Page 22 - TrumpsEconEra_Flat

Chapter 1: The Stage is Set

Winston believed that if the Ministry can alter a
person’ s perception of the truth, then even a lie can
become truth. YouTube’s aim with censorship is to chill
political discourse and to control the narrative by
claiming to discourage bullying and harassing by
targeting specific programs. A left-leaning organization,
The Southern Law Center, is assisting YouTube in
policing content on their platform. Censorship is a big
issue when 90% of what we watch, listen to and read is
owned by only six companies. Bitchute, Pewtube, Gaia,
and Liveleak offer videos, but they cannot compete
with the market power of YouTube. YouTube is a
utility masked as a private company.

“Censorship reflects a society’s lack
of confidence in itself. It is the hallmark of
an authoritarian regime.”

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart

YouTube estimates that 400 hours of video is
uploaded every minute—making it mandatory to use
algorithms along with human moderation to scrutinize
video content. So the number of views a program
receives is inconsquential, even programs with a boat
load of viewers can be demonetized or delisted if the
algorithm picks up certain words or phrases. YouTube
has also raised the bar for new programs to be mone-
tized, making it difficult for small programs to grow. To
qualify for the YouTube Partner Program, a channel
must meet the threshold of 4,000 hours of watchtime
within the past 12 months and 1,000 subscribers.

-21-