at Rebel News.

00:17:58.800 I know it feels like I'm always asking for help,

00:18:00.840 but I think that's because Rebel News

00:18:02.560 and all of our passionate, principled reporters,

00:18:04.880 they're always on the front lines, fighting for you.

00:18:08.520 It's going to take a lot more than YouTube to shut us up.

00:18:11.700 Thanks for being there for us, by the way.

00:18:14.920 Stay with us for more.

00:18:15.880 Well, it is lonely being an independent journalist in Canada.

00:18:32.980 I mean, in terms of the sheer number of reporters

00:18:36.520 who are on the government dole,

00:18:39.200 well, the CBC is larger than the rest of the news media combined,

00:18:42.880 and they are fully rented, bought and paid for, in fact,

00:18:47.260 by the Trudeau government.

00:18:48.560 And then in the last few years, the newspaper bailout

00:18:51.080 has put the vast majority of the private sector journalists

00:18:55.680 in this country on the government payroll.

00:18:58.040 I tell you, you can count on one hand's fingers

00:19:00.440 the number of independent journalists.

00:19:03.240 Most of us are in the independent press gallery.

00:19:07.100 That's run by our friend Candace Malcolm of True North,

00:19:10.180 and of course, one of our favorite guests,

00:19:11.500 also from True North, is our next guest today.

00:19:15.120 He's Andrew Lawton, and he joins us via Skype.

00:19:17.180 Andrew, great to see you again.

00:19:19.040 Hey, likewise. Thanks for having me.

00:19:20.660 Well, it's my pleasure, and you're one of the few guys

00:19:22.760 who knows what it's like to be censored and marginalized in Canada

00:19:26.760 because everyone else is on the inside of the tent

00:19:28.940 just drinking champagne paid for by taxpayers.

00:19:31.680 And I know that's sort of a goofy metaphor,

00:19:34.160 but it feels really true.

00:19:35.360 You, along with a couple of our reporters,

00:19:38.780 were kept out of the leaders' debate in 2019.

00:19:42.380 You, along with us, had to go to court to get in.

00:19:45.440 You are by very definition an outsider.

00:19:48.680 You're one of the guys they want to silence too, I think.

00:19:52.320 Yeah, and you know, when you were doing your preamble there,

00:19:54.800 something jumped out at me, Ezra,

00:19:56.240 which is that CBC may have this monumental size

00:19:59.700 compared to private media,

00:20:00.980 but that doesn't translate to audience share.

00:20:03.720 And if you look at the audience,

00:20:05.200 CBC can't even compete with the Canadian media

00:20:08.280 or foreign media, which Canadians prefer.

00:20:11.180 And this is, I think, the fundamental divide here,

00:20:13.540 is on one hand, the official voices that we're told

00:20:16.280 we have to look to and get our news from

00:20:18.700 are not the ones that Canadians are, by and large, gravitating to.

00:20:22.580 And I think that's why independent media is so important,

00:20:25.080 but it also makes the marginalization

00:20:27.320 by the elites of independent media so significant a problem.

00:20:31.920 You know, that's a great point,

00:20:32.880 because if you add up the CBC,

00:20:35.100 and then everyone on the newspaper payout,

00:20:37.440 and then all the other TV companies

00:20:39.180 that get sort of regulatory favors from the CRTC,

00:20:42.760 that really is more than 99% of journalists.

00:20:46.420 It just is.

00:20:47.620 And the independent press gallery

00:20:49.660 is where really the last remaining independent journalists are.

00:20:53.340 But the voices in that independent press gallery

00:20:57.340 are much larger than 1% market share.

00:21:01.500 And I think that's what drives not only Trudeau crazy,

00:21:04.520 but the inside clique of media party types crazy.

00:21:07.940 They've got the big budgets.

00:21:09.320 They've got all the, quote, respect.

00:21:11.400 They get the, you know, front row seats work on the outside.

00:21:15.280 And yet, especially on the issues of the day,

00:21:18.340 civil liberties, pandemic, things like that,

00:21:20.500 people don't trust the inside baseball guys.

00:21:24.500 They trust the outsiders, the independents, 0.92

00:21:26.460 like True North and Rebel.

00:21:28.160 I think that's what really irritates the insiders.

00:21:31.160 They have all the privileges, the perks, and the free money,

00:21:33.580 but people still don't trust them.

00:21:35.360 And that's not just my opinion.

00:21:36.720 That big Edelman study that came out about a month ago,

00:21:40.100 52% of Canadians say that journalists aren't just biased,

00:21:44.200 but that they actively lie.

00:21:45.820 Yeah, and whether or not that is true,

00:21:51.360 that that perception exists is a problem

00:21:54.240 that the mainstream media has.

00:21:56.200 And unless the mainstream media is prepared

00:21:57.760 to deal with the trust deficit,

00:21:59.840 and oftentimes they do this by maligning the people

00:22:02.880 that don't trust them.

00:22:03.700 They say, oh, you know, that's the Trump effect,

00:22:05.480 or that's populism, or that's the war on truth,

00:22:08.500 and the war on facts, and all of that.

00:22:10.240 But the reality is they have to build that.

00:22:12.460 It's a two-way street.

00:22:13.280 They have to extend a hand out to the audience

00:22:15.780 they're trying to regain

00:22:16.780 if they want to get that trust back.

00:22:18.580 And we're not seeing that now.

00:22:19.800 Instead, we're seeing kind of what we talked about earlier,

00:22:22.560 which is pushing people further and further

00:22:24.460 to the margins of society and a civilized discourse,

00:22:27.780 but eventually the margins get overloaded

00:22:30.380 compared to the people that are doing the marginalizing.

00:22:33.140 And I think that when you look at the numbers

00:22:34.960 from that poll, that's the point we're at now.

00:22:37.040 The people that are not on their team

00:22:39.140 are greater in number than those who are.

00:22:41.100 You know, I haven't actually even talked

00:22:44.320 about the news of the day,

00:22:45.400 which is last night we get an email from YouTube saying,

00:22:49.480 guess what, guys?

00:22:50.200 Your entire site is suspended for a week.

00:22:52.520 You can't upload videos.

00:22:53.920 You can't live stream.

00:22:55.720 They had demonetized us the month before.

00:22:58.200 And I was worried.

00:22:59.180 I thought, well, what have we done?

00:23:00.360 And they point to a video

00:23:02.680 that we put up three months ago,

00:23:05.820 me talking about how big tech censors,

00:23:08.620 I mean, literally the headline was-

00:23:10.100 They proved you wrong.

00:23:11.160 Yeah.

00:23:11.860 And like, it just seems such a stretch.

00:23:14.140 And I read the policy.

00:23:15.380 They claim we violated.

00:23:17.700 We didn't even-

00:23:18.660 The policy is against claiming widespread fraud

00:23:23.840 in the U.S. election.

00:23:25.360 It wasn't even about fraud.

00:23:26.440 It was about censorship.

00:23:28.040 And I have no idea how they just picked that out of the air.

00:23:31.760 And that video apparently was fine on YouTube for the last 100 days.

00:23:35.820 I just find it hard to believe on face value

00:23:40.300 that that's really why they suspended us.

00:23:42.940 It was one of my calmer videos.

00:23:45.360 I was actually feeling sort of slow and thoughtful and reflective.

00:23:49.640 Like, I wasn't-

00:23:50.260 There was no ranting and raving.

00:23:52.860 I was just saying, isn't that funny?

00:23:54.400 They can censor Trump.

00:23:55.500 They can censor you.

00:23:57.060 You know, we live in a world where you don't even have the right

00:23:59.480 to get primary information.

00:24:00.680 Like, I was sort of sad in the video.

00:24:03.400 It's the last video I would have thought they would have claimed

00:24:06.000 as the pretext to silence me.

00:24:07.420 So that makes me think, maybe there's something else here.

00:24:11.180 I mean, Andrew, the one thing I've really been worried about

00:24:13.620 is not even government censorship,

00:24:15.660 because that at least you can fight in court or whatever.

00:24:18.200 I'm worried that the social media company is being pressured

00:24:20.780 by Trudeau or Stephen Gilboa to get rid of enemies like us or True North.

00:24:25.940 And we'll never know who complained.

00:24:27.820 We'll never know what the real issue was.

00:24:30.260 If it was Trudeau who was coming for me,

00:24:31.940 I could fight him in court like you and I did on the leaders debate.

00:24:36.400 I think that maybe they want to get us off the internet

00:24:38.680 before the next federal election.

00:24:41.540 Well, you raise, I think, a couple of very important points there, Ezra.

00:24:45.040 And listen, I believe that private platforms have the right to decide

00:24:48.860 who should be on them or who should not be.

00:24:50.920 That doesn't mean, I think, that using this power is a good thing.

00:24:54.640 And certainly it's not that I think having that power so concentrated

00:24:57.700 is a good thing, because it isn't.

00:25:00.020 And YouTube's decisions are showing that.

00:25:02.380 And we've had it at True North.

00:25:03.720 I've had it on my own page as well.

00:25:05.700 And in some cases, it's the old,

00:25:07.160 oh, well, it was an accident and we'll restore it.

00:25:09.420 And in other cases, it seems more deliberate and targeted,

00:25:12.760 as you're understanding firsthand here.

00:25:14.620 And what I would point out to people is that private censorship

00:25:18.800 is a different animal than government.

00:25:21.480 And government censorship is the worst form of censorship.

00:25:25.000 But private censorship at the hand of government

00:25:27.920 or at the direction of government is worse than that, even so.

00:25:31.900 And an example of this is that the federal government

00:25:34.320 is mulling this legislation it wants to put forward on online hate,

00:25:39.240 a supercharged version of the bill,

00:25:41.000 or the Section 13 that you fought against for years and years

00:25:44.660 of your life and career a while ago.

00:25:47.360 And the problem with this is that it would now force companies

00:25:50.780 like YouTube, like Facebook, to be deputized by government,

00:25:55.100 to lay down the hatchet, to push the big censor button,

00:25:58.320 and you lose that recourse.

00:26:00.000 You can't go to federal court.

00:26:01.260 You can't fight it in court.

00:26:02.580 You eliminate the transparency.

00:26:04.640 And now that we have private companies

00:26:06.400 that are going to be censoring as agents of the state,

00:26:09.300 things like this are going to become more common.

00:26:11.940 And did you violate YouTube's policies

00:26:13.980 or did you violate the Government of Canada's policies?

00:26:16.620 You would have no idea.

00:26:17.980 Yeah.

00:26:18.300 And more and more, the size and the scope

00:26:22.160 and scale of these companies is literally larger than countries.

00:26:26.360 I mean, if these companies were countries,

00:26:28.720 Facebook would have a population of 2 billion.

00:26:31.860 It's sort of like the company town in the olden day

00:26:34.900 where a mining company would literally own the streets,

00:26:38.040 own the houses, own all the shops.

00:26:39.880 There's a real problem when the entire public square

00:26:42.560 is owned by one gazillionaire.

00:26:45.840 And in that way, he's more powerful than Trudeau.

00:26:48.560 Like Trudeau, if he shook his fist and said,

00:26:51.160 you rebels, we're shutting you down,

00:26:53.680 I'd say, see you in court, buddy.

00:26:55.740 But if Mark Zuckerberg or the president of YouTube said,

00:27:00.340 push the button to shut us down,

00:27:02.540 we wouldn't even know what happened.

00:27:04.320 We would have no recourse.

00:27:05.680 I think that these tech companies are more powerful

00:27:09.120 than any, you know, John Rockefeller of the past,

00:27:13.160 any of the robber barons, as they used to be called in the past,

00:27:17.200 and more powerful than just about any federal politician.

00:27:21.760 I got one last question for you.

00:27:24.780 It's been about, I don't know, five hours since we've announced

00:27:28.580 we've been knocked off the internet.

00:27:29.880 I've had a lot of interest from U.S. media

00:27:33.840 who are really concerned about it.

00:27:36.760 I don't believe a single Canadian journalist

00:27:39.560 or journalistic group like Canadian Journalists

00:27:43.280 for Free Expression, Canadian Association of Journalists,

00:27:45.620 any of them, will speak up for us.

00:27:48.440 In fact, I think the only thing we'll hear from other journalists

00:27:50.920 is celebration.

00:27:52.880 What do you think?

00:27:53.640 You know, I remember, and you and I talked about this briefly

00:27:57.080 on my show this week, the Andrew Lawton Show.

00:28:00.240 I remember when I was in London for the Global Conference

00:28:03.100 for Media Freedom, and I did an impromptu interview

00:28:05.720 with the representative of Reporters Without Borders,

00:28:09.280 or Reporters Sans Frontier, I believe they're called, officially.

00:28:12.460 And, you know, I was saying, you know,

00:28:13.660 what are the issues you think are important?

00:28:15.100 And we had a very pleasant chat.

00:28:17.100 And then I said, you know, about, you know,

00:28:19.400 three or four miles from here, Tommy Robinson is right now

00:28:23.140 on trial for reporting.

00:28:25.920 And she instantly went from pleasant and civil

00:28:29.820 to just very stone-faced and said, well, he's not a journalist.

00:28:32.720 And this is the problem, is that when you talk about press freedom,

00:28:36.920 the media is more interested in defining the press part

00:28:40.560 than they are in upholding the freedom part.

00:28:43.200 Isn't that interesting?

00:28:44.400 Well, listen, Andrew, thank you for letting me commiserate with you.

00:28:47.580 You're one of the few guys who believes in freedom of the press anymore.

00:28:51.140 Thank you for that, and True North.

00:28:53.120 And I love your show, The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:28:55.040 Thanks for having me on it this week.

00:28:57.820 I hope that YouTube will back down, but I really don't think they will.

00:29:01.420 I think that they're going to try and sweep us off the net

00:29:04.280 before the election.

00:29:05.640 I hope they don't target you guys, because if we're gone,

00:29:09.160 I think you guys become the last biggest force on the Internet.

00:29:15.360 I mean, we're bigger than you, just we've been around longer.

00:29:17.360 We've got more staff.

00:29:18.200 But you guys do very, very important work,

00:29:20.140 and I'm worried that you're on their target list too.

00:29:23.160 I don't think you're target number one,

00:29:24.640 but you may be target number two or target number three.

00:29:27.140 So I hope that you and I will still be fighting the good fight

00:29:31.920 for many years to come.

00:29:33.680 So good luck to you, and thanks for joining me today.

00:29:36.300 Likewise.

00:29:36.800 Thanks very much.

00:29:37.380 All right, there you have it.

00:29:38.240 Andrew Lawton of The Andrew Lawton Show on True North.

00:29:41.500 TNC.

00:29:42.220 Stay with us more.

00:29:47.360 You know, when I got the news last night,

00:29:56.980 I was actually driving home from the office,

00:29:59.340 and it hit me like a baseball bat.

00:30:02.400 I was deflated.

00:30:03.960 I thought, oh, we're done.

00:30:07.320 I mean, that's our great asset, our 1.45 million subscribers.

00:30:10.860 It's wonderful.

00:30:12.180 I was really down in the dumps about it.

00:30:15.000 But this morning, we had a wonderful staff meeting.

00:30:17.180 The whole team, we spent an hour going through things.

00:30:20.820 Just practically, the steps we had already taken,

00:30:23.820 steps we can do better,

00:30:25.100 ways we can change our website and our videos.

00:30:27.100 The whole team was with it.

00:30:29.540 And I talked to some key supporters,

00:30:32.220 got people reaching out to us out of the blue

00:30:34.220 to support us.

00:30:35.320 And I just thought,

00:30:36.460 not only are we going to be okay,

00:30:39.540 I think this is going to push us forward

00:30:41.280 to the next level, the next thing,

00:30:43.520 a stronger platform than YouTube.

00:30:45.700 Maybe even one where we get to know

00:30:47.020 who our customers are.

00:30:48.620 I'm pretty excited about it.

00:30:49.800 So thanks for your support.

00:30:51.460 All right, that's the show for today.

00:30:53.100 Until next time,

00:30:54.060 on behalf of all of us here

00:30:55.100 at Rebel World Headquarters,

00:30:56.140 to you at home,

00:30:57.020 good night.

00:30:58.440 Keep fighting for freedom.

00:30:59.460 We'll be right back.

Rebel News Podcast - April 15, 2021

Just before the Canadian election, YouTube suspends our Rebel News channel

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