YouTube has taken down a Senate campaign commercial by Republican Missouri Congressman Billy Long that claimed the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
Late Thursday, Long retaliated by accusing YouTube and other tech firms of restricting conservative politicians and public personalities.
“I am not alone in getting canceled by YouTube,” Long said in a news release. “There has been a deliberate, orchestrated effort by Big Tech to silence those who have views that do not align with their liberal-leaning agenda. Just look at what Twitter did to President Trump. He is still banned from communicating directly to the American people on its platform.”
YouTube spokeswoman Ivy Choi said the website prohibits “content uploaded after official election results were certified advancing false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.”
Long is the most recent Republican to take on YouTube. Last year, two Republican lawmakers had their accounts terminated due to comments about COVID-19.
In June, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin was banned from YouTube after he made negative comments about alternative medicine. YouTube, according to the Wisconsin Republican, is guilty of “COVID censorship.”
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was suspended for a week in August after claiming that cotton masks do not prevent infection. In a Tweet, he responded by calling YouTube’s move a “badge of honor.”
Long, 66, represents a district in southwestern Missouri. He is one of numerous Republicans vying for the GOP nomination in 2022 to fill the seat vacated by Sen. Roy Blunt, who is not seeking re-election.
In the ad, Long says he backed Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign early on in 2016.
According to federal and state election officials, there is no convincing evidence that the election was tainted. All of the former president’s charges of fraud have been flatly denied by the courts, including by judges selected by President Trump.
Still, the rhetoric has been a big part of a lot of Republican Senate primary campaigns, like in Ohio and Arizona.
Image Credit: Greg Nash/Pool via AP File
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