Russell Brand has claimed that he has been censored by YouTube.
The comedian had one of his videos removed from the streaming service, which forced him to move over to the alternative platform Rumble. Brand has said he believes Rumble will let him talk more “freely”.
“We have officially been censored by YouTube,” Brand said in a clip posted this week, according to the Independent.
“They took down one of our videos for misinformation, but why are big media organisations not censored for misinformation in the same way? Is it because YouTube are part of the mainstream media now?”
Brand went on to say YouTube had told him the video in question “cited information on official government websites, which we misinterpreted”.
He added that he had since apologised for the “error” in a video, which he has deleted to avoid being called out for the claim again.
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“YouTube took down our original video, we’ve taken down the apology video because in case we reiterate the claim while apologising for it,” Brand said.
“We made an error, in my opinion a relatively small error, and we are being penalised, and for me that looks like censorship.”
Brand pointed out that another YouTube video spreading COVID misinformation is still available to view, as MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said in a clip in March 2021: “Now we know that the vaccines work well enough that the virus stops with every vaccinated person.”
Brand argued that everyone knows “that the truth is the vaccine does not prevent you from spreading it. So we’re asking: Is there one standard for independent news broadcasters like us on our channel and a different standard for what we would call the mainstream media?”