Tech Tyranny: Google Removes 300 Trump Ads For ‘Policy Violations’ — Won’t Say Which Policies Were Violated

Over the weekend, YouTube’s CEO admits that hundreds of ads were not approved to run on Google or YouTube. Here’s the 411.

During a segment on CBS News show “60 Minutes”, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki says that hundreds of ads were not permitted to run on the video platform or its parent company, Google because they were found in violation of company policy. Wojcicki said that the ads are available on the ill-named “transparency report” but there is no reason given for why the ads didn’t make the cut.

60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl asked Wojcicki, “Have you taken down any of President Trump’s ads at all?” YouTube’s CEO responded, “There are ads of President Trump that were not approved to run on Google or YouTube.” When pressed for an example, Wojcicki added, “Well, they’re available in our transparency report.”

In response to concerns raised after the 2016 election cycle, Google and YouTube, like Facebook, keep a searchable archive of political ads that have run on the site.

60 Minutes reviewed the archive to learn more about President Trump’s problematic political ads. We found that over 300 video ads were taken down by Google and YouTube, mostly over the summer, for violating company policy. But the archive doesn’t detail what policy was violated. Was it copyright violation? A lie or extreme inaccuracy? Faulty grammar? Bad punctuation? It’s unclear. The ads determined to be offending are not available to be screened. We found very little transparency in the transparency report. 

This isn’t helping with the perception that conservatives are disproportionately being censored and targeted on social media platforms. Wojcicki claims that the algorithms don’t target conservatives.

“As you know, conservatives think that you discriminate against them,” Stahl tells YouTube’s Wojcicki, who replies: “Well, first of all there are lots of very successful conservative creators on YouTube… Our systems, our algorithms, they don’t have any concept of understanding what’s a Democrat, what’s a Republican. They don’t have any concept of political bias built into them in any way. And we do hear this criticism from all sides. We also have people who come from more liberal backgrounds who complain about discrimination. And so I think that no matter who you are, we are trying to enforce our policies in a consistent way for everybody.”

Source: CBS News

YouTube CEO admits they took down 300+ Trump ads

Then she plays the game
We don't teach our algorithms
Abt Dems Or Repubs
OK
But when you get a human in the loop to look at complaints abt an ad

The bias shines through pic.twitter.com/zj36TS6zuv

— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) December 4, 2019

Social media played a key role in President Trump’s campaign last time around.

For all the concern over voter suppression, the left doesn’t seem to care if they suppress GOP voters.

The admission by Wojcicki about the move by Google and YouTube to deny the ads for no reason was condemned by Brad Parscale who was the digital media director on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and is now Trump’s 2020 campaign manager.

Parscale posted a lengthy response on Twitter, but here is the relevant section:

This is most true when we talk about the use of first party (1p) data. Voters voluntarily provide information about themselves – 1p data – and specifically provide insight into what issues and candidates they care about. By doing this, voters are digitally raising their hand and saying, “Please communicate with me.” This ensures they can be reached and informed as they have directly requested. Voters can also learn about ways to volunteer on campaigns, about key campaign events and fundraising efforts, and of course, about where and when to vote. Google is now arbitrarily saying this is not allowed. There is no other description for this than the muzzling of political speech. Google is clamping down on voter engagement and suppressing voter turnout. …

…Much has been made of Twitter’s equally concerning decision to ban political ads and suppress speech, but because advertising on that platform is ineffective and only a tiny percentage of Americans use Twitter, their impact is insignificant. Google, however, is a serious platform with very deep reach across the entire country.

Full text: pic.twitter.com/gPU18Cc9Bn

— Brad Parscale (@parscale) November 26, 2019

Liberals in high tech are panicked and petrified that the voters might choose Trump again. This is when they always move to limit speech. https://t.co/CHwcjo1fIs

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) December 2, 2019

We all know that Google, YouTube, Twitter, and in the past, Facebook are all aligned against conservative voices. They are willing to toss aside Freedom of Speech to push their own political agendas. It’s disgusting.

This is why we need Trump in 2020 — we don’t want these authoritarians in power or our rights will disappear.