Matt Orfalea

YouTube
Suspension

YouTube demonetized, deleted content showing Democrats and Republicans voicing election fraud claims: YouTuber Matt Orfalea does not consider himself either Democrat or Republican, and his video mashups of politicians (which sometimes get hundreds of thousands or even millions of views) saying potentially embarrassing things include politicians from both parties. That hasn’t stopped YouTube from demonetizing videos of his they don’t like, even ones with the same footage as leftist media, The Federalist stated Nov. 24. But after the 2022 election, when platforms are aggressively enforcing leftist condemnations of election fraud claims as “misinformation," Orfalea was again censored. One of his videos, a September mashup of Democrats claiming the 2016 election was rigged and illegitimate, was initially demonetized, said The Federalist. The outlet added that another Orfalea video, which showed both the Democrats’ 2016 fraud accusations and more recent Republican accusations of fraud, was removed altogether and his channel received a strike. “I wanted to show that Trump and the Republicans are not the only ones to challenge or question the integrity of an election,” Orfalea explained. “It was literally just the last election cycle. And people have already forgotten.” The strike puts the YouTuber’s livelihood at risk, since his channel will be deleted if he gets two more strikes within 90 days. Orfalea could not post videos for a week either. YouTube reportedly alleged Orfalea’s video “contains claims that past US presidential elections were rigged or stolen, and our election integrity policy prohibits content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in US presidential elections.” But since the video with just Democrats calling an election illegitimate was not removed, independent journalist Matt Taibbi noted Nov. 18, it would seem that YouTube allows Democrats (including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris) to cry an election was rigged but it does not allow Republicans to do the same. “This is a de facto endorsement of such behavior when committed by certain people,” Taibbi said.