YouTube has removed Project Veritas’ Pinterest video exposé, as well as a video by independent journalist Tim Pool discussing the explosive story.
Thanks to a Pinterest whistleblower, Project Veritas was able to expose the platform’s gross bias against conservatives and pro-life Christians, as well as anti-war leftists.
Both videos were removed “due to a privacy claim by a third party,” according to the official explanations.
YouTube sent Project Veritas president James’ O’Keefe an email pinpointing where the problematic content occurred in the video. The 27 seconds that YouTube wanted removed before the video could be restored showed an online communication from Pinterest’s Law Enforcement and Government Operations (LEGO) Program Manager Megan McClellan. The smoking gun screenshot showed McClellan adding LiveAction.org to Pinterest’s p*rn domain blocklist.
“This is legitimately newsworthy information without which it may not be the story that it is,” O’Keefe explained in a new video on Friday. “We’re not doxxing anybody. Were reporting facts the public has a right to know.”
O’Keefe complained that YouTube was now getting into “George Orwell” territory with its demands.
“They want us to censor or blur the very thing that proves that the people inside the company took the action that makes it newsworthy,” he explained incredulously.
In his video, Pool displayed leaked Slack messages of Pinterest employees discussing Live Action’s inclusion on the platform’s p*rn domain block list. Live Action, of course, is a conservative pro-life activist organization.
Hey @TeamYouTube https://t.co/txBRHgVt1f
A little help?
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) June 14, 2019
Youtube has removed my video on Censorship at Pinterest without notifying me or explaining what happened.
I have no opportunity to appeal
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) June 14, 2019
As Pool pointed out, everything displayed in his video was already public information by the time he posted it.
By the time this video came out everything in it was publicly available and still is.
This video is commentary on a news event and exposes no new information other than my opinion. https://t.co/132ckDQRmG
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) June 14, 2019
Pool discussed Pinterest’s censorship of conservative Christians as well as the anti-war left and right in the video that was removed.
“In the video released by James O’Keefe, he types in Muslim, he types in Jewish and they auto-complete with no problem, but Christianity gets hit,” Pool says in the video titled, PINTEREST CAUGHT CENSORING CONSERVATIVES, BUT ITS WORSE THAN YOU THINK.
In a letter to Live Action, Pinterest explained that it permanently suspended the group’s account because it violated its policies on disinformation.
“This is the danger of where we’re going with Silicon Valley censorship,” Pool said in his video. “These random people who are ideologically driven thinking they’re the arbiters of truth.”
This is the video in question.
There is no notification on my youtube channelhttps://t.co/7ulfHKLFYd
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) June 14, 2019
Pool noted that Big Tech has been going after the anti-war left as well as conservatives.
“There’s probably way more conservatives than anti-war activists” getting censored, Pool admitted. “But we shouldn’t ignore that people who are saying we shouldn’t bomb other countries are getting censored too.”
Pinterest insider Eric Cochran was placed on administrative leave after Project Veritas posted its bombshell video exposé. The software engineer told O’Keefe that he decided to take action because he “saw wrongdoing” at the company. “There’s a huge bystander effect inside Silicon Valley,” he explained. “Right now we’re seeing an imminent threat to not just pro-lifers, not just conservatives, but free speech in general and to America.” Cochran went on to frame the battle for free speech in America as the “people versus the establishment.”
He said he first started noticing “egregious” messages on the company’s message board Slack in March.
Besides Live Action, a number of conservative websites including PJ Media, Western Journal, Bizpac Review, American Thinker, and Zero Hedge are included on Pinterest’s p*rn domain blocklist, as PJ Media’s Paula Bolyard reported.
Cochran told O’Keefe that the reason he didn’t go to the New York Times, Washington Post, or San Francisco Chronicle was because he feared they “would have turned me in.”
“They would have worked with their establishment buddies because they’re all friends, they all want to help each other out and they would have turned me in,” he said. “Project Veritas was the obvious choice because Project Veritas is actually journalism that is going to cover the story.”
Cochran said he was escorted out of the building by security guards the morning Project Veritas posted the video.
“I was surprised, but I knew it was a possibility and I was mentally prepared,” he said of his suspension.
A GoFundMe for the whistleblower had already raised close to $48,000 by Friday afternoon.
$45,000 raised for Pinterest Whistleblower https://t.co/CqhHGP9tck
— Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) June 14, 2019
O’Keefe on Friday posted a censored version of the original video.
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