Page 20 - TrumpsEconEra_Flat

Chapter 1: The Stage is Set

aggressive attempt yet to rein in what it considers fake
news.

Prager University is a nonprofit conservative
digital media organization founded in 2011 by Dennis
Prager offering a series of educational videos on
YouTube reaching 1-out-of-4 Americans, a majority of
them being under the age of 34. Prager U has filed a
lawsuit in its attempt to prevent YouTube from censor-
ing its videos and discriminating against its right to
freedom of speech. The lawsuit cites more than 30
videos which YouTube has restricted or demonetized.
For example, Google banned a video on “Thou Shall
Not Kill” as being unsuited for young audiences.
YouTube has used “ideological discrimination” against
some Prager U videos.

This censorship by the tech giants, Facebook,
Google, YouTube, and Twitter is unnecessary if the
reason is to protect them from lawsuits, at least in the
United States. However, the reason for this discrimina-
tion is not legal protection. Section 230 of the 1996
Communications Decency Act grants “interactive
computer services,” total immunity for their users’
content. The tech giants have no liability resulting from
anything that their users post or tweet.
Google, YouTube, and Facebook’s policies have
harmed the alternative news media by demonetizing,
delisting, and deleting their programs for objectionable
content. When a YouTuber made a video to raise
money to help victims of a tragedy, YouTube demon-
etized his channel because their policy is not to run ads
on videos about tragedies. When Nasim Aghdam had
her YouTube channel NasimeSabz.com demonetized

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